Travel Tip 1: Packing Checklist

As someone who travels frequently, whether it be to visit family, present at a conference, or traveling abroad, I have come to learn the importance of making a checklist when packing. I'm not always the best at remembering to pack little things, like a hairbrush, or flip flops, etc. I have found I will always have everything I need if I make a checklist before I pack and mark items off as I put them in the suitcase. I started doing this when I was living in Florence and traveling on Ryan Air a lot, and this method has served me well. Here are a few things I consider when making my list: 1) What situations will you be facing? - When I go to a conference, I often think about how formal the event is, will there be a dinner afterwards, or will people want to explore nightlife. If I am going home to visit my parents, I think about if I will be going to the beach, or will I go out with friends. With foreign travel, I often consider if I will be visiting churches and need to have my shoulders and knees covered, or if the culture is more casual or elegant. When I think about all the different situations I could be facing, I pack accordingly. Yes, you may be tempted to pack that pair of wedges you just bought that you have been dying to wear, but will you really enter a situation where they will be necessary? Stick to packing for events that you know you will be facing. 2) What will the weather be like? - I check the weather channel and the weather app on my phone for the week leading up to a trip to make sure I know what the weather will be like. I also check online resources that give reports about the average temperature and climate pattern of the cities I will be visiting. When I am familiar with what the weather will be like, I am less likely to pack items "just in case" that can take up a lot of extra room in the suitcase. 3) What can you count on being provided? - When I travel for my research I usually know that the hotels I will be staying in will have shampoo, conditioner, or a hairdryer, and if the room does not include these things, you can ask at the front desk and they typically have items you can borrow. For example, on my honeymoon we forgot to pack toothpaste, but we called room service and they brought us a tube from the front desk. Same goes for traveling to visit family. I can always count on my sister having a hair straightener, so I never bother to pack one. If you know you are going somewhere that will provide some things you might be tempted to pack, save the room in your suitcase, unless you are really attached to the item, like a specific hair spray or curling iron. 4) What is easier to just buy when you get there? - When traveling abroad, I have learned that with minimal room in a suitcase and strict weight requirements, a lot of the time it is just easier to buy toiletries when you get there. Shampoo/conditioner/body wash are easily accessible in most European countries or tropical destinations. You may even want to try something new, like a special argan oil soap you can buy in a market in Morocco. There are some items that are a lot harder to find in different countries, like sunscreen with an spf above 4 (which is essential for someone with fair skin like me). If I know an item I really need will be difficult to find in that country, I pack it. When I feel ready to sit down and pack, I create a list of every item I could need on the trip, making sure to write amounts, like how many pairs of underwear I will need. That way I am not tempted to throw a bunch of unnecessary items in my suitcase. As I place the item in my suitcase, I check it off my list, not before, not after. That way as I am seeing the item actually go in the suitcase and I don't just think I put it in. When I am finished if my suitcase seems really heavy and I am afraid of going overweight, I revise my list and take items out accordingly. So here are my tips for packing only what you need and making sure the items actually make it in your suitcase. As I am packing for my upcoming trip to Italy I will keep everyone posted about my checklist and essential items for my trip.

What do I actually do?

