Spencer Powers

I was "erupting" with excitement for today's adventures

26 May 2018

Today we packed everything up and loaded it all in Vernon the Van (who we have grown close with) and shipped out of Bernalda for the final time...It was a sad day as it started to set in that this trip is coming to a close and in a split second we will back in the States and back to reality. Like the last time, the trip flew by so I did my best to be sure to enjoy every moment, every memories, and every adventure we had on the way. Experiences like these teach you to cherish every day and live everyday like it’s your last because you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. In the wise words of Tim McGraw: “Live like you are dying”, meaning live life like it’s the most precious thing in the world so make every day count.

Despite the sorrow (and a single tear or two), we had the opportunity to stop in Pompeii on our journey to Roma. Pompeii is a interesting historic city that is know for being decimated by a volcano eruption from Mount Vesuvius. We saw the archeological sites of the aftermath of the city due to the eruption. Some of the buildings were still standing and the frescos were still very much in tacked, which amazed me. Fabio explained the eruption of the volcano was like two nuclear bombs as it wiped out men, women and children and everyone where they stood. The lava was hot that people and buildings just melted in addition to the hot ash that burned people and provided poison to breath in resulting in people dying within 3 minutes. Women died holding their children, people laying on the ground holding pillows, destroyed houses and buildings, the destruction must have been unimaginable. The site was huge and we didn't even see it all we stopped to get lunch and water because it was a super hot and sunny day. After we finished patrolling through the sites, we left and found a couple souvenir shops, which later triggered Tina’s awkward social encounters. I bought some small souvenirs that were made out of the volcanic rock from the volcano. I mean who wouldn’t want to own a part of a volcano right (or maybe I am just a dork)? Anna explained that the volcano is still active so it would be interesting to see if it erupts again in the near future and how much damage it would leave in its path.

After finally returning to the car to some warm air conditioning as we set our sights for the one and only Roma. In total the drive from Bernalda to Roma is about five hours so we split it up going about two hours to Pompeii to stretch our legs and see a pretty cool city. We finished our remaining three hours and got to Roma in the early evening as Fabio dropped us off prematurely so he could return the van. We each took taxis in pairs to our designated living space for the weekend. It was Lilly, Hannah, Vanessa, and I in one apartment and Marimar, Kayli, Tina, Anna and Fabio in the other hotel almost directly next to the Spanish steps. We all had our own rooms (even though I wasn’t supposed to) in case we hated each other by the end of the trip (only slightly). We then preceded to eat at dinner at McDonald’s because it’s a completely different experience in another country!

I'll "Lecce" know what happened

21 May 2018

We left Castro around 10 Monday morning after eating a good breakfast provided by the hotel. We made a group consensus to visit the beach town of Gallipoli on our way to Lecce. Fabio really likes Gallipoli and wanted us to see a typical beach city in Italy so we decided to check it out. Gallipoli is a peninsula that runs in a south west direction towards the Aegean Sea. The word Gallipoli is the Italian word of the Greek name Kallipolis, which means "Beautiful City". Gallipoli was known as the Thracian Chersonesus from the Greek word "peninsula" to the Greeks and Romans. It was the location of several prominent towns such as Cardia, Elaeus, Sestos and Madytos. Gallipoli was famous for its wheat and its strategic location on the main shipping route between Europe and Asia (The Thinking Traveler, Wikipedia). I found Gallipoli a "beautiful city" like it says with the awe-inspiring beaches and clear blue water. We only spent a couple hours walking through the city buying souvenirs and eating dinner.

After we finished buying souvenirs for ourselves and loved ones we embarked on our journey to Lecce. Lecce is a historic city of almost 96,000 people located in southern Italy in the province of Lecce. It is commonly referred as "The Florence of the South" due to its rich Baroque architecture. Lecce has a long traditional history of Greek culture going back to when Messapi founded the city and are said to have been Cretans in Greek records. "Lecce stone" is a particular kind of limestone that is one of the city's main exports.

When we finally arrived in Lecce, I felt an immense feeling of Deja Vu. It felt like I was in Florence again but a smaller version. Anna commonly brought up what if we referred to Florence as "The Lecce of the North". This made me think as if I experienced Lecce first would I switch the saying. I think more people see Florence as a vacation destination due to its extensive tourism and history. However, I think Lecce has the capacity to have just as much tourism if not more then Florence.

Lets get to the "Point"

19 May 2018

Today we we did double duty today: part time teachers in the morning and part time adventurers in the afternoon. This morning in the internship was full of meeting new students who we haven't had the pleasure to meet yet. In the three classes the students asked us questions regarding, University, life in the US, how we feel about Bernalda, etc. In an attempt to get to know the students better we also asked them questions. One group in particular was very interested in our culture as they asked a lot of questions and at the end wanted to take group pictures and a selfie or too.

