Deniz’s Blog

ok so this whole week i was so excited because 1) my brother came to visit and 2) Ari and i planned on going to Florence. we had it all planned out– or so we thought. our train from Lugano was to leave friday afternoon at 2:05 and get to milan around 3:30-ish. from Milan we were supposed to take the 4:05 train to Florence– so here’s what happened…

my classes ended at 12:50 on friday, i got some food then rushed back to girasole to get ready and then go. i got my bag ready and then Ari and i headed out to the train station. we got our tickets and rushed to the train. whadya know, there were no seats. bad sign #1: i had to sit in the doorway on a train for the 2nd time since i’ve been here. anyhoo there were some characters on the train. there was a young lady whose boobs were protruding out of her shirt [italians like to wear small clothes even they are not small themselves.] anyhoo, she went to the bathroom and was coming out, but then she saw the ticket-checker man and locked herself back in the bathroom. so Ari and i came to the conclusion that she did NOT pay for her ticket. i think we could have gotten away with that too– it would have saved us about 24 CHF each! damn. oh and i can’t forget to tell you about the little child with the staring problem. i was eating my sandwich and he just looked at me…taking…each…bite. i want to smack children like that. or maybe i just wanted to smack him because i was frustrated at having no seat on the train and a little person like him had a seat. i was jealous.

anyhooo we got to milan. and we were SO ready to get on that train to florence at 4:05. we bought tickets at those little ticket machines and literally ran to the train– BUT we just saw people getting off and no one boarding. bad sign #2: 4:05 passed and the train didn’t move. so Ari and i decided to stop being retarded and check the ticket and the arrivals/departures chart– and once again whadya knowwwww… yes, the train ARRIVED at 4:05– but it wasn’t departing again until 8-something that night. milan to florence is about a 3-hour train ride. therefore if we got on that train we’d be in florence around 11 p.m.– um how ’bout NO. so we decided to stay in milan and make those 24 CHF worth it, dammit! we asked around and finally found the tourist office where the man told us about the hostel we were to stay at. we figured out the metro, yada yada… and we got to our hostel.

so my first time in a hostel wasn’t bad. there was a dutch lady [dutch = from Holland] who was already in the room. she was nice, we talked a bit. the room had 3 bunk beds and was pretty small– we definitely felt more in college than at franklin, haha. anywayyy obviously Ari and i are not smart enough to figure out the locker we used. because we locked our stuff up before going to dinner and when we got back we couldn’t open the locker anymorrrre. bad sign #3: our locker wouldn’t open. so we left and decided to deal with that problem later. we werrrrrrrrre going to go to the chinese food place marked as a place “close to the hostel” however it was getting dark and the road to the place looked SKETCH, big time. so we saw “La Gelateria” and anything beginning with “gelat” is heaven on earth, so we decided to go there. the old man working there was the sweetest little old man. he kept calling Ari and myself “darlings” and “dears”– i got a mozzarella and tomato panini and Ari got mozzarella, tomato, and salami panini– we got some water and we ended the meal with what else? gelaaaaaato [i tried hazelnut w/yogurt and Ari got her usual strattciatella w/chocolate]. it was good and the meal was relatively cheap

other then some americans popping in for 4 hours to sleep in the middle of the night, we slept well. got up kind of early and went down for breakfast [as many bread rolls as we wanted and choices of butter, cream cheese, nutella, and jam] as well as OJ/hot choco/cappucino/coffee/milk/etc. it was a satisfying breakfast. anyhoo we hopped back on the metro and headed for the Duomo. we did some shopping, went into the gorgeous cathedral, and ate of course. a word of warning for unsuspecting tourists from a not-so-unsuspecting tourist anymore: if you ever go to the duomo in milan, do NOT take the colorful little bracelets from the usually african seller people– they try to get money outta you. go and you’ll know what i mean. anyhoo, i bought my first pair of diesel jeans, (please don’t ask me how much they were), and at 4:25 p.m. Ari and I were on a train to Lugano. AND we got seats. thank goodness. and here i am– it’s saturday night, Ari and i went jogging, and now i’m being a loser and writing this blog at 12-something a.m. and now i’m done. hopefully i’ll get to florence on day…    PICTURRRRRRRRRRRRES!!

