This past Thursday, I flew to Naples. This is the land of my birth, so it was an important city for me to go to while I'm abroad. My mother, of coarse, gave me a rather long list of places that I have to go to; I went to about two or three places from that list. The flight there had a layover in Rome. At the gate, a bus took us to the plane; that is normal here, but to me it was weird. I arrived in Naples around 10:30 at night and some long time friends allowed me to stay with them. They took me to the Christmas market, which just opened up that week-end. While there, we saw a protest. Evidently, the teachers from Milan and the teachers from Naples are being swapped. The students didn't take well to that, so they decided to protest that day just outside the Christmas Market. We just sat on a step and watched them walk with the flags and fireworks (Italians love their fireworks at really random times of the day for no apparent reason). That night, they took me out for dinner at a place called The Gratto. We took a car to the bus (it was a group dinner provided by the military), the bus to pick up more people in a different area and to a gas station where a taxi would take us to the restaurant. After we got in the taxi, we realized why we couldn't take the bus: the street was tiny with a few inches of room on either side of the taxi. We had a big Italian dinner that lasted three hours. I tried Lemoncello (liked the flavor but not the after taste) and we got home around mid-night. The next day, they took me to the hospital where I was born. We also went down to the port to get a picture of Castel Nuovo and volcano Vesuvio. If you ever go to Naples, you have to eat a pizza. It was born there. The pizza we had for lunch was delicious and I don't normally eat pizza. For dinner, it was a Thanksgiving feast. I know Thanksgiving was a week and a half away, but they had family in town then that wasn't going to be there at Thanksgiving, so we ate the turkey with stuffing. Naples is a beautiful city with colorful buildings and an interesting history. If you can get past the trash problems that the city has, it would be a great adventure.
P.S.: If you ever get on a plane in Rome, expect it be have a delayed departure. Both of mine did thanks to inadequate boarding methods.
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This Saturday, the CEA group went to the city of Grasse. There, we went on a tour of the perfume factory Fragonard. The tour guide told us about the mixing of essences to get the scent of the perfume. She also told us the differences between Cologne, Eau de Toilette, Eau de Perfume, and Perfume. Cologne has 5% of essence and the rest is alcohol and water. Eau de Toilette has 10% of essence with alcohol and water. Eau de Perfume has 15% of essence with alcohol and water. Perfume has 25% of essence with alcohol, but no water. The tour guide showed us the old ways of getting the essence out of the plants, like how they used to use animal fat until the issue of Mad Cow Disease about twenty years ago. What I found interesting was that one bottle of perfume has about 250 different essences in it. The tour guide also showed us where they make soap, which is only sold at their boutique. She had us smell six different types of eau de perfume, which we bought on discount.
After we bought a few things, we went to rival perfume factory near-by (literally walking distance of 1 minute) to make our own individual perfumes. We had to start with the base notes, which is five essences that reveal themselves after a few hours, and mix them in certain quantities. After that, we had five heart notes, which were another set of essences. Then we added the peak notes, which is the scent you smell first. I didn't realize it at first, but I added cinnamon to mine. I didn't think I would add cinnamon. So we each had out own bottle of perfume special made by us. We could also reorder if we wanted to; they keep the recipe. They told us we made eau de perfume, and we received a perfume-maker certificate. After the perfume factories, we went to the villages of Gourdon and St. Paul de Vence. Here, we checked out the amazing views. We were one hour away from Antibes, but we could still see it from the mountain since we were up so high. This past weekend, I went to Venice. It started with trouble. It takes three trains to get to Venice and there was an accident on the railway during my second train ride. there was a nice older lady who tried to help me. She couldn't speak English and she wanted me to understand what was going on, so she found a man who could speak English and he told me everything. The accident caused me to be late for the third train, so I had to buy another ticket. I arrived at Venezia Mestre, the train station just outside of Venice, around 8 pm. Then I got lost trying to follow the instructions the website provided me on the way to the hostel I stayed at. A man helped me find the bus I needed to get and the bus driver took me to the street I needed to get off at. After a ten minute walk, following the instructions, I arrived at my hostel. I slept in a nice, comfy little bungalow. The next morning, I ate a delicious breakfast at the hostel and a shuttle bus took me to Venice. I only did some walking around in the near-by area, mostly because it's about a ten minute walk from the bus stop to the Grand Canal where all the shops are. First thing on my list was buying souvenirs, so I found a shop and bought a venetian mask and some Murano glass and I returned to the hostel. I went back to Venice that night to get the night-time feel and I'm glad I did. I found some more glass pieces that I loved and some warm ponchos that are great for this time of year. I returned to the hostel after three hours of walking around. The next morning I packed up to returned to Antibes. At the bus stop, I didn't know which side of the street to stand on, but an older lady and two older gentlemen helped me. They are really nice in Italy. Found my way back to the train station and hoped on my train. I'm starting to think that the term "train station" in Italy can be replaced by "shopping mall." The one in Milan was three floors with about as many shops as there are in a mall back home. I got back to my apartment around 11 at night.
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Nicole JohnsonI am a college student studying abroad in France. This is my journal of all that I see and experience on my journey. Archives
December 2015
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