After we got out of school around 11:15, we went back to the apartment to finish packing and shipped out to Alberobello. It was a small tourist town in Puglia so we walked through the city (and up some hills of course) seeing the unique architecture of houses and buildings. We saw a little church where Anna explained how Jesus is usually at the center of the art and the Madonna (Virgin Mary) in the blue. We were going to explore more of the city but Fabio said most of the city is like what we saw so we decided to just go to the tourist shops and get some souvenirs (and of course some gelato). Anybody who knows me can say that one of my favorite things to do is to explore and usually get lost (I prefer adventurously displaced). I would have been okay with exploring the rest of the city. But I was okay getting some souvenirs then shipping out to the hotel in Castro. I really liked Alberobello even though we only stayed for a few hours because of the unique style of the houses and the buildings. The souvenir shops and the houses both had pointed roofs with symbols having different meanings. The symbols included Christian such as a heart with an arrow through it, a cross, to demonstrate different Christian beliefs and values. Fabio explained to us that about the significance of the roofs and why they built that way. The roofs on the houses were built like they were as a way to maximize their resources. The roofs are constructed with two skins, an inner and an outer skin. The inner skin is of limestone voussoirs capped by a closing stone while the outer skin is made up of limestone that tilt slightly outward to make certain the structure is watertight. The roofs were built in a way so they can be removed without damaging the rest of the structure of the house. This was used to avoid paying taxes on their roofs, as the tax collector came the roof was removed then after the collector left the roof was put back up.

After having some gelato and finished shopping we packed into the van and embarked on our journey to Castro to stay at our nice hotel Piccolo Mundo on the water. It was a nice little hotel with amazing views of the Adriatic Sea and on a nice clear day their is a small possibility one could make out Albania or Greece.

"Orange" you happy for some Italian adventures?

10 May 2018-11 May 2018

10 May

These two days were full of adventures, laughs, and some stupid jokes. We began Thursday the 10th, in the school working with the students in many different forms. This was our first real day in the school where we primarily introduced ourself to the students and began immersing ourselves in the culture. They asked us questions about who we were and about how life was in the United States while practicing their english. Many of them seemed shy when they were introducing themselves as if they were not confident in their english. I did my best to help those who were struggling while giving them confidence as it is okay to mess up. They seemed very interested in our culture but were not so sure how to ask questions they might have had.

11 May

Today began similar to Thursday as we were in the school early interacting with the students and helping teach them about Virginia Woolf, World War I, and World War II. It was very rewarding as I was able to help pass on some of my knowledge and they seemed appreciative of that. The second class period we were originally placed in a Latin class but the teacher didn't speak english and didn't seem too pleased with us being there so we were taken to a different class where the kids asked us questions regarding school and what life is like in the states.

After school, we went to the beach where we saw the Ionian Sea and saw what beach life was like in Southern Italy. Walking down to the beach I noticed that they had umbrellas on the beach and Anna explained to us that during the summer season the locals come down to the beach and they have their umbrella that they use for the summer, which I found pretty interesting. We didn't go swimming in the water because we saw a couple of dead jellyfish washed up on the shore and several in the shallow water. We touched one of the dead jellyfish to feel its texture but of course we did not touch the stingers because I really did not want to explain to mom and dad how I got stung by a dead jellyfish!

After we finishing taking some model type photos at the beach, we went to Fabio's family farm where we met one of his brother's, his wife, and two sons. They have a beautiful house in the country where they grow artichokes and olives. They also have many animals including several dogs, a couple cats, chickens, bunnies, sheep, turtles, and geese. After eating a delicious aperitivo we got to experience what a sample evening in an Italian family may look like. After we finished eating and talked a while we had some fresh gelato and strawberries, which was absolutely delicious. As a group we decided to help clean up as we just got cooked a delicious apertivo so it was the least we could do. In my household growing up, usually those who didn't cook were in charge of cleaning up after dinner. After we helped clean up we got a tour of the Greek ruins in Metaponto, a small municipality of Bernalda in the province of Matera where only about 1,000 people live. A couple of the students from the school helped give us a tour of the Greek ruins and showed us the the ruins of Hera's temple. It started to rain so we hid under the very small cover that was provided by the temple. And of course while we waited out the rain, Anna being Anna took a lot of pictures of us posing under the ruins. After the rain subsided, Fabio took us to the Mueso Di Metaponto where we saw many of the greek artifacts. Fabio explained to me how this portion of Italy used to be a greek colony when it was founded by the Greeks at the end of the 6th Century BC. As a young history buff, I found it super cool that it used to be an Ancient Greek colony and now is an Italian village set up to show off their Greek roots.

I was blown away by the scenery and how amazing of host's Fabio's family was. The food was amazing and we toured the farm and learned how to make calzones for dinner to end an intense day of adventures.