This entry is definitely going to pale in comparison to all of my others. Some of you may prefer it that way, though, after the epic novel I wrote for my last entry.
So much has happened in the past week! If you're really curious about what I've been doing, just imagine how exciting it will be for me to tell you all of my stories when I get back to the United States.
I just don't have the time or energy to spend on regularly updating this. If you know me at all, that really shouldn't come as too much of a shock. I started strong, but I do need to work on my follow through.
All I know right now is that I really don't want for this experience to end. Nothing is ever perfect, but this month truly has been a great one. I have met tons of new and diverse people, gotten at least a little better at Italian, made what I hope will be lasting friendships, and learned a lot about myself in the process.
Everybody knows that I'm a cryer, so I'm certain that more than a few tears will be shed during the two days I have left here with my group. But at least I get to look forward to Mom and Grandpa coming here on Friday; I know that the time we get to spend traveling around Italy will be an unforgettable experience as well.
Thanks to anybody and everybody who takes the time to read this thing. I don't expect too many people to enjoy doing so, but I truly hope that reading about my experiences isn't too boring or miserable.
Don't expect too many more updates unless I decide to be lame and spend the rest of my time here blogging.
Love and miss everybody!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
No Longer Under Construction... The Final Product!
I'm so not finished with this entry, but I am going to post what I have and update it as soon as I can. I promise! I'm just busy here!
So here begins what I’m sure is the most long-anticipated blog post in history of the world. I need to stop making promises I can’t keep about when I am going to be able to update this thing. It’s just that I want to enjoy the time I have in Italy, and sometimes that means not sitting at my computer and attempting to write an accurate and witty account of my time here.
BUT I am going to make time to get this all out now, or I’m afraid I will fall so far behind that I am discouraged from even attempting to catch up. Here goes nothing…
Wednesday. So there was class. Blehhhhhh. We went over the tests from the previous day, and it wasn’t the prettiest thing ever. Oh well. I am challenging myself and still working as hard as I can on all this crazy grammar. I just want to learn the language and be able to speak it. The grammar throws me off a little.
After class I went to buy train tickets with Sara, Lauren, and Jessica. We weren’t willing to pay 80 Euros rounds trip and ride Eurostar, so we ended up getting tickets for 32 Euros round trip. It made our ride there 4 hours as opposed to 1 ½. We thought it was worth saving the money at the time, but we may have changed our minds a little come Friday…
We grabbed food and went back up to CLIDA to use their internet to book a hostel. We chose the cheapest one with the best location that was left (very close to the train station)… It was called Hostel Pink Floyd. Sounds like a party, right?
Lauren, Sara, and I then went back to the Uffizi Gallery (since Lauren hadn’t been there yet, and Sara and I had a few more things to see). Since we had seen most of the important works in there already, Sara and I didn’t stay long. But we did go see “The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli again, just because it’s so famous and pretty.
We attempted to shop for a little while after the museum. But clothes are just so expensive! And then I have to think about the conversion rate from Euros to dollars… I just don’t plan on buying too much stuff over here, I suppose. BUT, what made my day so much better was stopping for gelato. Yum. I got a cherry flavor. My first fruit flavor, and it was delicious. I guess I am addicted to cherries after the cooking lesson from last Tuesday.
We chilled at the apartment for a few hours before dinner. I was starving, somehow, even though I had eaten plenty all day. It is a talent of mine, I suppose. Matt wasn’t at dinner because he had already left for Scotland. That was weird not having somebody to translate for me! Haha. But it meant I tried to talk more, and that was for sure a good thing.
Oh, and Paolo told me that he loves me. J I had heard that the night before when we had cooking lessons, they had Kansas girls over and had fed them gelato. Then we passed two of them walking away from the house when we were walking back toward it, and they said, “Ciao!” Kate and Kayla told use the next morning about gelato, and I was TICKED off… especially when I thought about the ciao thing. I told Paolo all of this, and he almost died laughing at my semi-feigned anger. He said, “Mi piace Stephanie,” and “Amo Stephanie.” I was so happy I almost cried. Great end to the night!
Thursday. All my thoughts are starting to get a little mixed up, but I hope that I’ll be able to keep my days straight as far as what I did. I woke up a little early because I wanted to look cute for the pictures I was going to take with Laura later on in the day. I wore my pink Old Navy dress (me… in a dress… shocking, I know). It was cool and comfortable AND it has pockets. So it was just about perfect. But my white flip flops and the dirty ground in Florence didn’t get along so well.
I went to breakfast, walked to school, and suffered through the first two hours of grammar grammar grammar. Bleh. During the break I went to get coffee with my friend, Ben, and was at least a little more energetic when I got back for the last two hours of class. The conversation part of class was actually pretty good. We got to read and discuss our horoscopes… which is always interesting, even though that stuff is all ridiculous.
After class, I grabbed sandwiches with Lauren and Sara, and we went over to the Medici Chapel. I don’t know as much as I probably should about the Medici family, but I knew enough to appreciate the historical value of all the stuff there. And I was just impressed by the richness of all the materials used there. I can’t even begin to process how much all of those precious stones and metals must be worth!
I went to CLIDA to use their internet for a while and then went with Sarah to H&M. I actually ended up buying a shirt and dress, although it took a few hours for me to even pick those out. Since the store is partly underground, I had no cell phone reception. When I came up to ground level, I saw that Laura had been calling and texting me for a while.