So I have been in grad school for 6 years now, and I still get asked a lot about what I actually study and what I plan to do with a PhD in Italian. I thought today I would better try to explain my research and what I do as both a student and teacher. 1. No, I do not plan on being a translator/interpreter. I actually get asked this a lot. The thing is, interpreting is REALLY hard! You have to get special certification, as well as degrees to become an interpreter. It takes a lot of time and you have to feel super comfortable with the language to translate so quickly. I also have no interest in this field. I have done some document translation, which isn't as difficult as interpreting, and still pays pretty nicely, but again, not really my thing. 2. I do plan on continuing to teach college level Italian. I went into grad school in Italian because it seemed like the easiest and most cost effective way to get back to Italy, but through my coursework and having to be a Teaching Assistant for my stipend, I found that I really do enjoy teaching. I actually enjoy teaching a lot more than researching. This fall I will be teaching a lot of beginning Italian, which is fun because students are usually really excited to learn at that level. Unlike Spanish or French, which a lot of students feel forced to continue in college because they took it in high school and just want to get credits out of the way, most students who take Italian have made a conscious choice to learn the language because they either want to travel in Italy, have Italian heritage, or love Italian food/fashion/art. Students having a real interest in the subject makes my job a lot easier. Do I want to teach only Italian language, no. I am hoping as I move along in my career I will be able to teach more electives, such as film and literature courses, and I hope to maybe one day write a textbook. 3. Technically my degree is in Romance Languages and Literatures, not Italian. The majority of my coursework while in grad school has been literature based, something I also didn't really know before entering grad school. I have always enjoyed reading, but there is a lot of Italian literature I actually do not enjoy, such as Petrarch, anything from the Renaissance, and most poetry. I do not research pedagogy or teaching methods. Although I love teaching, I have to do research in literature/film to finish my PhD, as well as stay current in my field. I also plan on using the research for my dissertation to design a course in the future. 4. My dissertation is all about one man, is pretty depressing, and not what I ever thought I would write a book about. My MA thesis was about this super famous movie from 2008 called Gomorra (it's on Netflix instant play if you feel the need to watch it)that depicts the Neapolitan mafia, La Camorra. I felt drawn to write about this movie because 1) I have had an interest in Italian politics (and corruption) since I studied abroad in Perugia and took a course on the modern political history of Italy with the amazing Peter Fisher. 2) The movie had won a bunch of awards and was the Italian submission for the Oscar that year. 3) No one else had really written about it at that point. I had not planned on working with film in grad school, and now I am kind of a film specialist. I originally wanted to write about Italian prime ministers and corruption for my Dissertation, but now I am writing about one Italian Prime Minister in particular, Aldo Moro, who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists in the 1970s. So my dissertation, in a nutshell, is about every movie ever made about this man and how his image has changed in the 35 years since he was killed. Not light reading material, but Aldo and I have become good friends. So as a PhD student in Romance Languages and Literatures, I teach a lot of college students beginning/intermediate level Italian language, I work on writing a dissertation about an assassinated Prime Minister, and I hope to one day combine these two things and teach a course on Italian politics or Italian film to college students. My life and job in a nutshell.

I'm back!!!

It has been three years since I last posted in this blog. Since May of 2011 I have gotten engaged, married, adopted a puppy, and defended my prospectus for my dissertation. There have been a lot of changes in my life, but the biggest one of all is that after 6 years (on and off)of living in Chapel Hill, NC working on my PhD, Andy and I are moving back to Charleston, SC where I will begin teaching at my alma mater, College of Charleston. We are in the process of closing on our first home and trying to organize our last move hopefully for a while. I thought it was an opportune time to bring back my blog so people can keep up with what is going on in our lives, and I can tell people about my upcoming travels. In less than a month I am headed back to Italy for the first time since I left Florence in May 2011, and I am ecstatic. I received a grant from the American Association of Teachers of Italian to study at Babilonia Language School in Taormina, Sicly for two weeks, and I am also going to spend some time in Milan, Florence, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast. Most of these places I have never been, so I should have lots of stories, and hopefully some travel trips to share about these regions of Italy. So stay tuned as I post about my trip preparations, my search for a carry-on suitcase that meets the requirements for both RyanAir and EasyJet, trying to pack for three weeks in the previously mentioned carry-on, and Andy and I moving all of our belongings and decorating our new place. A presto, Kate

