By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/flying-high-til-morning-light.html
Enjoy!

By Tammy H. – Guestblogger from Venice
Traveling by trains in Italy is easy, cheap and convenient. Once you learn how to use the "Fast Ticket Machine", you don't have to wait in long lines at the train station ticket counters. There are several of these machines nearby. You can press a button to choose your language among 8 common languages, then follow the directions and arrows to go forward or go back if you want to change the date or the time. You can also choose the kind of train to meet your budget: local, direct, express, or intercity. (The fast and comfy EuroStar trains require reservations that a ticket agent or a travel agent can do for you.) Once you have finalized you choices, you just insert your euro bill accordingly. Your ticket and your change will come down. Really simple!
On my last Saturday in Venice, I decided to make side trips to Padova (Padua) and Verona. Padova is only 30 minutes from Venice and the train ticket only costs 2.90 euro. Its prestigious university is the second oldest in Italy (after University of Bologna) and was once home to Galileo, Copernicus, Donatello, Dante and Petrarch. Its famous Capella Degli Scrovegni (The Scrovegni Chapel) holds gorgeous Giotto's frescoed scenes from the bible. Only 25 people are allowed in at a time to protect the paintings from excess humidity. Normally you have to reserve tickets ahead of time but I was lucky to get one right away. After visiting all the usual tourists' sights, I also walked around different town squares for people watching. In Garibaldi Square, a street performer was juggling three torches to the tune of lively music from a small boom box. In another town square, the fresh produce and fruit markets were crowded with buyers.
Verona, well known as the setting for Romeo and Juliet, is an hour from Padova and 4.95 euro by train. The courtyard of the Casa di Giulietta (the House of Juliet) was full of tourists. I looked up at the famous stone balcony and saw a young girl with long hair posing as Juliet for her boyfriend below, so I took a few pictures too. Then I walked to the Arena, the biggest amphitheater in the Roman world when it could hold up to 25,000 spectators. Now it is the place for the famous Verona Opera Festival every summer. Like most other cities in Italy, Verona has beautiful cathedrals and basilicas with lovely frescoes and paintings inside that I never get tired of looking at. I enjoyed some quiet moments sitting in an empty church with all the beautiful and religious artwork around me, giving me a sense of serenity and peace in my own spirituality.

By Tammy H. – Guestblogger from Venice
My two weeks in Venice went by too fast. I've learned so much, walked everywhere and seen so many wonderful sights. My school for Italian language and culture has a dedicated staff and lively, well-trained teachers. I felt a warm welcome on the first day when I received a folder full of practical information for new comers and an orientation session about Venice. The teachers make learning fun with small group work and pair practice, with interesting and realistic reading passages about life in Italy while teaching grammar. There are different cultural activities every afternoon or sometimes in the evening. A teacher would take us on a cultural walk to different parts of Venice each time. I'd always remember the time we were invited to a teacher's beautiful and spacious private home. We had a glass of wine with some biscotti while listening to her talk about Dante and recite dramatically two of his poems. I told her I'd just visited Dante's tomb in Ravenna the previous Sunday. On my second and last Friday at school, one of the teachers had us sing along some lovely Italian songs. That afternoon, we learned how to make tiramisu, and then we all enjoyed tasting it.
Unlike my Florence school where most students tend to be younger and more fun loving, my classmates and schoolmates in Venice are more mature and serious about learning Italian. Many of them are returnees for the second or third time. Others stay for weeks and months. I was enviously impressed! During break time, we would go down to the coffee shop next door for a cup of cappuccino and chitchat in Italian. Among my nine classmates were a retired civil engineer from Germany, a doctor from Spain, a young engineer from Belgium, a shiatsu massage therapist from Austria, a teacher from Korea, an office worker from Japan, a business consultant from Colombia working in England, a lawyer from The Netherland, and a university student from Poland now living in Germany. With such a diverse group, we had lots of fun sharing stories with each other and learning so much from one another in addition to practicing our Italian.

By Kiyoko I. – Guestblogger from Cordoba
I talked to Nelida during the last hour at the house. What a difference eh? First day, I couldn't even squeeze a word out of my brain and I couldn't pick up much word when she spoke to me. She is so sweet. The time came and I hopped into the taxi. The driver was really nice too – we chatted about driving in Córdoba. The ride was only $20…crazy cheap. As I talked with Nelida, I got Havana's dulce de leche with the leftover money. . And now, with no peso left, it was time for me to say ‘chau' to Córdoba.
I really didn't know what to expect since I didn't know anyone who's done this but it turned out to be a great experience. I was worried of gimmicky banking-on-tourist things but the school sincerely helps you learn the language while maintaining a good social atmosphere. Students are also there with a similar goal and it was easy getting to know them. Extraño a Córdoba mucho y espero que volver allá pronto…