We met up, took some silly and cute and fun pictures in Florence, and then went to get gelato. As you know by now, that is always a good idea. I had some caramel-y flavor because I’m trying to taste them all… not my favorite, but it was still really good.
When we were finished with that, we went to meet my roommates and a few of Laura’s friends and the Accademia. That’s where DAVID is! First, we looked at photography by Robert Maplethorpe which is being featured at the museum currently. I suppose it was all very artistic, but I mostly just noticed that there was a lot of nudity in it. But then came the best nude of all: The David! It was ridiculous seeing it up close; it was one of those things I just never expected to actually see in person. And I saw him from all angles… I’ve only seen the front before. And he has really big hands. I guess that’s as much as I got from that, although somebody told me that he is supposed to represent Florence. As in Florence is the David to Rome’s Goliath. I like it!
Sara, Jessica, and I went home for dinner with the wonderful host family. It was so much fun, as usual. And we sang “Poker Face” with Paolo; that always makes for an interesting night. After dinner, Sara and I met up with other people from our group at the Duomo. We were planning to go sing “Sweet Home Alabama” at a bar that has karaoke. Our night got a little crazy because a guy that likes one of the girls in our group showed up and wanted to talk to her. But it’s a fun experience trying to lose a guy on the streets of Florence. It wasn’t dangerous at all… just hilarious. And we had pepper spray (Diva Defense) just in case anything went awry. Sleep was good after all that craziness.
Friday.
I had to get up early to pack since we had to even leave class early to get to our train on time. Fighting through 3 1/2 hours of class was the hardest thing ever when all I really wanted to think about was going to ROME. But I somehow managed to survive anyway! Maybe because I was getting to leave 30 minutes early, and that just made it feel infinitely better.
At 12:30, I met Sara, Jessica, Lauren, and Kirk in the lobby of CLIDA. We grabbed sandwiches across the street and then made our way to the train station. Kirk had to buy a ticket there since he had just decided to come with us the night before (to fill our extra bed so that we didn’t have to cover the cost ourselves). We got on the train and were happy to find a private 6 person room.
But, when the train started, we realized that something was very wrong. The air conditioning was broken. And the window in our compartment wouldn’t open. And we had gone on the 4 hour train to save money. I mean, REALLY?!? We were all dying of heat… I think it was the hottest day out since we got here, and we were cooped up on this horrible train. I didn’t want to do anything to produce extra body heat, so I didn’t write or do any of the productive things I had originally planned. NOT a good start to the weekend. I was sticky and smelly, and I almost sweated to death in a freaking sun dress! (“No air” became a key phrase for our trip after this!)
It was like Heaven when we got off that effing train, though. As soon as we were somewhat oriented, we headed to a place across the street for gelato. I got mint, even though I had gotten it before. It was incredibly refreshing and just what I needed after those miserable 4 hours.
We got a map, somehow figured out where the hotel we were supposed to check in was, and then proceeded to make the very short walk there and do so. A guy showed us to our room in our hostel… which was in a separate building down the street. Our hostel, Hostel Pink Floyd = 3 bedrooms labeled A, B, and C with pieces of paper on the door. Fabulous! Haha. But the price was right, we had a private room, there was air conditioning, and the room locked. Worked for me.
After cleaning up a little, we decided to take a nice walk around Rome. We were not really sure where we were, so we ended up walking to the Colosseum. It was incredible to see such an ancient thing in the middle of a modern city. Only thinking back do I really see how crazy that was. It was too late to go inside, so we just walked around before deciding to go eat dinner at a nearby ristorante. Our waiter was just crazy and kept saying “OHHHHH yes!” whenever we asked for anything. And we were too cheap to pay for another water bottle, so I had to run across the road and fill it up from a fountain in the middle of dinner. Hahahaha. :)
We went over to see the Trevi Fountain since we had heard it was pretty at night. And it really was! But there were about a million people there. I threw one coin in (not knowing that 2 would mean I would fall in love, or I TOTALLY would have done that!) I don’t know if I was supposed to make a wish, but if I was I wished for gelato and so got it! Again. My first time getting it twice in one day. Strawberry this time. Yummy!
After the fountain, we made a trek back to our hostel. We wanted to be showered and well rested for our big day Saturday!
Saturday.
First of all, let me say that “sketchy” so defined our weekend in Rome. It all started with that broken train, and then the hostel, and then every single thing that happened on Saturday. Haha.
Anway, we got up early to get a good start on our only full day in Rome. We went and had our free breakfast at the hostel. It wasn’t a buffet or anything, but free food is always a good thing.
After breakfast we went to the train station, bought metro passes, and then rode over to Vatican City (where we spent almost our entire day). I can’t even describe the feeling of being there. I’m not even Catholic, and it was still an incredible experience for me. I mean, I was practically hanging with the Pope while I was there. Just kidding, but still. And I drank out of a fountain there. I’m assuming that it was considered holy water since it was in Vatican City. ;)
I went into St. Peter’s Basilica and looked around there for a while. I think I may have even had a religious experience in the prayer room. How could I not. Just seeing all of the Catholics and non-Catholics, even non-Christians, who are drawn to this place. It’s incredible. Can something that so inspires all of these people be a bad thing. Or only when it leads to bad things? Okay, no time for religious discussions now. This blog would be even longer then, and I think I’ve already written a novel.
I touched Jesus’ foot, saw a list of all the popes and their years of death, saw where parts of Angels and Demons takes place (woo, Dan Brown), and was divinely inspired… all before noon, too!
