Many things -- July 10

One of the things that some of us decided would be a goal for this part of the trip was making friends with an Italian who has air conditioning, laundry, and a computer to get on the internet. As I sit in my new friend Max's apartment writing this and waiting for my laundry to dry, I can say that at least I accomplished something in Ravenna.

Seriously, Max is one of the Italians from the University of Bologna who has been very kind and accomodating to us -- driven us places, shown us where to aquire things that we need, introduced us to parts of town and the area that we would have never known about otherwise, and generally enriched our time here. Unfortunately only a few of us have taken advantage of this and of the kindness and interest of the other Italians. After the afternoon of pottery washing that I mentioned earlier, when all of the Italians took turns practicing their English on me, Max said that several of them had thanked him for facilitating it, and now that the ice has been broken most of them have been very friendly to m e. Apparently they were a little scared of us, but very interested, and now some of us get along quite well.

In fact, I have a nickname now...apparently there is a very famous Japanese cartoon about a blonde-headed orphan that has played in Italy for many years. As one of the girls told me, every girl in Italy grows up with it. It's called Candy Candy, so of course that is what they are calling me now. One of the girls actually downloaded the themesong on the internet at the digsite so I could hear it.

All of this is good, but there is a bizarre downside to it as well...although everyone in our group is invited to everything that I have been invited to (and a couple of the other girls, Jen and Genna, have come out with us several times), others in the group have not been very kind to those of us who are doing things with the Italians. For instance, the hotel we are staying at has as van that they will loan to our group on weekends to make daytrips. Liz, the oldest in the group, has become the self-appointed driver and tour director, and many of us had been talking since Rome about going to Venice while we are here (abotu a three hour drive away). The group went yesterday, but Jen and I were told that there was not room for us in the van, which is not true. Taco told me that we had "alienated ourselves" by doing so much with the Italians because, according to everyone else, when you are part of a group that will be together for four weeks you are just expected to do things with them all of the time. Even if all they do is sit at the rooftop bar at the hotel and drink every night of the week and complain that there is nothing to do in Ravenna, which is definitely not what I came to Italy to do.

So now I have two more weeks of having to deal with being a social outcast from the Americans, but it might not be such a big deal (except at meals, when some people just pretend that they can't hear me when I contribute to the conversation -- this is a really mature group of "adults") because the Italians have taken those of us who are interested on several great activities this past week.

For example:

Wednesday -- Max and I went to see Guerra Stellare: La Vindetta de la Sith. Yes, the newest STar WArs movie. It was interesting in Italian, but odd for several reasons. First of all, there was an intermission in the middle, which was new to me but kind of nice. Secondly, the person who dubs Yoda's voice does it in a normal, rather low, human voice. MAx said he had never heard the famous Yoda voice in his life, which was kind of shocking.

Thursday: Jen and Genna and several of the Italians and I went to the Feste de l'Unita in a neighborhing town. Every small town in ITaly has its own festival every year, and this one happens to be in a heavily Communist area, so the posters were...interesting. Unfortunately all of the shows and activities were cancelled due to the situation in London, but we had some good traditional food and practiced our ITalian.

Friday: JEn and Genna and MAx and I went into Ravenna for Mosaico de la Notte, the one night a week when the churches are open at night and all of the piazzas host live bands, some good, some not so good. The whole town seems to turn out and it was very nice.

Saturday: in lieu of Venice, Jen and I were taken to a small picturesque Medieval town (Brishigella) perched up on a mountain. A beautiful place with two castles (342 steps to the top to see them up close!), it also hosts a MEdieval festival, luckily taking place this weekend. If you have ever been to a REnaissance Fair (Scarborough Faire, etc.), imagine it set in the tiny winding cobblestone streets of a REAL MEdieval town! It was a great great experience and I wouldn't have traded it for a three hour van ride to Venice anyway. We had traditional Medieval food, saw some musical groups and some "alchemists", and wondered how the stilt-walkers could possibly do what they did on those steep stone streets, which were also wet because it had been sprinkling and raining off and on all day.

So I guess that's about it for the fun...I am about to head out with some people to Rimini and San MArino (smallest Republic in Europe -- and the oldest) so I guess I will post another update soon. Oh, and I shoudl probably mention that the dig is going well...I am learning to make plans and take elevations, etc., which is really quite interesting.

Hope all is well with everyone,
Candace