Let's Hope I'm Never Hurt In Portugal

School ended over a week ago now. I spent the first five days after exams finishing calculating grades and going to places in Florence I still hadn't been, like the Boboli gardens and an exhibit of Picasso, Dalí and Miro. I knew I didn't want to spend the rest of my time in Italy just sitting in Florence alone, especially now that the Jersey Shore has invaded, so I met up with my friend Allie in Spain and we spent 5 days in Portugal. Everyone keeps asking me if I went to Lisboa or Faro, but no, we went to the thriving metropolis of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, the first town across the border from Spain. Though small with not much to do, the town is cute and has some awesome beaches. Allie and I spent most of our time lounging around, reading, watching horrible television like MTV's "Moving In" and getting tan on the beach. There were some highlights to the trip though. One I would consider to be when Allie and I walked from our town to the next town over, Monte Gordo and went to an ice cream buffet, where they weigh your ice cream and charge you by the weight in grams. Somehow my ice cream, which I found similar in size to Allie's, cost 7.82 euro (about 12 US dollars) and I somehow managed to pick the worst flavor of ice cream ever, zuppa (do not even try it). I was satisfied afterwards though when we went to a cafe where beer was only a euro. That same day José and Megan arrived from Spain and we all went out to an Indian restaurant for dinner. The food was good, but we had the weirdest waiter with a terrible sense of humor. After dinner we went for drinks at a bar close to the beach, where we witnessed the most terrifying car accident I have ever seen. A drunk driver without his lights on hit a horse and carriage, the driver of the carriage flew in the air and landed on the sidewalk, the horse ran away, the car hit two more pedestrians, then hit a tree. Then the driver tried to run away, but was caught. What was even more horrible, beside the accident, was the fact that the ambulances and police took more than ten minutes to show up, then did not leave until an hour later. We were stuck at the bar watching this spectacle that had literally happened right in front of us, extremely grateful that we had not been hurt, especially in Portugal. We were amazed at how slow everything was, and wondering why it wasn't like in the US when an ambulance shows up quickly and immediately takes the victim to the hospital. I hope everyone involved is alright and still living.
The day after witnessing the terrible accident, we spent the day recuperating at the beach and eating delicious seafood. Then José drove us all back to Spain, and me straight to the airport. It was a lovely trip, very relaxing, and a great way to spend my last few days in Europe. I just hope that if I ever go back to Portugal that I am not involved in any accident.

Sicily: Beautiful Beaches and Dark Alley Parties

For a while now I have had a desire to go to Sicily. I have read so much about the island for school and seen so many amazing movies that take place there that it was definitely on my list of places in Italy to see this time around in Italy. I have been waiting for beautiful weather so that I could go to Sicily and its beaches. This past week my friend Megan flew to Italy to go with me to Palermo, Sicily's capital. We left Florence Thursday night and arrived in the center of Palermo after 10 at night, so we had no idea what the city really looked like. We arrived at our hostel directly behind the beautiful Teatro Massimo and were greeted with free wine and an invite to go out to where the young people of Palermo hang out. We said why not, left our bags in our room and headed out for quite the adventure. Now, at this point I had no idea where we were in Palermo, and even after spending three days there, I still can't tell you where in Palermo I was Thursday night. All I know is somehow we ended up in a dark alley packed with real Italians, with a little shop that sold bottles of beer the size of a bottle of wine for 2 euro. Megan and I had a lot of fun meeting Italians, as well as frenchies, spaniards, and australians. One of our more interesting encounters was with a man I will refer to as "Gene Baby". Back at UNC there is a guy in our department who goes by this name, and the guy we met in Palermo could be his twin in looks and voice (somewhat creepy actually). Well Gene Baby had actually lived in Raleigh for a while, but has been traveling the world since 2009. He chatted with us for a long time and treated us to some free drinks. He and I also tried what I think is Sicilian moonshine that was just labeled "Sangue: vino liquoroso". This moonshine was god awful, but the Italians were drinking it like it was going out of style. This party in an alley reminded me a lot of my time in Perugia and hanging out on the steps of the duomo and meeting all sorts of new and interesting people. We went home in the wee hours of the morning, perfectly satisfied with what Palermo's night life had to offer.
The next day Megan and I tackled the majority of Palermo's notable sites. We started our day at the Palazzo normani, after getting a bit lost, since nothing is labeled in Palermo. The Palazzo is absolutely amazing, and if you ever get the chance to go to Palermo it is not to be missed. Sicily has had lots of different groups ruling it during its history, but way back in the day the Normans from France came and kicked the Arabs out. At the palazzo there is a chapel built commissioned during this time with beautiful mosaics everywhere of saints and the major biblical stories. You can also see the major apartments of the palace where the Sicilian parliament used to meet. After admiring the palace, we went to San Giovanni degli eremiti, an old monastery that you can walk through with some nice gardens. After this we ate lunch, where we tried our first real Sicilian "cannoli". Let me tell you, they are way better in Sicily. These were amazing, and the waiter told us it is because they were handmade with fresh ricotta and just a small amount of sugar. After the culinary experience, we went to about 5 more churches, all quite impressive in their own right, and we saw the angolo dei quattro canti, as well as the fontana pretoria, one of the strangest fountains I have ever seen. After a day filled with site-seeing, Megan and I went out and had delicious pizza followed by drinks in an Italian kareoke bar (hilarious).
The following day we spent relaxing at one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to, Mondello, about 30 minutes from Palermo. Imagine caribbean blue water surrounded by mountains, as well as delicious gelato, and you've got my idea of paradise. Megan and I stayed at the beach for hours, with the spotty sunburns (one line on my stomach and the back of my knees and Megan's ankles), relaxing and people watching. Of course there was a plethora of Italian men in speedos, but also an obscene amount of couples making out all over the beach. Even though it was sometimes uncomfortable, such as the baby-oiled couple by us that were practically making babies, the day at the beach was perfection. Too bad afterwards we had to wait for a bus for an hour, then ride on one of the most crowded busses ever back to Palermo because of the soccer game. The beach day was the perfect end to our vacation in Sicily.
Now I'm back in Florence after hours of busses, planes, and trains, trying to prepare for the last two weeks I have in Italy. Totally looking forward to my last trip, a beach vacation in Portugal with Allie!

