Geography Quiz

     Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

     Inspired by Buzzfeed, I've decided to quiz my sisters on geography, just for un. Printed some unlabeled maps for them to label, and then played a game of "what do you know about this country?" Got some entertaining results. Since we were all playing this aloud and in the same room, there aren't any repeated answers. Youngest first, and the older ones had to add something new, and NO novel-writing was allowed, or else my 15 year-old sister would have written novels for a lot of these countries. (Needless to say, the five year-old couldn't really think of anything.) Some of these answers are quite amusing...

England:

8 year-old: It's rainy there, they speak British, and they go on the wrong side of the road.

11 year-old: They do NOT speak British. They have a big tower called Big Ben. They still have kings and queens.

15 year-old: Stonehenge and the Tower of London are there. There's the confusing Town of London vs. City of London thing.

 

Ireland:

 

7 year-old: There's Irish people there. There's a church there.

8 year-old: Lots of sheep are there. Ireland has lots of potatoes. They play bagpipes there. Most of them have red hair there.

11 year-old: We're from there. It used to be a very sort of Catholic Christian place, especially because of St. Patrick. They speak Irish.

15 year-old: The High King was called the Ard Ri. Brian Boru was the first king of the united Ireland. Ulster's part of England.

 

Scotland:

8 year-old: Most people have red hair there, also.

11 year-old: It is very much like Ireland because they have kilts there and bagpipes. And Merida's from there.

15 year-old: There are highlands in Scotland. And the Stuart lines started with King Adrian, who was the first Christian king of Scotland.

 

France:

7 year-old: There's lots of French people and they speak French. Yes in French means oui. French people say oui for yes.  The Eiffel Tower.

8 year-old: They mostly use butter there. French is a Romantic language.

11 year-old: Remy. Monsieur means Mr. Mademoiselle for Miss. There were a lot of Catholics there. Lafayette-- the very good friend of George Washington-- was French. They kiss you for greeting.

15 year-old: They eat croissants. Napoleon was French. He was born in Corsica. They say that they [the French] get real close to you [when speaking to you].

 

Spain:

8 year-old: Queen Isabel was the queen of Spain when Columbus asked her for a ship. They dance, Spanish people.

11 year-old: They speak Spanish. There were conquistadors from there. When they came to America, they got lots of gold from there, but their ships sunk in the middle of the ocean.

15 year-old: Spain is on the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal and is south of the Pyrenees. Spain used to be divided into Castile and Aragon until the rule of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.

 

Switzerland:

7 year-old and 8 year-old: There's lots of Swiss Guards there.

11 year-old: There are the Swiss Alps there. And they're up north, because they have mountains.

15 year-old: Zürich is where zu rich people live. [facepalm] Matterhorn is one of the mountains there. Klink likes to go skiing there. Swiss cheese.

 

 

 - - - - - - - - - -  And that's as far as we got during lunch. Up next, I hope to continue with Italy, Vatican City, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, etc. And quiz the brothers as well...

 

 

School and Frank Sinatra

     So this really has pretty much nothing to do with Frank Sinatra. HA HA! Sorry for the immaturity, but I've fooled you. Maybe. I guess. . . I am writing to tell you all that I will be in the Big Apple next weekend, and mean to post both pictures and epic sagas of mine exploits there. (You know, the Frank Sinatra song, "New York, New York"?)
     As far as the "school" part, that happens right after the trip to NY: my trip to and through senior year and then. . . . the "real world." No idea what's in store there. Hence the design of my new Facebook cover photo:

     Left to right: Freshman year, Plato's Punks (I wrote a parody of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" and some friends and I performed for an informal school event);; Sophomore year, Spring Formal (my best friend's now fiancé took seven girls to Spring Formal, yours truly being one of them);; Junior year, the Coliseum, seems we all want the gladiator to die;; Senior year, hasn't happened yet, so we'll see. :) Bottom picture was taken from Christendom's Official picture hoard.

Pictures of Paris

     As promised.

As a philologist of sorts, I was really happy to see the word "whilst."

The first thing I saw when I stepped off the labyrinth of trains and plane and onto the streets of Paris.
Gorgeous church that I sadly never got to enter. And the weather was wondrously nippy--
have I mentioned that ten times yet?

Saturday morning was beautiful. Bright blue skies with fluffy white clouds, crisp air,
beautiful buildings, well-dressed people. . . And a maze of trains underground, but that's okay. :)
Oh, and there seemed to be more traffic laws observed in Paris than in Rome. Not shocking.