After being in the basilica for about an hour, we headed down to the catacombs. And I saw what I guess was the grave of or monument to Pope John Paul II. He was the pope for 27 years or so… my entire life until he passed away in 2005. I’m not Catholic, but I did like the guy and appreciated the chance to pay my respects.
After going down, we decided it was time to go up. We climbed 551 steps to the top of the cupola. That’s even more than we did at the Duomo. And I was in jeans and a modest top since we were at the Vatican. SO HOTTTTTTT. But I was pretty proud of myself for doing it and not even falling in my ghetto Old Navy flip flops. :)
I calculated that I burned off 551 million calories from that, so I was super ready for lunch. We grabbed a quick lunch and then went on the Vatican Museum. I can’t even describe everything that I saw. It would take forever, and I doubt it can be appreciated as much just hearing about it. But I will say that seeing the Sistine Chapel was amazing. It was nothing like I’d expected… I assumed it would have been round, but it was more rectangular. And I saw “Creation”… such a famous painting. On the ceiling. Where Michelangelo actually painted it. Wow. Magnificent.
We lost Jessica for a bit after that, but we recovered her and went back to the Vatican to buy rosaries. Although I’m not Catholic, I still bought a regular one and one to wear around my wrist. I mean, they were rosaries blessed by the Pope. That’s pretty awesome to have.
We took the metro over to the Spanish steps. They weren’t all that impressive, but I had no real expectations of them since I didn’t know what they were. Then we got some gelato to eat on the steps, making them much more awesome. I ordered bacio, which means kiss in English, and that resulted in the gelateria guy making me give him a kiss on the cheek for my gelato. I even pick up guys in gelaterias now! Oh, Italians.
We went across the street from the steps where all the amazing shopping is. Think of the huge expensive names, and they were there. Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Valentino, Hermes, Prada, Fendi, etc. We actually went into Fendi and were ignored since we so weren’t going to buy anything. Lol.
We went home, got ready for a fun night out, and ate dinner across the street. Our waiter hit on me. This freaking blonde hair, I tell ya. We made up fake names for the night and stories to go with our names. I am Samantha, Kirk is Brian, Jessica is Amanda, Lauren is Autumn, and Sara is Kate. This story is just too long. And then we went on the SKETCHIEST BAR CRAWL EVER. Not worth describing, but it’s pretty funny if somebody wants to hear the story later.
We were home before 1 am. Nothing too crazy. We did have more of Rome to see the next day after all!
Sunday.
We woke up for another breakfast at our hostel. Exactly the same as Saturday and still sufficient. The cappuccino woke me up, at least! I changed into the same dress from Friday… It was just too hot to wear jeans, and we weren’t going anywhere with wardrobe requirements. We then checked out of our hostel, after rolling our room with toilet paper a little bit. I have no idea why except that we are pretty much rebels.
We went to the Termini to drop off our bags. It was too hot to carry extra bags all around Rome, for real! Finding this place was quite an experience, but it was all good after we dropped our stuff there.
Then we took a metro to make our return to the Colosseum and actually go inside. Well I went in with Lauren and Sara; Kirk and Jessica had been before and didn't want to pay 12 Euros (but they ended up having to pay the same amount anyway later to go into ancient Rome... which we got into with our Colosseum tickets. Poor guys!)
Again, this was one of those I know where I am but I can't fully register the significance of this place until afterwards things. I mean, who doesn't think of the Colosseum when they think of Rome? So much death there, and it it still one of the most iconic symbols of the city and its history. So naturally we took a lot of pictures. Oh, and we saw a ferocious cat that we assume was a descendent of the lions that used to fight there... or it was just a stray cat, but it was still amusing.
All the heat and walking made us hungry (as usual), so we stopped and got lunch at another random place. Then it was on to see ANCIENT ROME. That became one of our other most used phrases for the trip (along with sketchy, stairs, no air, etc.). We started using "Ancient Roman" as an adjective for things in Ancient Rome... or just for anything we felt like putting it in front. We had an Ancient Roman good time, too!
We lost Jessica when we left and didn't find her for about an hour. People, please don't turn your phones off when you leave your group in a huge and potentially dangerous city. UHH? She found us at the bag pickup, after Lauren and I paid 80 Euro cents to use the restroom there. Booo.
We got our stuff, grabbed some snacks, and got on an AIR CONDITIONED train. *Cue the angelic chorus* The ride back was significantly more comfortable thanks to that. And we just had fun recounting our trip and trying to be semi-productive in other ways.
I called my host mom Gianna to tell her we were on our way home, and it was my first complete Italian phone conversation. And I said what I needed to say and understood what she said. I just needed to brag about that, especially since my roommates always make me speak Italian to her and Paolo because I'm in a higher level.
We got to our train station (after almost getting off on the other side of Florence), and it was like coming home again! We took a bus to a plaza nearby and booked it back here for a little bit of free dinner. Oh, how I'd missed that when I was in Rome!
I tried to do stuff then like write my journal and my blog... and do that homework I'd neglected, but I just got the homework done before passing out. What a long weeekend, but what an incredible one!
MONDAY
This was my day of rest, and it was the most glorious day I could imagine. Okay, so that's a little bit of a stretch. But I was so exhausted from the weekend, all the walking, etc. that I didn't feel it would be a waste to come home after school and relax.
