Did you know that in almost every country there is a different marking system? For example, in Estonia in the university you can be marked from A-F (F means you've failed), also in Norway, as I heard. But in Germany the score is 6-1, in Spain 10-1 and here, in Italy.. well.. 30-1 (the highest is the best) And you have to get at least 18 points to pass the exam.
I have 3 exams which are going to my studies in Tartu. Storia greca (Greek history) was today, letteratura latina (latin literature) and of course italian. Which is a little bit different for me, they are oral.. and also it's the first time for me not to take the exam in my native language. But let's give it a try.. Penso positivo!!!
Obviously, people who know me well, know the fact that I cannot study for a long time, which means that before the exam I start reading/studying just few days before. And of course then I cannot concentrate and I'm doing other things (for example on Saturday we went to the mountains, I'll tell that story later). I tried, so hard. I had my Mom's books (why should I buy the book in italian if I'm going to make this exam in english and I could translate my own estonian books to english or use... WIKIPEDIA or YOUTUBE! Yes, I really did that, by the way, pretty useful, as the movies that we saw in Ahuna's class) and my few notes.. But well, greek history.. I studied it last year with all the other civilizations... Maybe I'll pass it. As Kinga was studying as well, it was pretty normal that we made lunch together, watched How I met your mother, laughed more than usual.. and at some point we were studying estonian/hungarian instead of our topics.. And yesterday I was just so fed up that I took a small bath at midnight, hahahaa..
And then it was the day. The exam started at 9AM but of course, the professor wasn't there. Also she hadn't respond to any of my e-mails that I've had sent to her, asking whether I can do this exam in english or not. And I was actually so nervous because at night when I checked UNIWEB (Italian ÕIS) there wasn't any exam.. But finally she showed up, of course my name was not on the list, of course I could have done my exam in english and so I had to wait until it's my turn. With me, there was around 50 people as well, waiting for their time and after 3rd student they told that they're going to have a pause at 13 and they'll continue on at 15. Phuh, at least my number was 5... But then I just started to notice what's happening around me. The italians had so many books, everywhere! Notes opened on topics that I hadn't read about.. One girl next to me told me that it's her first exam and she doesn't want to fail it.. She was nearly crying, which reminded me yesterday's Viviana's reaction when she got to know that she failed.. OMG: What's going to happen with me, then? The re-exam is on 26th but then I'm already in Val di Fiemme.. Hmm... AIUTO!!!!
And then It was my turn. They thought that my name is TARTU ÜLIKOOL because on my matriculation document there is my name and my university. And the professor asked me to talk about Marathon. What Marathon???? Aaa, the battle of Marathoon.. Yeaaa... And so I spoke.. about Athens, Sparta, Persian wars, Xerxes, Leonidas... everything that came to my mind. I couldn't memorize the word "Soldier" but that was okay, because I was talking .. much.. And then I got it . 30 of 30. WOWOWIWOU! Maybe it was because I was too Erasmus. Trying hard not to fail. Maybe the english part helped me. Maybe I was just lucky with the topic, as it could have been also philosophers, Parthenon or Herodotos "Historia"... But wars and dates have always been easy for me.. So maybe it helped as well.
Anyways, next Tuesday I suppose it gets A LOT harder.. Latin literature in italian. At least this time I have italian books.. and also WIKIPEDIA and YOUTUBE, hahahahahaha..
But I have to mention that although Patrick doesn't believe it, my italian has been improved a lot. Here's a new story:
Estonian girl Raine has been inviting me to her place which is somewhere in the mountains.. And her friends (or couchsurfing friends) had an event for Saturday: CSPolada al chiaro di luna, which meant walking under the moon.. With snowrackets.. Although I had to study .. I went.. And I don't have to regret because it was AWESOME!!!!
But why my italian is improving a lot? Because well.. besides me and Raine and ukrainian boy and maroccon boy.. all the others were italian. And although italian tend to say that they do speak in english then in the crowd it's always otherwise. Festa italiano!! E ho parlato molto.... But I love it! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And also, sometimes the party gets so hard that you may break the couch...
And oh, Raine's home... Aitäh, kallis!!! :) It was wonderful!
And maybe it is good for my studies that I just go out to the nature at the weekend.. or go to the Carnival.. or just enjoy my stay until I can.... Mi piace! :*
And again, Thank You, Mommy, EMME!!!, that you encouraged me.. and helped me.. This is for you..
At Patrick's awesome police party we decided to go to Firenze once again.. Maybe it always works out good when we are drunk and we make plans, but so really, we -me, Thorina, Moritz, Patrick went on thursday evening, on Thorina's birthday, to Firenze. OF course once again we had a picnic in the train that people gave us looks but hey, when you're hungry, nothing can stop you! We changed the train in Bologna and arrived Firenze around 9 in the evening. On our way to Julie's, we got 3 Toscana wines for 10€ (but tšššs, it's a secret, as the guy who sold them, told us) and we had a nice late-evening brunch with gossip and movies. Eurotrip for the win!
Somehow, after the movie, we started to watch awesome cat videos..
One more time... HOW CUTE IS THAT:!!!????
Next morning I made my awesome pancakes ( I have to say I've never made them to my Estonian friends, I should... Sorry.) and we went for a walk to find Piazzale Michelangelo. The weather was really nice and warm so it could have been standable even without a jacket.
As Firenze has lots of artists then many traffic signs are re-made... And of course the difference between Moritz and Patrick is that when Moritz takes pictures of people, then Patrick fotographs everything else.. :)
If you are able to imagine 2 italian mamma who take care of their children, then we really found them in one paninoteca in the centre of Firenze. And oh, these Firenze style paninis were tastyyy...