The Seine. It's cleaner-looking than the Tiber. Don't think, however, that I love the
Tiber any less.It has its own charm. :) Like being in Rome, where the Pope is.

    
      And that's all for now, folks. More coming along later. Lunch first.

Paris! (Part One)

     In some of the last days of October of 2012, I went to Paris. It was expensive, I saw very little, I had a mini-nightmare at the airport, and I totally forgot about daylight savings on Sunday. It was an amazing trip nonetheless. When we left Rome, it was hot and sticky STILL. We had to sleep with the windows open in order to prevent suffocation. What did this mean? It meant fabulous mosquito bites in the morning. Nasty business that. When we got off the maze of trains and planes and stepped onto the streets of Paris, however, we were greeted wit a most refreshing bit of cold air. Finally, I could wear my wool coat. And good thing I brought it, too. Paris was cold, gloriously so. I ended up going Muslim in order to keep my head warm and I wished I had brought gloves with me.

     I had no bad experiences in Paris... well, there was a gauntlet of restaurants with ever-vigilant waiters, but we simply focused on the end of the street and walked on with quick and determined steps, and all was well again.

     I had pumpkin soup for the first time, eating at the bar counter, where the bartender was, um, memorable. He kept hitting on us girls, decidedly more on my friend, though. (Which was fine with me. The next time we ate at the counter of a restaurant, I had to deal with an annoying guy. He was telling me how his friend was a sucker for getting married. Because that's totally the right way to hit on nice girls. Yeah. . . Not fun.)

     Pictures are on their way, along with more about Paris.

Romies of Tomorrow, Lend Me Your Ears!

     Once again, I see that I have not written in a disturbingly long time, and decide that I shall indeed write for you all. This post I aim toward those people who have asked me for Rome advice for the upcoming school year. I will focus here on:

Preemptive Scandalization.

     That's right. Shocking you in the comfort of your own home/college building with internet so that you know what to expect. Or some of it. God forbid we expect everything, or life would be boring to a very ghastly degree. Here are some things you should NOT expect in Italy (if you get them anyway, great! Just don't expect them) --

Personal space
Air conditioning
American-style stuff and service in general
Free water at restaurants (there actually is pretty legitimate reason why not)
On-time buses
Hard and fast rules
100% reliable public transportation
Random people (esp. older men, to you ladies) to mind their own business
Clean laundry emerging from the Candia washing machine
Screens in the windows
People to speak good English
A Communion line at Mass in an Italian church; it's more like a mob


     And some things you SHOULD expect --

Peddlers in your face
Strikes
Amazing coffee
Flirty men, both young and old
Great material for stories
Vicious line-cutting grandmas


     That's all that's come to mind at present; now I'd best be off to class. Any more such advice is more than welcome! I'll try to get around to the following topics: manners, what to bring, where to go, etc.   God bless, and buona sera!

In Ye Olde Front Royal

     Hello, all! I know I've been extraordinarily bad about posting things of late. I will continue to be somewhat bad and not delve overmuch into Rome right now.

     However, I will say that I have been in Front Royal for a month, and the weather is weird. I wish it were warmer. Too often have I been outside in below-freezing weather unaccompanied by snow. We've had snow, yes; in fact, it's snowed a good many times. The snow doesn't last, however.

     I've also decided that the waters of Front Royal taste nasty, which is a shame, because one must needs drink.

     I will close by adding pictures of the snow in Fro' Ro' and a link with some pictures of the Confessio in St. Peter's Basilica. The Confessio is right beneath the main altar (the one with the huge baldacchino).  http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Confessio/Confessio.htm

     . . . Wow. I've just found you even more cool stuff about St. Peter's: the "grottoes" beneath it. #15 (the Lithuanian Chapel) is where we Christendom Rome students had Mass twice during the semester.  http://saintpetersbasilica.org/grottoes.htm

     Last but not least, the saints on the Colonnade. Why? Because I was thinking about it this morning. http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints-List-Colonnades.htm

 

Me hugging the Colonnade

 

The Colonnade. I took tons of pictures of it, but I'll stop here.

 

     The Colonnade is just awesome. It's big, it's white, it's shiny, it's pretty... NOTA BENE, this isn't from the official Vatican Website, so there probably aren't as many pictures, or as nice pictures, or as nice a website. It's still pretty cool, though, with the numbered maps and everything.