hah, yeah right. so i fiiiiinallyyyyy had a visitor to my new [temporary] home of the Girasole residence in Lugano, CH… my stinkyyyy brother! he got here on tuesday afternoon and boy was i happy! it was nice seeing a familiar face (though he does smell quite bad)… just kidding! [not.] anyhoo, we went back to my dorm and he unloaded the suitcase; thank you to my mommmmmyyy, ayla teyze, and monica for sending some stuff over! oh and thanks anil for being my own personal FedEx. oh and that day i got an extra sandwich from the grotto cause i had a feeling anil would be hungry when he got here [because he’s always hungry]! we ate, talked a bit, then it was time for bball practice and i thought i’d show anil the campus while we were up there. he watched us do shooting drills in what he called the “hardcore” court, haha. i just think it’s ghetto looking. then anil and i walked down and later we went downtown to grab dinner. we shared a Pizza Sfiziosa and had gelato for dessert of course. i got nocciola (hazelnut) and anil got mocca (mocha). yum yum i love food

on wednesdayyyyy i went to class, did my thing, then anil and i went to rent a smart car. we got there at about 2 or 2:30 but the man at the desk told us to come back at 3 because he didn’t speak english (i thought he was quite rude but anil kept defending him. whatever dude.) so we got lunch; anil got pasta with “frutti di mare” [pasta with seafood] and i got lasagna. that really has got to be the best dish ever. anyhoo our waitress was so cute! and she spoke english quite well though i did kiiiiind of try to speak italiano

so we rented the smart car and we were off to lake como. i basically tried to be a navigator from memory and i think i did an ok job! i mean, we got there, didn’t we? exactly. we parked then walked around lake como– it really is a beautiful place. very italian and very euro. i like it there unfortunately, we did not see George Clooney.

we had to head back around 6 because anil’s train from Lugano to Zurich was at 8:35… we got back in about 25 minutes, dropped off the car, and walked back to Girasole. anil got his things together and around 7:45 we left for the train station. when we got there, anil bought his ticket from some machine outside. it was pretty easy because it was in english, but there was one thing we weren’t sure about. there was an option of either 1/2  or 1/1… and we later found out that 1/2 means a children’s ticket. interesting. does that mean like… half a person?

i waited til anil got on the train– i’m not going to lie, i was sad because we always have fun together and he was leaving. the next time i’m going to see his smelly self is in december. kinda weird. anyhoo, he’s in turkey now and will be in the army in a few days! oh gosh… Thanks for coming, Anil *TOOH*

P.S. i will be leaving for Florence tomorrow afternoon with Ari, so stay tuned for a blog about that in a few days!!

…in my dreams! haha so this morning i woke up around 9 and met Jenn around 9:30 to go shoot around at the elementary school down the street. after about 35 minutes we got lazy and went back to our “apartments”. i went back to sleep but not for long because around 1 i hear keely go, “denizzzzzzz wanna go cruisin’?” haha she told me she wanted to head to lake como while she had the [smart] car. you see, her and liz drove to munich this weekend for oktoberfest but got back last night… and they have the car til monday morning. anyhoo, i had to take her up on the offer, so we headed to lake como to find george [clooney].

so we’re driving for a bit and then traffic begins to slow down. we got confused, thought we were in the wrong lane, and so we take an exit and end up in a parking lot with a lot of trucks. just imagine a smart car surrounded by big, big trucks. so then we decide to roll down the window and ask someone. we assume the man is italian or swiss or something so all we say is “where is como?” and do some arm/hand gestures and whatnot. the man busts out with impeccable english! who woulda known. we actually think he was american because he had no accent– an american truck driver in europe. wow.

so we get to como– it was beautiful. basically Lake Lugano but more beautiful and bigger. it was way more crowded. total resort/rich people area. keely and i– but especially keely– got super excited about seeing george clooney’s house, or what we presumed to be his, haha. so excited that… well… i’ll leave you in suspense and you can come to your own conclusions.