Firenze. Duomo. RUN!!! As we had to wait for the "always late" spanish, we took some pictures, tried to avoid f*****g duomo but as Belen and Patrick wanted to go inside, we went to take a cup of coffee.. Which has made me so italian- although I don't like so much coffee, I just like to sit with people and talk about random things and it's relaxing at the same way.
In the evening Julie made delicious lasagne and we played "Who am I?" This time it was like gathering of the smartypants: I was Jesus. Of course one of my first questions was "Do I exist?" but following got even more interesting, when I finally realized that I have to be somekind of a God. When I said it out, half of the people rejected it.. Can I call Jesus as a God or not? Later, I asked Kinga, and she told me that it diferres from the context.
Thorina was the Pope Benedictus XVI and she asked whether she is wealthy.. Umm.. In my opinion, pope doesn't have any money. Good question, still.
Amaia was Santa and there was the fight bigger. Where does he live? In North Pole or in Lapland. The germans told in North Pole, those who believe in Kaisu and in Santa, told that in Lapland.. Still haven't found it out yet.
And the best. Patrick was the trolololo man. And that brought me back to the old good times With Silvu. <3 miss you, honey!
Next day, we had to catch 8.02 train to Perugia. Pretty early but at least we could have sighed because of the view..
Some of us got coffee from McDonalds, some of us bought the tickets, and the trip began. Perugia is a city in Umbria country and for me it's quite mountaineous area. We arrived around 10 and as I had remembered Madis' stories, we caught minimetro which rides around the valley.
As it was raining, I guess we couldn't get the whole impression of Perugia but we tried to explore some things. For example, we went to Duomo, to the Town Hall, to chocolate shop. As it was raining nearly cats and dogs, we forced ourselves to go to archaelocial museum. In the end it wasn't such a bad idea: for example I didn't know that homo neanderthalensis lived in Italy and that in Italy there was a city called NARNIA. Hehehehe..
Good thing about raining is singing in the rain. And if I can have Amaia to share an umbrella, the singing is even more funny. But we went to find an underground city which for me was just stunning. Why the city is underground?
In 1540 when the Pope deliberately provoked the Perugians, who were led by the fiery Baglioni family, into a revolt. The Pope had outraged the citizenry by breaking his promise not to raise the tax on salt and with this war, his intended to break the independence of Perugia and wreak revenge on the Baglioni family, his enemy. The Papal army quickly captured the city and the Pope built the Rocca Paolina straight over the houses of the Baglioni and their neighbours. Over a hundred houses, as well as churches and monasteries were destroyed and used as building material and as substructures for the fortress. The citizens of Perugia waited until the Roman Republic of 1848 for a first, partial demolition of the loathed symbol of papal power and finally, in 1860 with the unification of Italy, they finished it off. Externally, the only visible parts of the fortress are the substructure walls along Viale Indipendenza and the eastern bastion in Via Marzia, which incorporates the Etruscan Porta Marzia. From here it is possible to enter the foundations of the fortress, which rested on vault structures placed over the houses and streets such as Via Baglioni.
History lesson! :) But as we were quite fed up because of the rain, we went back home ... and there we had an awesome party again.
It started with videos, eating pasta and kuskus, and drinking strawberry Keglevich-cocktails...
(Another prove that some americans ARE stupid)
(And really, my british blokes talk like this. :D)
....and ended with Ice Age 4. Imagine 7 of us all in Julie's bed. In Estonian: Nagu kilud karbis.
Next morning, Trololo had to wake us up, but OF COURSE... It didn't! So we were kind of in a hurry to get the bus to go to my hometown, Siena. Why hometown? Because it was and it is my first city in Italy where I studied to get to know this country, language, cuisine. You never hate your hometown. You never hate your home. And now I'm really glad that actually I have 4 hometowns- Siena, Padova, Tartu and of course Tallinn...
So, although I'd never seen so much rain in Siena, everything was the same. Our Cuba Libro (the caffee where we got internet), Our university .. even OUR HOME!!!
And it was so weird to be back as you'd never left. I was almost crying.. I've grown up now. I remember my first days in Italy, they were horrible and I was still excited. Now I'm used to this life, this temperament, and I still love it. How am I going to leave it? Phuh...
As I'd never been to Siena' Duomo inside, I got this opportunity to improve myself... And now i know the story that Duomo is actually unfinished- they were out of money. The cathedral is linked to colours of Siena- black and white, which comes from a legend of city's founders, two horses.
Sculpture made my Michelangelo
But we saw a pretty weird situation inside. Of course, in many Italian cities, there are plenty of asian tourists, taking pictures of everything they can. This time we saw also a group of them but.. they were posing preaching at the altar!!!! o.O
Funny story about taking pictures: As we are in a group, there always has to be a group picture. Then we need a person to take it. In Siena, close to Piazza del Campo, we asked one couple. We started to communicate in italian, then in english and then in spanish but the woman told us to speak in french. In the end, we found out that they're brazilian- so, portuguese it is!
Near to the fountain, one russian girl asked me in russian can I take a picture of her. Certo! I mean, Kanežna!
So.. for the 6 people we could speak on this day italian, estonian, german, spanish, dutch, bask, katalan, english, russian, french, portuguese, finnish- 12 LANGUAGES! :) And when Umut joined us, one language- turkish- more!
Siena is still Siena. And although we saw a little bit of the football match Siena-Genova, it's still is not so crowded and stays calm, at least for me. I'm sure I couldn't give the others the experience that me and Julie had but they indeed agreed that Siena is a lovely city. And I definitely wanna go back. When it's warm and it's not raining so much.
Which is so weird, back at home, I wouldn't dare to even say it out: "I'm not going out because it's raining!". There it's normal that you go out anyway, despite what's the weather outside, whether you have -20 degrees or +30 degrees... But here... It really drives you nuts when it's raining or sleeting..