I had my yogurt, granola, and coffee for breakfast. Yay routines! And then I headed to school, rocking out on my iPod (which was just a perfect way to start the day!)
Class was, well, class. I've probably said the exact same thing before, but it's just always true! And we were learning passato remoto, a tense that I hated and just memorized long enough for tests back at Bama. I never thought I would need it again. Oops!
I went to lunch with Lauren, Kirk, Katie, Jessica, and Sara at a too expensive place where everybody but Lauren got gnocchi (potato dumpling things). I got pesto gnocchi, and it was delicious. But I am getting paninis for the rest of my time here so that I'm not broke when I get home!
Then I came home and tried to accomplish all the things I needed to. Fail. It mostly just meant frustratingly attempting to upload things on facebook. But at least my legs got a rest!
I was so happy to see Paolo again. I really miss him when I'm not here! Dinner was good and a little more intimate than usual. Matt was not back from Scotland, and the Russians and Austrians all left. So it was just Paolo and Gianna, Kansas girls, Bama girls, the Thai woman Katie, and a German guy named Mathias who lived with the family about 5 years ago.
Oh, and I ate fennel. I think that's how it's spelled at least. I've heard of it but never tried it before. It was really good, but part of that may have been because it was free and covered in cheese. Yummyyyyyy.
Then I went to sleep full and happy and slept the night away.
TUESDAY
Waking up was no fun, and I was almost late to school for the first time. My bad, but Gianna didn't put out breakfast until like 5 minutes before we normally leave. And I can't rush coffee and yogurt!
Class was not too terrible. Except we did have a test and this stupid conjugation exercise thing. I so forgot about that. Lol. But I got a 27/30 on the test... better than I was expecting, and I'm pretty proud since I'm in the hardest class of anybody from Bama.
After class, we just had time for a quick lunch before we had to be back at CLIDA. So I had my regular tomato and mozzarella sandwich and then went to meet up with my group in front of the school. And, surprise, Laura's group was coming with us too! That was really good because it always makes me feel less homesick when I get to see her. And we had to catch up since we hadn't seen each other since Thursday.
We walked to the station and got on a private charter bus which took us to Chianti. Specifically, we went to Castello di Verrazzano in Greve in Chianti. Long name. All that needs to be known about it is that it's a winery. And it took us a while to get up there, but the scenery was absolutely worth it. I want to grow grapes and cherries now.
We had a tour with an awesome guide named Gino (vino with a g). He told us about how wine is just an essential part of life for Italians. It is something which brings together enemies and strengthens friendships. He was all philosophical about it, and he was sincere and funny: my favorite kind of person. He made me enthusiastic about the experience.
I have never cared for the wine we've had at dinner or anything before, but after Gino taught us how to hold it, look at it, smell it, and taste it to fully appreciate the experience, I actually really liked it. Our wine tasting table included Kirk, Lauren, Ben, Laura, Sara, Dr. Picone, and me. It was the party table for real, and we had tons of fun. We tried three kinds of normal wine plus dessert wine and ate bread (well, other people ate prosciutto and wild boar salami, too. Ick!)
The bus ride home was great because Laura and I rocked out on my iPod just like old times. I am becoming obsessed with that thing!
And then Katie and Lauren joined us for dinner. The Kansas girls were at the cooking class, so we got to replace them for once. And it was awesome. Plus, to make up for that whole gelato incident from last week, we got chocolate chip and raspberry gelato with pineapple slices. Talk about making my life.
We were going to go out somewhere, but everybody was too tired after the whole wine tasting extravaganza. So it was another early night. Good day anyway, though.
WEDNESDAY
I was almost late again becuase of breakfast. But I took my time walking to school and jamming out with my iPod. I wanted to sing so badly... I miss being able to do that since I don't have that kind of privacy here... but I figured random people on the streets of Florence wouldn't want to hear me singing. Lol.
Since I was already in slacking mode, I just decided to write in my journal for all of class instead of even really trying to pay attention. It was a good call since we didn't really do anything too challenging. And I almost caught up on my journal!
We attempted to go with a big group of people to a Mexican restaurant, but it turns out it is only open for dinner. So I ended up going to get a quick lunch with Sara and Lauren before we went to look at the Bargello. I think that's how it's spelled, at least. It has a lot of art (ummm... since it's an art museum), and it was pretty cool. We almost missed the important room at the end with all the most famous works there (mostly sculptures by Michelangelo), though. Haha. We're special.
We had just eaten lunch but decided to go for gelato anyway. I had white chocolate, and it was soooo good. Sara didn't like it that much, but my taste buds gave it two thumbs up.
Then we went our separate way from Lauren and came home to do homework and relax a while before dinner. We ate dinner with the fam (minus Paolo.... boooooo) and then headed up to Piazzale Michelangelo to see a beautiful view of Florence. It was a hike to get up there, but it was worth it. I don't know if I would make it up during the day, though! But the view is so gorgeous that I'll probably try sometime before I leave.
It was Jessica, Sara, Lauren, Laura, her friend Destin, Ben, and me up there. We stayed out pretty late and enjoyed our time there a lot. Those are the kinds of experiences I want to remember when I get home. Hanging out on the steps of of a bronze version of the "David" in good company. :)
So that's all for now. I've written about everything except for today. I'll make another entry for that one since this is the longest entry EVER. Sorry about that. And super super super congratulations if you make it through. I don't expect anyone to, really. I'm doing this to remind myself of all the fun I've had here, too.
