Questions and Answers

Hi guys,

Because so many of you have left questions in the comments of my blog, I decided to do a post just specifically to answer those questions. So this post is especially for the fifth graders at Central Elementary School, who have left most of the questions.

First of all, congratulations on your story, Elijah. I hope I get the chance to read it all when I get back.

Now, there were several questions about the other students in my class and where we are living. The other students, as you can see in the class picture that I posted, are Shannon, Sara, Caylen, Elyse, Lizzie, Stephanie, Natalie, Audrey, and Dane. Dane is the only boy who was picked to come. So there are ten of us total. They are all also Purdue students, and most of them are from Indiana, though several people have lived or do live in different places, like New Hampshire and Canada. We are living in the dorms on San Servolo Island, which is about a ten minute vaporetto (boat) ride from the mainland of Venice. I do not actually share a room or have a roommate because there are nine girls and so one girl got her own room and that ended up being me. I would say that we are all getting to be friends, it’s hard not to be when you spend so much of your time with people. We have met a few of the other Venice International University students, some from Duke and some from Boston College in the U.S., but also a few Italians when we went out one night. Our classes require quite a bit of reading and writing essays, but they aren’t too hard. They are very interesting, there’s a lot to learn about Venice.

There were quite a few questions about food and mailing food. While you can mail food, it is not the best idea because it is kind of expensive to mail things across the Atlantic and also it can take as long as two weeks to get from Italy to America, or vice versa, so some foods might not stay good that long. Also, everything coming into a country has to go through customs, to see whether there needs to be an extra tax on it, and sometimes food is not allowed through customs, or there is an extra tax put on it that you have to pay when you receive the package. It goes the same for bringing back food in suitcases, too, so I don’t think I’ll be bring back much food stuff, if any. It’s easier to get different kinds of souvenirs. I haven’t gotten any souvenirs yet, it’s still a little early for that, I think, seeing as I’ve only been here a week and I have nine more to go. The Italian food is pretty good. We eat mostly on the island, since those meals are already paid for in the cost of our trip, but we have eaten out several times, and everything has been excellent. The best stuff, of course, is the gelato.

There were also several questions about the squid that I mentioned in another post. Who eats squid in its own ink? People in Venice, it is a Venetian specialty. Because Venice is basically on the ocean, seafood is a staple here. And yes, they really do fry squids and do different things with various different fishes. I didn’t try it this time, though, because I am not a fan of seafood and I just wasn’t feeling it at the moment. If I get the chance again, though, and I probably will, I will try the squid cooked in its own ink. It is very strange looking, though, because the ink is black and because the squid has been cooked in its own ink, the entire dish is black. It actually turned some people’s teeth in the group black until they drank some water to wash it off.

Italians use the Centigrade scale, instead of Fahrenheit, which we use in the U.S. They also use kilometers and centimeters instead of miles and inches, which makes it a little difficult sometimes to know exactly what the temperature is and what the distances are of different things.

There aren’t really any fairs like the Farmer’s Fair or Fall Fest, but there is the Biennale, which is a huge art fair held every two years in Venice and which displays art from all over the world. We have seen several of the exhibits and are going on Friday to see more. The exhibits we have seen so far are pretty cool, like one in a church displaying all sorts of instruments, like violins and clarinets and harps, from the 1500s and 1700s. So we are learning something, not only about Italian art, but about art from all over the world.

There were also a lot of questions about “favorites.” So, here we go. Favorite thing to do? Walk around Venice and just take in the sights, though riding on the vaporetto comes close second because I love being on boats. Favorite place in Venice? So far, my favorite place we have gone to was the church that held all the violins, because I used to play the violin, and also because we stumbled onto it as a complete accident while we were looking for something else. Favorite part of Venice? I actually really like Sant Elena, where our Italian class is held, because it’s less crowded with tourists, it’s more like a suburb where normal people live, but I also like San Servolo, where we live, because the island is very quiet and peaceful compared to the main city and it’s very pretty, with great views all around. Favorite country? Well, right now I would have to say that Italy and the U.S. are tied for first. I love the United States because it’s my home and I will be happy to come back to it, but right now I am loving Italy because I feel so lucky to get to spend this time here and I want to enjoy it while I’m here.

The insides of most buildings are for the most part as interesting and beautifully decorated as the outsides and many of the ceilings in buildings we have been in are quite high. Why did I talk about the mountains in my first blog post after getting here? Simply because they were awesome to see from the plane, and because I love mountains, and because I just thought they were pretty cool. Are there haunted houses? I have heard that there are haunted buildings in Venice, however, we haven’t been in any yet, and I’m not sure if they celebrate Halloween the same way we do, with haunted houses and things. We have visited a library, and are visiting another one today, but I haven’t needed to check out any books yet, so, no, I haven’t checked any books out yet. I probably will when it gets closer to time to turn in a couple of big projects. Why don’t they fly straight to Venice? There are some flights from the U.S., usually that leave from places like Philadelphia, Atlanta, or JFK airport in New York City, that do fly straight from the U.S. to Venice, but I think the reason they fly north over Canada and then down over Europe instead of straight over the Atlantic probably has to do with wind currents and things, and maybe it has something to do with then being always within a few hundred miles of land just in case something goes wrong.

Some of the names of the streets are confusing, and it is hard sometimes to remember which street is which and where they go because Venice is such a twisting maze of canals and calli (the plural for the little streets, calle, which run across the city).

Is it hard to understand Italian? Yes, when you don’t speak it. It gets easier, though, the more you learn, though it can still be hard to understand Italians even when you understand the words, because they talk very fast. The Italian word for cheese is “formaggio.” “You’re welcome” is “prego.” And I can’t really translate a name into Italian, because the Italian for anyone’s name is just your name. Sometimes, though, you can make a name sound a little more Italian by adding an “a” or an “o” at the end of it, like Mark becomes Marco and Emily becomes Emilia.

As for what it’s like to be in Venice, that’s what this whole blog is about. Is anything different? Quite a few things, but again, that’s what the whole blog is for, so you will have to keep reading to find out!

Again, thank you so much for all your questions and comments! Keep them coming and I will try to answer as many of them as I can.

Ciao,
Maria : )