lake como is nice– i’d love to go there for the whole day sometime. i think the highlight of my day was seeing “Polat Market” on the way out of italy and close to the swiss border. it was awesome. haha i took a few pictures, so i’ll definitely be posting those as soon as i can… stay posted!

especially this one. this girl is an amazing artist, check out her work and let me know what you think of her work and i shall let her know

Check the full size-and all some other of her pictures here.

er i hope i have the date right on that! ok so i know it is now TUESDAY, but the internet in Girasole (my building) decided not to work this weekend, so i thought i’d write the blog now. sorry i haven’t been keeping this as updated as i started out, but hey… i’m a college student and i live in a foreign country. sorry if my time is scarce. haha anyhooo saturday was pretty eventful! it was an awesome day, really.

so the day started out around 11:30 when Ari came by the room to see if i was ready to go downtown. we were SO pumped because we were actually not going to eat pasta for once in like 4 weeks. we discovered a little [turkish] kebab place downtown, so we wanted to check it out. so we went and i got the guts to ask if the people working were turkish… in turkish! yay for me haha and it turns out that they are these two nice sisters– the older one has lived in Lugano for 23 years and the younger one moved here last year [they are sivasli! haha]. i told them i was going to school here and i would definitely be back for more turkish food throughout the year. they had everything from kebabs to durum to stuffed grape leaves to lahmacun to baklava. i got lahmacun and i suggested that Ari try the durum. We LOVED the food and i think it was pretty reasonably priced (about 7 CHF-ish.) We left satisfied for sure

then off we went to Manor (kind of like a super Target or super Wal-Mart…but better) because Ari needed to buy a pot. she’s been going nuts because she wants to make her stove top popcorn, but doesn’t have a big enough pot! so after looking at about 5 overpriced pots, she got the cheap [but cute] yellow one. in the meantime, her parents called and said they wanted to meet us downtown perhaps for some gelato. [gelato = deniz’s happiness] we left Manor and then i got to meet Ari’s parents. Ari’s dad is Iranian and her stepmom i thinkkk is American? not too sure, but they are awesome. we took them to the turkish place and then did some shopping. well, it was more like Ari and i sat outside waiting while they shopped haha… we had fun though– Ari’s dad really reminds me of my dad. i think it’s the middle eastern humor, mixed with corny parental humor, mixed with knowing a lot about a lot of things, mixed with just being a pretty cool guy. [i laughed SO hard when he was telling his wife “honey, we don’t eat to lose weight.” she was like freaking out cause she wanted to burn off the gelato like, right away, so Ari’s dad grabs his tummy and says, “but honey, i want to keep this!” while he shook it around in his hands for emphasis. haha smart man i tell ya.]
i kind of forget the order of events after this because by this time, Ari and i had been walking around for about 3 or 4 hours downtown. it was hot and we were pooped! but we separated from her parents for a little to go look for a yoga mat. the friggin sports store has everything BUT yoga mats. they definitely had a lot of clothes… and a very nice pair of pumas that i want for that matter… but no yoga mat.   anyhoo we met back up with the parents and had gelato! it was delisioso [hazlenut and biscotto combo] — thanks to Ari’s parents!

i was then invited to dinner by Ari’s family so around 6:30 Ari and i walked up to their hotel and we headed [Ari’s dad drove] to La Gondoletta (restaurant). it is this cute little place about 10 or 15 minutes away by car with tables out on a dock over the lake. gorgeous. but i suppose they were expecting rain or something so we sat inside. oh and here’s the cool part– had we sat outside, the waitress would have to cross the street to serve us! the street is deadly though because it’s tiny and people decide to go way over the speed limit anyway. Ari’s dad told me that the last time they came, the waitress told him that she’d been working there for a year and so he asked her, “what happened to the girl before you??” haha… you can guess the rest so we had some fried fish appetizer and i ate lasagna for dinner. oh and of course a little bit of wine [i’m still not crazy about the taste… but i’ll grow into it… haha]  the waitress was a sweetheart– she’s actually from Belgrade, but moved to Lugano a few years ago i think. she was super nice and she thought i was italian (or spoke italian) at first because i was using the few words i know (buona serra, grazie, prego, etc.) it was cool. and the chef was the cutest little round swiss man i’ve ever seen. he constantly had a smile on his face and he was just exactly what i think of when i think about old swiss people– round, cute, and happy. and it just so turns out that it was his birthday so his little old (but stylish) friends kept trickling in– we wished him a happy birthday then left we almost got run over on the little road, but we’re alive and well. it’s all good in the hood.