LOVEEEE!
So here begins what I’m sure is the most long-anticipated blog post in history of the world. I need to stop making promises I can’t keep about when I am going to be able to update this thing. It’s just that I want to enjoy the time I have in Italy, and sometimes that means not sitting at my computer and attempting to write an accurate and witty account of my time here.
BUT I am going to make time to get this all out now, or I’m afraid I will fall so far behind that I am discouraged from even attempting to catch up. Here goes nothing…
Wednesday. So there was class. Blehhhhhh. We went over the tests from the previous day, and it wasn’t the prettiest thing ever. Oh well. I am challenging myself and still working as hard as I can on all this crazy grammar. I just want to learn the language and be able to speak it. The grammar throws me off a little.
After class I went to buy train tickets with Sara, Lauren, and Jessica. We weren’t willing to pay 80 Euros rounds trip and ride Eurostar, so we ended up getting tickets for 32 Euros round trip. It made our ride there 4 hours as opposed to 1 ½. We thought it was worth saving the money at the time, but we may have changed our minds a little come Friday…
We grabbed food and went back up to CLIDA to use their internet to book a hostel. We chose the cheapest one with the best location that was left (very close to the train station)… It was called Hostel Pink Floyd. Sounds like a party, right?
Lauren, Sara, and I then went back to the Uffizi Gallery (since Lauren hadn’t been there yet, and Sara and I had a few more things to see). Since we had seen most of the important works in there already, Sara and I didn’t stay long. But we did go see “The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli again, just because it’s so famous and pretty.
We attempted to shop for a little while after the museum. But clothes are just so expensive! And then I have to think about the conversion rate from Euros to dollars… I just don’t plan on buying too much stuff over here, I suppose. BUT, what made my day so much better was stopping for gelato. Yum. I got a cherry flavor. My first fruit flavor, and it was delicious. I guess I am addicted to cherries after the cooking lesson from last Tuesday.
We chilled at the apartment for a few hours before dinner. I was starving, somehow, even though I had eaten plenty all day. It is a talent of mine, I suppose. Matt wasn’t at dinner because he had already left for Scotland. That was weird not having somebody to translate for me! Haha. But it meant I tried to talk more, and that was for sure a good thing.
Oh, and Paolo told me that he loves me. J I had heard that the night before when we had cooking lessons, they had Kansas girls over and had fed them gelato. Then we passed two of them walking away from the house when we were walking back toward it, and they said, “Ciao!” Kate and Kayla told use the next morning about gelato, and I was TICKED off… especially when I thought about the ciao thing. I told Paolo all of this, and he almost died laughing at my semi-feigned anger. He said, “Mi piace Stephanie,” and “Amo Stephanie.” I was so happy I almost cried. Great end to the night!
Thursday. All my thoughts are starting to get a little mixed up, but I hope that I’ll be able to keep my days straight as far as what I did. I woke up a little early because I wanted to look cute for the pictures I was going to take with Laura later on in the day. I wore my pink Old Navy dress (me… in a dress… shocking, I know). It was cool and comfortable AND it has pockets. So it was just about perfect. But my white flip flops and the dirty ground in Florence didn’t get along so well.
I went to breakfast, walked to school, and suffered through the first two hours of grammar grammar grammar. Bleh. During the break I went to get coffee with my friend, Ben, and was at least a little more energetic when I got back for the last two hours of class. The conversation part of class was actually pretty good. We got to read and discuss our horoscopes… which is always interesting, even though that stuff is all ridiculous.
After class, I grabbed sandwiches with Lauren and Sara, and we went over to the Medici Chapel. I don’t know as much as I probably should about the Medici family, but I knew enough to appreciate the historical value of all the stuff there. And I was just impressed by the richness of all the materials used there. I can’t even begin to process how much all of those precious stones and metals must be worth!
I went to CLIDA to use their internet for a while and then went with Sarah to H&M. I actually ended up buying a shirt and dress, although it took a few hours for me to even pick those out. Since the store is partly underground, I had no cell phone reception. When I came up to ground level, I saw that Laura had been calling and texting me for a while.
We met up, took some silly and cute and fun pictures in Florence, and then went to get gelato. As you know by now, that is always a good idea. I had some caramel-y flavor because I’m trying to taste them all… not my favorite, but it was still really good.
When we were finished with that, we went to meet my roommates and a few of Laura’s friends and the Accademia. That’s where DAVID is! First, we looked at photography by Robert Maplethorpe which is being featured at the museum currently. I suppose it was all very artistic, but I mostly just noticed that there was a lot of nudity in it. But then came the best nude of all: The David! It was ridiculous seeing it up close; it was one of those things I just never expected to actually see in person. And I saw him from all angles… I’ve only seen the front before. And he has really big hands. I guess that’s as much as I got from that, although somebody told me that he is supposed to represent Florence. As in Florence is the David to Rome’s Goliath. I like it!
Sara, Jessica, and I went home for dinner with the wonderful host family. It was so much fun, as usual. And we sang “Poker Face” with Paolo; that always makes for an interesting night. After dinner, Sara and I met up with other people from our group at the Duomo. We were planning to go sing “Sweet Home Alabama” at a bar that has karaoke. Our night got a little crazy because a guy that likes one of the girls in our group showed up and wanted to talk to her. But it’s a fun experience trying to lose a guy on the streets of Florence. It wasn’t dangerous at all… just hilarious. And we had pepper spray (Diva Defense) just in case anything went awry. Sleep was good after all that craziness.