     Oh, look! The cool water fountain! (Yes, I miss Rome.) The water from this fountain-- like the water from all the drinking fountains-- was always sweet and cool. In the water-like sense. But it did feel weird to drink out of a fountain the first few times.

 

 

     Oh, St. Peter's...... I need to go back! :)

 

Last day in Rome. We went to Mass at St. Peter's for the last time
 of the semester... A very sad and melancholy thing. Didn't want to leave. :)

 

P.S. Florence

     And now for a post that's pretty much just more pictures from Florence.

Disney Store!

Coming back from San Miniato, the river. So pretty at night!

Dante's House

The bell tower
 

 

Managed to get a shot of the Duomo with the sun hitting the gold! :D

Saw a groovy ride whilst waiting for the bus to take us back to Candia

     And here is one of the songs that the guitar guy was playing--

Florence, Oct 18-19, 2012

     Although I wasn't really thrilled with the city at first, Florence was lovely. We had modest but nice hotel that served us mostly just bread for breakfast (like the one in Assisi) with a key system like that of the hotel in Siena.

     Thursday afternoon, after settling in, I went inside San Lorenzo. The marketplace by San Lorenzo was CRAZY. There is just SO much stuff to look at! Florentine stationery, leather gloves, leather jackets, leather EVERYTHING, pretty scarves. . . All kinds of cool stuff. At about 3, we all met on the steps of the Duomo to begin our group activities. Here's the duomo:

 



I love how these churches have Madonna and Child statues front and center
 outside. So awesome. I especially LOVE the ones at Notre Dame. More on that amazing church later. ;)
 

     Kind of looks like the Duomo in Siena and the Duomo in Orvieto, I know, (all three have this thing for alternating white and green marble, which I've not seen anywhere else) but it IS different. And lovely. :)  My friend Rachel described them as looking like "spun sugar."

     Oh, and let's not forget the Baptistry, which was a very popular subject for photography indeed. I got my picture in front of it on Friday, after waiting in line behind a number of Asian women. (I've noticed that about Asian tourists: it's always the husbands taking pictures of thier wives in front of everything, and several pictures with the same background, in different poses. Some of the most amusing poses were the ones I've seen at the Mouth of Truth. It's cute, in a funny sort of way.)

 

 



     The first of these group activities was gelato at Perche No! This place had the best lemon gelato imaginable. It was refreshing, not super strong, not pucker-inducing. It was sooooo good...  (Speaking of gelato, the best place in Rome to get gelato is Old Bridge, across from the Vatican walls and between the Vatican Museums entrance and the gate at St. Ann's. It's good gelato, you get more for your money than you do at other places, and the service is always both amusing and friendly. Well, it is if you're a young girl.) After gelato, we had a very long walk to San Miniato. On the way there, we crossed the river via Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio is an age-old bridge with buildings on it; not just any buildings, but stores selling expensive gold jewelry.

 

 

     When we finally got to San Miniato, we went to Mass and saw an absolutely breathtaking view of the city at twilight.


 

 

     Friday, we went to the Uffizi Gallery. While waiting for our tickets, we saw a creepy statue-guy and listened to a really good classical guitar player.

One of the songs he played was "Con Te Partiro"; excellent rendition

     At the Uffizi, we saw a good deal of art, including some paintings that I had seen in sundry art books, and some GORGEOUS illuminated manuscripts. One of them was Dante's Inferno. How did I know this? I knew from the picture. :D It felt very awesome to be able to actually remember part of the the Divine Comedy, AND to be able to identify a centuries-old book. :)

     Upon leaving the said gallery, Andrew and I happened upon some equally important manuscripts at one of the street vendors' carts.

 

 

    And there were random other buildings in the street that I found cool.

The Lindt store.... Ohhhhhh..... The best chocolate ice cream I've ever had, and a whole store
 where you can buy pounds of Swiss chocolate. Needless to say, I didn't want to leave.

Love this kind of detail. It's strangely gothic... The Italians weren't big on Gothic.





 

Vatican City Tribute

     My gingerbread men this year. I'm exceedingly proud of them. :)

     It only took an hour to do the three of them; shorter than I expected. I owe the candy-cane-halberd-idea to my sister.
     I just realized how silly it was of me to have the Pope be on the right and not in the middle... Oh well.
     More chronicling is on its way! I'll try to have the Florence post out by tomorrow morning.