By Kiyoko I. – Guestblogger from Cordoba
Today was Estancia Jesuítica day J Christine and I caught a minibus at 9am, got to Jesús María at 10, grabbed coffee at a gas station and got to the Estancia. We asked for directions but we got bits and pieces from so many bystanders…From Jesús María, we took a taxi to Santa Catalina. The people at Jesús María helped us get one – they were so kind. We had a driver for 40km round trip and about 1 hour at Santa Catalina for $70 (~US$24). Many people confirmed that we got an awesome deal!! The driver's Spanish was hard to understand but conversed with him here and there. We had to go on gravel for 13km to Santa Catalina as it was tucked away. It was totally worth it.
A beautiful white church popped up in the dry field. The guy explaining the church spoke really clearly and both Christine and I felt awesome understanding his Spanish. He explained that a lot of the decorations came from Perú and that the Romans were replaced by Spaniards in the paintings, etc. The Estancia is actually private and we weren't able to visit. On the way back, we changed course to be dropped off at Colonia Caroya, another Estancia very close to Jesús María.
Estancias were established by Jesuits (Catholic effort against Protestants) to support themselves when the home office of the Spanish royalty expelled them. In their ‘hay days,' they had huge establishments with schools and various production lines. Colonia Caroya was smaller scale but well maintained.
When we got to Córdoba, it was just in time for the Feria (arts & crafts show), which takes place every Saturday and Sunday evening. After that, we stopped by Alfonsina and I had my first non-teabag maté. As much as everybody drinks it all the time, it's rare to find it served at a cafe or a restaurant.
An order of maté came with ‘maté with bombilla', a pot full of hierba mate and a thermos full of hot water… First reaction: what am I supposed to do with them?!?! But, I mean, there can't be much to it – steep the hierba, right? It turns out, I didn't do it quite right :p

By Tammy H. – Guestblogger from Venice
Venice is a fascinating and amazing city. Built on 118 islets in a lagoon over 1,500 years ago, it is shaped like a giant fish with the Grand Canal winding through the middle. Laced together by 150 canals, 400 bridges and more than 2,000 alleys, it is a completely car-free city ideal for wandering tourists and walkers. Here people move around on foot, by boats, motorboats, vaporetti (steamboats served as water buses), traghetti (gondola ferry boats), or gondolas. It is home to 65,000 Venetians and a stop for over 20 million tourists a year, many of them staying for just one to three days.
Venice is a fun and charming city to walk around and get lost. It's like walking in a maze. Even with a map, it is impossible not to get lost here since there're thousands of narrow streets called calli – hundreds of them with no names and only wide enough for one or two people.
For me, Venice is a great city to practice mindful breathing and walking in addition to learning Italian. Every morning, neighborhood church bells wake me up to tell me that a brand-new day is awaiting me. I open the windows, deeply breathe in the fresh air, savor the picture-perfect scenes in front of me, and watch the boats moving along the canals below. Happiness and gratitude fill my heart and soul as I get ready for school. The school is only 5 minutes away.
At 8:30 am, I walk mindfully down each of the 40 stair steps from the 2nd floor condo. A few meters later, I carefully climb up and down 19 steps of a black little bridge, walk through a narrow little alley and stroll leisurely around the large Campo Santa Margherita square where morning activities have begun in earnest. Three fruit and vegetable vendors are busy displaying their produce and two souvenirs stalls are already up in the center. In the far right, three seafood stands are crowded with buyers. The coffee shops are busy with customers.
I stop by one for a cup of cappuccino and a croissant, then walk around to check out prices of different fruits and fish and to learn their names. At 8:55 am, I mindfully climb up 20 steps to my school on the 2nd floor of a corner building. What a lovely way to begin the day for me…

By Tammy H. – Guestblogger from Venice
The fast and comfortable EuroStar train took me from Florence to Venice in less than 3 hours for 34 euro. On the train, I sat across a young Italian coast guard and eagerly practiced my Italian with him. He was returning to Grado, a small town north of Venice after visiting his parents near Rome. He usually works a two-day shift, and then goes home 3 hours away for 3 days. Sounds like an ideal work schedule! He just got married last year and his first baby boy is due in December. "Congratulazioni!" I said to him. Then I read some short news items from his daily newspaper and he helped me with my pronunciation, especially which syllable to put the correct accent or emphasis on, like gelateRIa instead of gelaTEria. We enjoyed each other's company and soon it was time for him to change trains 2 stop before Venice.
I studied the Venice map from my LET'S GO guidebook to see how I was going to walk from the train station to my homestay. My landlady/hostess wouldn't be there. At the last minute, she had to go off to California to visit her daughter and grandkids. Her niece Lorenza would take her place, I was told.
At 11:17 am, the train pulled into Venice. It was a beautiful day when I walked into an island city with old palaces, canals, alleys, bridges with lots of steps up and down, boats, vaporetti, gondole, narrow and short streets crowded with shops and tourists. Making my way out among the huge crowd of tourists at the train station, I tried to follow the directions Lorenza had told me on the phone the night before when I called to ask how to walk to the house in Campo Santa Margherita.
So with my medium-sized wheeled suitcase and my backpack, I stepped out into the glorious morning sunlight to face a harsh reality: Too many steps on WAY too many little bridges. It was hard to pull and push the suitcase along and up and down the numerous steps. I was afraid the wheels would come off from being abused. After about 15 minutes and seeing little bridges right and left around me, I stopped next to a newstand and called Lorenza for help. "Wait right there, " she said. In 5 minutes she came running with a big smile. We hugged and kissed on both cheeks as if we were old friends. Then she helped me pull my bag all the way home and up 40 steps to the 2nd floor condo.
I thought Lorenza would live here with me as my substitute hostess, but she lives with her mother nearby. After showing me everything around the house, she hugged me goodbye and left. So I am here all by myself in a large condo with spacious sitting room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and a garden terrace. Looking out from the kitchen or living room windows, I can see the Rio del Malcanton with boats and gondolas full of tourists passing by. I can enjoy listening to the romantic songs sung or played by the gondoliers, and the rousing bells from the nearby church. In addition, the house is only 5 minutes walk to my school, along a clean canal, over a little bridge, through a narrow and short alley, across a large square lined with coffee shops, bars, restaurants, little eateries, ice cream shops and a supermarket.
Venice, my kind of city!