Friday.
I had to get up early to pack since we had to even leave class early to get to our train on time. Fighting through 3 1/2 hours of class was the hardest thing ever when all I really wanted to think about was going to ROME. But I somehow managed to survive anyway! Maybe because I was getting to leave 30 minutes early, and that just made it feel infinitely better.
At 12:30, I met Sara, Jessica, Lauren, and Kirk in the lobby of CLIDA. We grabbed sandwiches across the street and then made our way to the train station. Kirk had to buy a ticket there since he had just decided to come with us the night before (to fill our extra bed so that we didn’t have to cover the cost ourselves). We got on the train and were happy to find a private 6 person room.
But, when the train started, we realized that something was very wrong. The air conditioning was broken. And the window in our compartment wouldn’t open. And we had gone on the 4 hour train to save money. I mean, REALLY?!? We were all dying of heat… I think it was the hottest day out since we got here, and we were cooped up on this horrible train. I didn’t want to do anything to produce extra body heat, so I didn’t write or do any of the productive things I had originally planned. NOT a good start to the weekend. I was sticky and smelly, and I almost sweated to death in a freaking sun dress! (“No air” became a key phrase for our trip after this!)
It was like Heaven when we got off that effing train, though. As soon as we were somewhat oriented, we headed to a place across the street for gelato. I got mint, even though I had gotten it before. It was incredibly refreshing and just what I needed after those miserable 4 hours.
We got a map, somehow figured out where the hotel we were supposed to check in was, and then proceeded to make the very short walk there and do so. A guy showed us to our room in our hostel… which was in a separate building down the street. Our hostel, Hostel Pink Floyd = 3 bedrooms labeled A, B, and C with pieces of paper on the door. Fabulous! Haha. But the price was right, we had a private room, there was air conditioning, and the room locked. Worked for me.
After cleaning up a little, we decided to take a nice walk around Rome. We were not really sure where we were, so we ended up walking to the Colosseum. It was incredible to see such an ancient thing in the middle of a modern city. Only thinking back do I really see how crazy that was. It was too late to go inside, so we just walked around before deciding to go eat dinner at a nearby ristorante. Our waiter was just crazy and kept saying “OHHHHH yes!” whenever we asked for anything. And we were too cheap to pay for another water bottle, so I had to run across the road and fill it up from a fountain in the middle of dinner. Hahahaha. :)
We went over to see the Trevi Fountain since we had heard it was pretty at night. And it really was! But there were about a million people there. I threw one coin in (not knowing that 2 would mean I would fall in love, or I TOTALLY would have done that!) I don’t know if I was supposed to make a wish, but if I was I wished for gelato and so got it! Again. My first time getting it twice in one day. Strawberry this time. Yummy!
After the fountain, we made a trek back to our hostel. We wanted to be showered and well rested for our big day Saturday!
Saturday.
First of all, let me say that “sketchy” so defined our weekend in Rome. It all started with that broken train, and then the hostel, and then every single thing that happened on Saturday. Haha.
Anway, we got up early to get a good start on our only full day in Rome. We went and had our free breakfast at the hostel. It wasn’t a buffet or anything, but free food is always a good thing.
After breakfast we went to the train station, bought metro passes, and then rode over to Vatican City (where we spent almost our entire day). I can’t even describe the feeling of being there. I’m not even Catholic, and it was still an incredible experience for me. I mean, I was practically hanging with the Pope while I was there. Just kidding, but still. And I drank out of a fountain there. I’m assuming that it was considered holy water since it was in Vatican City. ;)
I went into St. Peter’s Basilica and looked around there for a while. I think I may have even had a religious experience in the prayer room. How could I not. Just seeing all of the Catholics and non-Catholics, even non-Christians, who are drawn to this place. It’s incredible. Can something that so inspires all of these people be a bad thing. Or only when it leads to bad things? Okay, no time for religious discussions now. This blog would be even longer then, and I think I’ve already written a novel.
I touched Jesus’ foot, saw a list of all the popes and their years of death, saw where parts of Angels and Demons takes place (woo, Dan Brown), and was divinely inspired… all before noon, too!
After being in the basilica for about an hour, we headed down to the catacombs. And I saw what I guess was the grave of or monument to Pope John Paul II. He was the pope for 27 years or so… my entire life until he passed away in 2005. I’m not Catholic, but I did like the guy and appreciated the chance to pay my respects.
After going down, we decided it was time to go up. We climbed 551 steps to the top of the cupola. That’s even more than we did at the Duomo. And I was in jeans and a modest top since we were at the Vatican. SO HOTTTTTTT. But I was pretty proud of myself for doing it and not even falling in my ghetto Old Navy flip flops. :)
I calculated that I burned off 551 million calories from that, so I was super ready for lunch. We grabbed a quick lunch and then went on the Vatican Museum. I can’t even describe everything that I saw. It would take forever, and I doubt it can be appreciated as much just hearing about it. But I will say that seeing the Sistine Chapel was amazing. It was nothing like I’d expected… I assumed it would have been round, but it was more rectangular. And I saw “Creation”… such a famous painting. On the ceiling. Where Michelangelo actually painted it. Wow. Magnificent.
We lost Jessica for a bit after that, but we recovered her and went back to the Vatican to buy rosaries. Although I’m not Catholic, I still bought a regular one and one to wear around my wrist. I mean, they were rosaries blessed by the Pope. That’s pretty awesome to have.