the night ended with Ari and i being dropped off, then i met Ari in her room and we watched  The Big Lebowski. it was the longest movie of my life… ah just go read about it. seriously, you don’t need to watch it. haha but we had popcorn so we were satisfied. then to make up for that stupid movie, i came back and watched Rent. Also long, but better.

So there you go. I know this was the longest post ever, but maybe right when you get done reading it, i’ll have posted again. haha ciao

Quote of Saturday: “I’m gonna busta Kappa!”  -Ari. [if only you knew her… you’d see why this was so damn hilarious. ]

contrary to popular belief, the well has not gone dry. it’s just been a busy week! this week:

-i got back my first english paper and the result was a C+. no worries though, i’m going to talk to the professor and re-write that paper! ugh.

-i got an A- on a math essay. haha what a joke.

-i had my first “test” in college today– in french.. i think it went okayyyy but we’ll see

oh, and it’s been raining cats and dogs the past 2 days. it totally sucks especially when walking up the stupid hill to campus! i was soaked this morning. and the bottom of my jeans have been SOAKED since yesterday. this weather makes me want to sleep all day. mayyybe i’ll go take a nap. haha

the info you need to know:

Bellinzona = capital of Ticino

Ticino = only Italian canton of Switzerland

Lugano = city in Ticino

ok so this morning the roomie and i woke up around 8:30– she basically had to drag me out of bed– to be part of the 25 students who got a free ride to Bellinzona for the wine festival. we got to the grotto early and everything (around 9:45) and waiting until about 12 to leave for the Ticinese capital. Bellinzona is a quaint little town that is absolutely beautiful. it is TOTALLY worth seeing. there are a few castles– yes, i said CASTLES– around the town that are also worth seeing. the views are amazing. luckily the weather today was impeccable and i was in good company the wine tasting was actually from 4-6, so until then i got some kebab [which makes me happy] and then proceeded to get what else.. GELATO. i tried pineapple and lemon today– it was sooo refreshing and oh-so-good. then finally- the WINE! again our wine glass was free (thanks to franklin college student services!) so we went around trying all sorts of merlots, chardonnays, champagnes, everything. and keep in mind the people selling this stuff actually MADE this stuff. there was some good wine, and some really bad wine. but then again i don’t really understand alcohol much. so yeah i had absolutely no wine.. err.. yeahhhhhh ok so we got back around 6:30 and had dinner right away at Ari’s! fresh torttelini and some pasta with sauce and Keely’s potatoes. it was quite satisfying then about 2 hours later i decided i needed some physical activity so Ari and i went for a nice long walk and talked. we discovered an awesome park, but then it depressed us because there were all sorts of couples. stupid switzerland. haha anyway!!! i took a WHOLE bunch of pictures so check them out! PEACE!

…is the night to go out and have fun in Lugano, and everyone knows it– even my basketball coach :

“Ballers,

Remember tonight’s practice for the Women starts at 7:00 pm and ends around 8.30 pm and Men’s practice begins around 8:30 pm and ends in the neighborhood of 10:00 pm. If, you guys work hard we can call it quits early. I know Thursday night is the happening night for you cats.”

that’s right, i’m a baller. AND a cat. a cool one too.

**TOOOOOOOH**

really isn’t that great because i’m a poor college student. hahaha well actually, i’m not much of a breakfast person and i don’t really have time for it when i’m sprinting up the hill to class.

how to make my breakfast:

-get a bread roll… a tiiiny european bread roll

-cut a slice of provolone cheese and melt it inside the bread using your handy dandy microwave.

-dab a whoooooooole lot of honey on the bread.

there you go, carbs, dairy, and sugar. niiice whole breakfast.