By Kiyoko I. – Guestblogger from Cordoba
Today, Federico took us on a field trip to Cuesta Blanca. The class and 2 of his friends caught a 9am bus for about an hour ride. It was a long day. We hiked pretty much all day until late afternoon with a few stops for some reading and study time. Cuesta Blanca had some nice scenery and a river, although it was all dried up – somewhat reminding me of the East Bay – no wonder wild fires are popping up all around Córdoba… By the time I got home, it was a bit past 8pm. I was pretty wiped out because of the sun, lack of sleep and hunger. That night, Nelida whipped up a delicious chicken roast with potatoes for dinner and I washed it down with a few glasses of wine, retreated to my room to finish up my Homework and passed out.

By Kiyoko I. – Guestblogger from Cordoba
Today was really a Spanish overload. I mean, talk about a smoking brain. I arrived in Córdoba at 9:30am and took a taxi to the house. At the house, I finally met my host mother, Nelida. She briefly showed me around the house – it was large with 5 bedrooms. Then, it was time for me to go to school, as I was already late. The school is about a 30-minute walk from my homestay – not bad. I got to the school around 11am and, Bam, a placement exam. I was tired, gross and hungry. I wasn't excited about this, to say the least. Shortly after, the test was evaluated and I was put in to a class with Federico. At that moment, I had to throw English out the window. Only Spanish was spoken in the class and during the break. Boy, the first hour was intense. I wasn't in the right mode. Everything sounded like music but all 6 of my classmates spoke Spanish really well.
That afternoon, the school organized a quick walking tour of the city. Today was really smoky because of the wild fire in the mountains and ashes were falling everywhere. After the tour, a few other students and I who started today had a make-up session. By the end of that, my brain was just over-dosed… it felt like it just ran out of gas. When I got home, I couldn't even squeeze out any words to say how the day went. We had homemade pasta for dinner and, at 9pm, my housemates and I hitched a taxi to meet up with some other students at a restaurant near Parque Sarmiento. I came back home around midnight and pretty much just passed out as it had been more than a day since I last laid down on a bed.

By Tammy H. – Guestblogger from Florence
My two-week intensive Italian course in Florence was over with a final exam on Friday. I got an A and will move on to intermediate level in my Venice school. Saturday 9/13 was my last day in Florence. With a left knee still sore from climbing all the 294 steps up and down the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I decided to take it easy. So I hopped on the Firenze City Sightseeing Bus.
This neat bus company runs double-decker red buses with open tops on two lines: Line A buses make stops in and around Florence while line B buses run another route with some same stops and to nearby Fiesole, a lovely, scenic town on the hill overlooking Florence. Famous people like Alexander Dumas, Anatole France, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, Frank Lloyd Wright, and even Leonardo Da Vinci all spent some productive time there. The city is even older than Florence, dated back to the 5th century and is the favorite summer place for the rich and the famous.
For 20 euro, which you pay when you get on the bus, you get a ticket, a bus route map, and a set of disposable earphones. You can hop on and hop off at various stops within 24 hours as long as you can show your ticket to the next conductor when you get back on. The earphones let you listen to comments and background information in 8 languages: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. It's great for a linguist like me. I can sit on the bus all day listening to the comments in different languages.
With the open top deck, you have a great view and can take great pictures. I wish I had known about this city tour bus when I first arrived in Florence. Then I could have visited more interesting places. In my daily walks to school, I passed by a large fenced- in cemetery at Piazza Donatello but didn't know anything about it. From the tour bus commentary, I now know that it's the English Cemetery (and a Swiss property) where my favorite poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning was buried. Some 1409 non-Catholic people from 16 countries were laid to rest in this cemetery including Walter Salvage Landor, the sculptor Hiram Powers and the great scholar G.P. Vieusseux. Arnold Bocklin was inspired by this cemetery and created the famous painting "The Island of the Dead".
Unfortunately for me, the cemetery is closed on weekends…