We took the metro over to the Spanish steps. They weren’t all that impressive, but I had no real expectations of them since I didn’t know what they were. Then we got some gelato to eat on the steps, making them much more awesome. I ordered bacio, which means kiss in English, and that resulted in the gelateria guy making me give him a kiss on the cheek for my gelato. I even pick up guys in gelaterias now! Oh, Italians.
We went across the street from the steps where all the amazing shopping is. Think of the huge expensive names, and they were there. Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Valentino, Hermes, Prada, Fendi, etc. We actually went into Fendi and were ignored since we so weren’t going to buy anything. Lol.
We went home, got ready for a fun night out, and ate dinner across the street. Our waiter hit on me. This freaking blonde hair, I tell ya. We made up fake names for the night and stories to go with our names. I am Samantha, Kirk is Brian, Jessica is Amanda, Lauren is Autumn, and Sara is Kate. This story is just too long. And then we went on the SKETCHIEST BAR CRAWL EVER. Not worth describing, but it’s pretty funny if somebody wants to hear the story later.
We were home before 1 am. Nothing too crazy. We did have more of Rome to see the next day after all!
Sunday.
We woke up for another breakfast at our hostel. Exactly the same as Saturday and still sufficient. The cappuccino woke me up, at least! I changed into the same dress from Friday… It was just too hot to wear jeans, and we weren’t going anywhere with wardrobe requirements. We then checked out of our hostel, after rolling our room with toilet paper a little bit. I have no idea why except that we are pretty much rebels.
We went to the Termini to drop off our bags. It was too hot to carry extra bags all around Rome, for real! Finding this place was quite an experience, but it was all good after we dropped our stuff there.
Then we took a metro to make our return to the Colosseum and actually go inside. Well I went in with Lauren and Sara; Kirk and Jessica had been before and didn't want to pay 12 Euros (but they ended up having to pay the same amount anyway later to go into ancient Rome... which we got into with our Colosseum tickets. Poor guys!)
Again, this was one of those I know where I am but I can't fully register the significance of this place until afterwards things. I mean, who doesn't think of the Colosseum when they think of Rome? So much death there, and it it still one of the most iconic symbols of the city and its history. So naturally we took a lot of pictures. Oh, and we saw a ferocious cat that we assume was a descendent of the lions that used to fight there... or it was just a stray cat, but it was still amusing.
All the heat and walking made us hungry (as usual), so we stopped and got lunch at another random place. Then it was on to see ANCIENT ROME. That became one of our other most used phrases for the trip (along with sketchy, stairs, no air, etc.). We started using "Ancient Roman" as an adjective for things in Ancient Rome... or just for anything we felt like putting it in front. We had an Ancient Roman good time, too!
We lost Jessica when we left and didn't find her for about an hour. People, please don't turn your phones off when you leave your group in a huge and potentially dangerous city. UHH? She found us at the bag pickup, after Lauren and I paid 80 Euro cents to use the restroom there. Booo.
We got our stuff, grabbed some snacks, and got on an AIR CONDITIONED train. *Cue the angelic chorus* The ride back was significantly more comfortable thanks to that. And we just had fun recounting our trip and trying to be semi-productive in other ways.
I called my host mom Gianna to tell her we were on our way home, and it was my first complete Italian phone conversation. And I said what I needed to say and understood what she said. I just needed to brag about that, especially since my roommates always make me speak Italian to her and Paolo because I'm in a higher level.
We got to our train station (after almost getting off on the other side of Florence), and it was like coming home again! We took a bus to a plaza nearby and booked it back here for a little bit of free dinner. Oh, how I'd missed that when I was in Rome!
I tried to do stuff then like write my journal and my blog... and do that homework I'd neglected, but I just got the homework done before passing out. What a long weeekend, but what an incredible one!
MONDAY
This was my day of rest, and it was the most glorious day I could imagine. Okay, so that's a little bit of a stretch. But I was so exhausted from the weekend, all the walking, etc. that I didn't feel it would be a waste to come home after school and relax.
I had my yogurt, granola, and coffee for breakfast. Yay routines! And then I headed to school, rocking out on my iPod (which was just a perfect way to start the day!)
Class was, well, class. I've probably said the exact same thing before, but it's just always true! And we were learning passato remoto, a tense that I hated and just memorized long enough for tests back at Bama. I never thought I would need it again. Oops!
I went to lunch with Lauren, Kirk, Katie, Jessica, and Sara at a too expensive place where everybody but Lauren got gnocchi (potato dumpling things). I got pesto gnocchi, and it was delicious. But I am getting paninis for the rest of my time here so that I'm not broke when I get home!
Then I came home and tried to accomplish all the things I needed to. Fail. It mostly just meant frustratingly attempting to upload things on facebook. But at least my legs got a rest!
I was so happy to see Paolo again. I really miss him when I'm not here! Dinner was good and a little more intimate than usual. Matt was not back from Scotland, and the Russians and Austrians all left. So it was just Paolo and Gianna, Kansas girls, Bama girls, the Thai woman Katie, and a German guy named Mathias who lived with the family about 5 years ago.
Oh, and I ate fennel. I think that's how it's spelled at least. I've heard of it but never tried it before. It was really good, but part of that may have been because it was free and covered in cheese. Yummyyyyyy.
Then I went to sleep full and happy and slept the night away.
