The Adventures of a Girl Named Maya: Orientation Trip! (finally!)

Omg, I am so sorry for not posting sooner, things got really busy here...its like the honeymoon ended and now I have real work...(no!!!) so these few weeks have been very rockety, but I promise to post earlier...its been almost 3 weeks?

Yeah, I will be better, I promise :) anyway, what you been waiting for.
This will be more of a picture blog than actual writing, but hopefully you enjoy it!
Extra Pics below!!!!

photo by Lindsay Hong

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9/25

This past week, I went on an orientation trip to Terracina with the school and got to explore the towns of Sperlonga, Gaeta and Terracina.

It is so amazing how different each town is comapred to others in Italy. The different inflences of culture, language, and people influence their style and architecture.

In Gaeta, it was a small coastal town that had a big navy pier and naval sea school. The town sat on a side of a mountain, shining in on the naval forces below.

look how blue the sea is!

In what I learned from this town, is that they have 2 different dialects in the town (one derived from the mountains, another from the sea ports). But the twist is that their dialects are so different that even words mean totally different meanings in the language. Che strano, no?

We also got to go see the La montagna spaccata, (aka Jesus Cave), which is suppose to have a myth that when J.C. died, the mountain split in two because of saddness (or something like that)---

JESUS CAVE!
photo by Olivia Gillingham

It was goregous, and I was able to do some mini rock climbing as I moved around and jumped from rock to rock, but when I had to go back up the stiars (we were 10 floors from the top), I think I lost about 10 pounds...it was UNBEARABLE.

this is where the biggest loser should do their next challenge

I also got to see the Turkish hand...which is about a story of a Turkish man who didn't believe in the story that it was because of J.C's death (or something along the lines of that) and he stuck his hand in disbelief, and it has been there ever since...

look at those man hands...

After spending half the day there, we headed to Terracina. We got to live basically on the beach and in bungalow huts! I shared a room with Lindsay, Jamie, Kendall and Helen. Everyone went swimming because the weather was great. I saw the bobbing heads of people swimming as I watched from the beach.

The Next day the class headed to Sperlong in rain-weather (pissed as hell), but the beauty of Sperlonga did not hold us back. It was absolutely goregous. Sperlonga is another coastal town but with a Greek facade. Especially if you walk through the top of the town. The city sat on top of a hill, and it spiraled toward the centre near the beach. It was a heck of a walk, but the white buildings and crystal color blues made me feel like I was in a Greek calender: I would totally live here in the future.

so cute

After the lunch break, we headed up the beach on a "beach hike" to the Archeology musem. The rain picked up and my umbrella broke, while my hair became frazzled...my mood flattened.

We finally got to the mseum and talked about the cave of Prometheous (Grotto di Tiberio) and got to explore it.

pimp my cave

Its actually really funny how all these myths are made up to explain events in the world, and natural happenings...it seem the Greeks and Romans had a story for everything!

After rain-escavating (sp?), some of the group headed into Terracina and explored the actual town. The place looked almost American...especially when I saw this guy with an ironic hood and a thin mustache...just like a hipster!

That night in Terracina was also filled with fun, as we bumped up the volumes on our speakers, bothered Mr. Chen and hysterically at Amelia's "BITCHES!!" outbust during a game of BS. That night ended with a late bed time, voices in the night and a footprint stain on my sheets and wall....

Finally on Saturday, we headed to our last adventure at a temple on top of the mountains overlooking the town of Terracina. The bus driver made his way ( barely but fiercely) to the top as we "open our minds to the Gods"

the oracles had such a fabulous view!

Everyone was in awe over the goregeous view and more in awe because it finally stopped raining.

All in all, the orientation trip was a success and everyone became closer as we embarked on our first trip (of many more) discovering the land we call home.

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Extra Pictures!!!

Olivia posing with our ginormous Nutella

Group Pic!!! Thalia is totally ruining this BTW (jk thalia)

This photographer asked us to be in this couple's wedding pictures "Awwing" at them and looking engaged...
haha isn't that awesome?

Terracina on the beachside

My signature...if you wanted to know...

there were these little kids coming from school and like half of them were jumping up and down
like it was five monkeys jumping on the bed...like WTF are their seatbealts?