Lucia Was Right!

Last year, when I had my interview to determine if I was going to Italy or not, right after the committee had finished, and I was walking out of the room, a professor in the Spanish dept., who just happens to be Italian, Lucia Binotti, asked me out of the blue how tall I was. I thought this was a strange question to ask, since it had absolutely nothing to do with the interview. I told her I was 5 ft. 10 and she said "well, while you're in Italy, you better not go to Sardegna, you will totally stick out". I asked why, and Prof. Luisetti, one of my Italian professors said "that is very true, they are very short there, you will be taller than everyone". Then my interview was finished and I kind of forgot about the whole thing.
This past weekend I actually went to Alghero, a beautiful city in Sardegna. I had found some ridiculously cheap flight on Ryanair and was going all alone to have a beach weekend. Well of course the day I arrived it was pouring down rain and quite cold. I managed to meet the friendliest girl from South Africa named Polly at the airport who decided to be my guide of Alghero. She had been living there for a few months, but during the winter while there is nothing to do. Since it was raining, Polly took me on a tour of Alghero's many "chinos" (what Spanish people call stores run by Asians). She also took me to a delicious pizza al taglio shop and through the historic center. We decided to meet up and cook dinner together at her place that night, then she was going to show me Alghero's nightlife. I had not been expecting to go out at all, because I was staying in an apartment all alone, a weekend of relaxation, but I was super excited to not be alone the whole time. We ate a yummy dinner of chicken, rucola and pasta, then went out to the sea to see what was going on. The first bar we went to was super crowded, but right away I thought of Lucia's warning. In my very flat pink sparkle TOMS, I was at least 3-4 inches taller than everyone in the place. The men (and women) were all midgets. Polly and I managed to find the only people in the bar that were not dark-haired, tan midgets, 2 girls from Germany named Nina and Gina. They had been in Alghero for almost a week, and like me had decided to come just because they found a cheap flight. The German girls accompanied us to an Irish pub afterwards, where of course some creepy Italians kept trying to talk to us. I surprised the Italians though with my actual ability to speak the language, and had a group of middle-aged men all trying to tell me to move to Alghero. Afterwards, we moved on to what Polly called a "club" that was on the sea. We went inside and noone was dancing, so we formed our own dance party to the awful techno music, and soon after were joined by a man who was at least 60, and a crowd of midgets all watching us. Eventually some got up the nerve to actually talk to us, and Polly and I did some translation work. I was the only one who would actually be friendly though, and ended up playing messenger between Italian men and my new friends. Great practice for my Italian, and I even had someone (who must have been drunk, seeing as I am very tall) ask me if I was from Sardegna. I had such a fun time, and made plans the next day to meet up with the girls for breakfast.
The next day I woke up to a beautiful sunshiney day, ready to really explore Alghero. I took a walk all around the port and the bastione, admiring the beautiful crystal clear water. As I sat on a wall enjoying the sea breeze, I had a creeper come up to me and ask me if I was Italian. I told him I was American, and he said that he wanted to tell me that I was very "robust". I'm not sure if it was meant to be a compliment or not, but I thanked him anyway, and then he proceeded to tell me the whole history of Alghero, then try to follow me on my walk. I managed to ditch him, then met up with my new friends. We ate at a cafe on the sea, then went to the beach to enjoy the sun. The day would have been perfect if it had not been aso windy close to the water, but I was happy that I actually got to soak in some sunshine. That evening we cooked another delicious dinner, including Sardinian bread and some fesh ravioli with ricotta, spinach, and saffron. AMAZING! We went out looking to see if anything was going on, but all ended up going home after finding almost everything closed. I really enjoyed hanging out with the girls though, and had a much better time in Sardegna than I was expecting.
The only real hiccup in my trip was the fact that I had to catch a bus at 6 AM to make my flight to the airport, which I slept through. I had to rush and call a taxi, made it to the airport a little after 7, had no money to pay the taxi, so I had to quick find a bancomat in the airport while he waited. I was then told I may be sent back to the US because I didn't have a visa, told them my whole story of being robbed, made it through security being searched 3 times, then finally boarded my plane. Beisdes being afraid that I was going to be stuck in Sardegna if I missed my flight, overall the weekend was fantastic and I hope I get to go to Alghero again in a future trip to Italy.

