Traveling to Cortona Italy

Ostello San Marco
Via Maffei, 57 52044 Cortona (Arezzo)
ph. 0039 0575 62843
Helena 39 0575 614014
Sergio 39 335 315987 and 39 0575 601392

List for Italy: Staying 3 months in Tuscany

*Optional

Stuff
-*cell phone and plan
-*laptop 12" notebook and ipod mini w/ case and warranty
-digital camera, rechargeable batteries, battery recharger w/ plug converter
-day pack, money belt, credit cards, student card, guide book
-luggage (rolling- hard plastic) or travel pack

Clothing-comfy hardy walking shoes (semi dress) and running shoes (you will be doing A LOT of walking on cobble stone HILLS)
-socks (3 pair cotton and 2 pair wool) and hostel socks
-long underwear, underwear - 50/50% cotton/polyester
-LAYERS, LAYERS, LAYERS, fleece, vest, winter coat
-mitts/toque
-rain jacket, small umbrella
-jeans, utility shorts (biking), pants (dark)
-quick dry shirts, t-shirts, towel and hat
-flip flops
-bathing suite
-hostel sack
-*sleeping bag, sleeping mat, travel blanket

**Bring outfits that can be worn together in layers. Ideally you should be able to wear all of the clothes that you have brought at the same time for the coldest weather and have nothing left in your pack. So everything needs to go together. If you find that once you are wearing everything that you can and you have clothes left over, you probably don't need them. **Make a practice of washing laundry every second night so you always have clean and dry clothing when you need it.

Personal Care
-feminine products
-*daily disposable contacts and glasses
-deodorant/body wash/shampoo
-sanitizer, tissues
-first aid, Tylenol, cold/flue/allergy medication
-vaccine shots, *antibiotics in case of pneumonia
**If you don't have enough room don't worry, many of these items are easily obtainable in Italy.

Other-school supplies (pens pencils, paper)
-pictures of family (to bring a little bit of home with you)
-water bottle or cammelpack, zip lock containers and bags, locks
-snacks, tea
-*Frisbee, playing cards
-travel journal
**(Do it. You will regret it if you don't. Just take 5 min before you go to sleep to record what you experienced that day, believe me, you will cherish your travel journal the rest of your life)
-bible/study group devotional
-*unicycle

Groceries
-despar (cortona) mediocre value
-co-op (camuchia) better value
-dollarama (camuchia) best value


Sites of Interest

Cortona
-churches (19) (free)
-italian bath (worth the price)
-museum (free to students)
-art galery (free to students)

Perugia
-candy shopps, chocolate, and licorice

Rome
-Panthian
-Trajans Column
-Princes Palace
-Colluseum
-Parthenon
-Arch of Titus
-Trebunes Fountain
-Vatican
-*Artichoke Pizza

Florence
-The Academy
-Musium of Science
-Il Domo et de Petro

Problem of youth in gangs in the prairies

A Rebutle of ignorant responses posted on a winipeg newspaper.

The problem of gang activity is a complex issue. Anyone who thinks it is a simple problem and will be solved simply is, most likely, not thinking very hard about the issue, or is more preocupied with his/her own chosen ideology, not on finding solutions that work.

In order to find solutions that work we must open our eyes to what is happening in our own neighourhood to examine what initiatives are working here and now, and what initiatives have worked other places; and we must start the hard work of doing something. We need to figure out were the issue starts, what is perpetuating it, what obstacles there may be to addressing it. What we really need are people commited to taking the issue seriously!

A common respons to the frustration of dealing with gang activity is to argument that money being spent on social programs is not what is needed but rather harsh penalties to deter people from engaging in criminal behaviour. If we followed this logic we would be cutting the few programs that work to set positive examples for youth, we would spend more public money on security, policing, prosecuting criminals, and incarcerating people in jails.

Consequently, if we accept this argument, who will help young people trying to exit gangs and live normal lives? Who will be an example for young people to follow? Who will protect children who are born, to no fault of their own, into poverty and violence? Children are made vulnerable by the poverty and social problems they are born into. Gang's profit by exploiting the needs of our youth to be part of a community, to find purpose in life, and are co-opted to enter into a life of crime.

We need to find out how to make healthy people who are able to contribute to society in a meaningful way and are accepted and expected to succeed, not just deal with the ill. Who will provide the community for the at risk youth, that they so desperately need. Probably all of us reading this will have been so fortunate as to have had this support all our lives? Clearly less help and more deterant is not the solution. It has been shown repeatedly in case studies throughout the US that harsher penalties alone for gang activity do not lower crime rates if anything crime increases, since mild offenders end up going to jail with major offenders and learning to be an even greater menace to society than before. Having fewer programs with less resources will undoubtedly amplify the alienation of troubled youth.

With that said, conventional wisdom tells us that continuously treating the symptoms without addressing the root cause is recepie for frustration and failure. We need good enitiatives that takle the root causes of gang culture, violence, and poverty and most importantly we need to support these initiatives, with our money and our time and our resolve, if we are at all serious about succeeding.

The idea that youth find ganges in order to fullfull their need for family or community is common knowledge and only confirms that the one key in addressing the issue comes at the level of the family. We need to focus on supporting families to be better parents, to be commited to being an example for parents and to help parents who are struggling. If the problem is asian gangs we need to be talking to the assian community, if its native gangs we need to be talking to the native community, if its white biker gangs we need to work with the disenfranchised people of mainstreem white society to address the issues of violence, poverty and gang culture that are allowing gang activity to persist.

Either way, it is not a particular group of people who are criminals just because one group of people are over represented in gangs. It becomes clear once we take an honest look at the issue of criminal gangs world wide. When a people group is as over represented as aboriginal Canadians in our prison systems it is a warning sign that as a society we are not preventing native people in general from being an equal part of our society. This does not negate personal responsibility it simply means that we must do our side and meet those who are marginalized somewhere in the middle.

Now, we must examine our own lives and think about when the last time we made the effort to be the difference that we desire. What policy did you support that will give poor people hope, or aid in raising their children, or the option to access help when they are desperate for help and in danger. Most importantly, we must ask ourselves when we will go shoulder to shoulder with mothers who are looking for help, or children who are looking for direction, or families who are looking for encouragement and opportunity.

We can all look around at the people we see every day. We can start by asking what it is that I can do, that YOU can do that will make healthy children. We can fight gangs and WE CAN SUCCEED! It won't be easy, it won't be fast, it won't be cheep, it won't be perfect, but we can make a real difference if we can get serious and get comitted to doing some real mental work. We can stop the blaming and start the healing if we choose to do so. In fact we owe it to our children so they won't have to live with the consequences of our complacency.

Top 10 Books I've read recently!

Books I've read or am reading

Currently Reading

. Disaster Capitalism - Niomi Klein

. From Naked Ape to Super Species - David Suzuki

Finished Reading
. The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli

. Right side up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper’s New Conservatism - Paul Wells

. Heat - George Mombiot

. Stupid to the last drop: How Alberta is bringing environmental Armageddon to Canada and nobody seems to care. - William Marsden

. Economy of Nature - Jane Jacobs

. Screwtape letters - C.S. Lewis

. Silent Spring - Rachel Carsen

. Race for time - Steven Lewis

. Mere Christianity - C.L. Lewis

. Life of Pie - Yann Martell