MTV ITALIA TRL Awards: A Night of Utter Confusion

I was very excited because Florence was chosen to host this year's TRL Big in Italy Awards. The concert was absolutely free, in the middle of Piazza Santa Croce, right by my apartment, so I was so going. I mean, how could I miss seeing such Italian greats as Marracash and Modà, as well as some apparently popular English speaking artists, such as Mads Langer and Alexis Jordan? I went after class yesterday to scope out the scene, which was already somewhat crowded at 5:45, and decided to go home, eat, and drop off my junk before I situated myself in a perfect viewing place for the show. I ended up meeting up with my student and fellow CofC Phi Mu, Kristen and her friends and we braved the crowds to secure our spot. At first the crowd wasn't as horrible as I thought it was going to be, but my new friend Lauren decided that she wanted to get closer to the stage, so we turned into Italians and pushed our way closer (see my post on "la fila"). All the teenage Italians around us decided they were going to push their way forward too, and we joined this clump of confusion, where we were pushed in every direction and had to "backbutt" (if such a term exists) to stop people from holding onto our backs trying to push themselves closer. Besides almost falling backwards multiple times, having my feet stepped on, and being afraid this girl was going to put her cigarette out on me, I guess the concert was cool. It was actually really hard to hear what was going on, especially because all the teenage boys around us where shouting "dai cazzo" imitating the hosts (the people from the stupidest show ever, I soliti idioti) and telling Marco Carta to go..., well you understand. I was very excited to get to see some of my favorite Italian acts, Marracash, Zero Assoluto, Nathalie, etc. I even got to see Montolivo, one of the players from Fiorentina, present an award. Did we stay for the whole show? No, instead, after 2 hours of being pushed by the mobs and fearing for our lives, we made a chain of linked hands and shuffled our way to the Scottish Pub to decompress. MTV, for future reference, you may want to control the crowds a bit, but I mean, what am I saying, these are Italians we are talking about, and they really don't know how to organize, so I just know for next time I'd probably have a better view, and a better time, watching from the comfort of my home.