TUESDAY
Waking up was no fun, and I was almost late to school for the first time. My bad, but Gianna didn't put out breakfast until like 5 minutes before we normally leave. And I can't rush coffee and yogurt!
Class was not too terrible. Except we did have a test and this stupid conjugation exercise thing. I so forgot about that. Lol. But I got a 27/30 on the test... better than I was expecting, and I'm pretty proud since I'm in the hardest class of anybody from Bama.
After class, we just had time for a quick lunch before we had to be back at CLIDA. So I had my regular tomato and mozzarella sandwich and then went to meet up with my group in front of the school. And, surprise, Laura's group was coming with us too! That was really good because it always makes me feel less homesick when I get to see her. And we had to catch up since we hadn't seen each other since Thursday.
We walked to the station and got on a private charter bus which took us to Chianti. Specifically, we went to Castello di Verrazzano in Greve in Chianti. Long name. All that needs to be known about it is that it's a winery. And it took us a while to get up there, but the scenery was absolutely worth it. I want to grow grapes and cherries now.
We had a tour with an awesome guide named Gino (vino with a g). He told us about how wine is just an essential part of life for Italians. It is something which brings together enemies and strengthens friendships. He was all philosophical about it, and he was sincere and funny: my favorite kind of person. He made me enthusiastic about the experience.
I have never cared for the wine we've had at dinner or anything before, but after Gino taught us how to hold it, look at it, smell it, and taste it to fully appreciate the experience, I actually really liked it. Our wine tasting table included Kirk, Lauren, Ben, Laura, Sara, Dr. Picone, and me. It was the party table for real, and we had tons of fun. We tried three kinds of normal wine plus dessert wine and ate bread (well, other people ate prosciutto and wild boar salami, too. Ick!)
The bus ride home was great because Laura and I rocked out on my iPod just like old times. I am becoming obsessed with that thing!
And then Katie and Lauren joined us for dinner. The Kansas girls were at the cooking class, so we got to replace them for once. And it was awesome. Plus, to make up for that whole gelato incident from last week, we got chocolate chip and raspberry gelato with pineapple slices. Talk about making my life.
We were going to go out somewhere, but everybody was too tired after the whole wine tasting extravaganza. So it was another early night. Good day anyway, though.
WEDNESDAY
I was almost late again becuase of breakfast. But I took my time walking to school and jamming out with my iPod. I wanted to sing so badly... I miss being able to do that since I don't have that kind of privacy here... but I figured random people on the streets of Florence wouldn't want to hear me singing. Lol.
Since I was already in slacking mode, I just decided to write in my journal for all of class instead of even really trying to pay attention. It was a good call since we didn't really do anything too challenging. And I almost caught up on my journal!
We attempted to go with a big group of people to a Mexican restaurant, but it turns out it is only open for dinner. So I ended up going to get a quick lunch with Sara and Lauren before we went to look at the Bargello. I think that's how it's spelled, at least. It has a lot of art (ummm... since it's an art museum), and it was pretty cool. We almost missed the important room at the end with all the most famous works there (mostly sculptures by Michelangelo), though. Haha. We're special.
We had just eaten lunch but decided to go for gelato anyway. I had white chocolate, and it was soooo good. Sara didn't like it that much, but my taste buds gave it two thumbs up.
Then we went our separate way from Lauren and came home to do homework and relax a while before dinner. We ate dinner with the fam (minus Paolo.... boooooo) and then headed up to Piazzale Michelangelo to see a beautiful view of Florence. It was a hike to get up there, but it was worth it. I don't know if I would make it up during the day, though! But the view is so gorgeous that I'll probably try sometime before I leave.
It was Jessica, Sara, Lauren, Laura, her friend Destin, Ben, and me up there. We stayed out pretty late and enjoyed our time there a lot. Those are the kinds of experiences I want to remember when I get home. Hanging out on the steps of of a bronze version of the "David" in good company. :)
So that's all for now. I've written about everything except for today. I'll make another entry for that one since this is the longest entry EVER. Sorry about that. And super super super congratulations if you make it through. I don't expect anyone to, really. I'm doing this to remind myself of all the fun I've had here, too.
LOVEEEE!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Another fake post
I should absolutely NOT be blogging right now.
I have homework! The first thing I've actually had to do at home AND turn in... meaning one of the first things I am trying to take seriously. Or rather, one of the first things I should be trying to take seriously.
Instead, I have waited the entire weekend to even think about starting this composition. Because I don't want to! :(
But I do have a really good excuse for my procrastination, for once. I was in ROME! And it was incredible. I feel like if I try to write anything about my trip now, I am going to be cheating myself and all of you out of a good story.
So I promise that I will make every effort possible to write the best blog ever tomorrow. My feet need a serious break after this weekend, and I believe a long studying, journal writing, and blogging session is very much in order for tomorrow.
For now, though, I am off to start on my homework...
Wish me luck!
LOVEEEE.
I have homework! The first thing I've actually had to do at home AND turn in... meaning one of the first things I am trying to take seriously. Or rather, one of the first things I should be trying to take seriously.
Instead, I have waited the entire weekend to even think about starting this composition. Because I don't want to! :(
But I do have a really good excuse for my procrastination, for once. I was in ROME! And it was incredible. I feel like if I try to write anything about my trip now, I am going to be cheating myself and all of you out of a good story.
So I promise that I will make every effort possible to write the best blog ever tomorrow. My feet need a serious break after this weekend, and I believe a long studying, journal writing, and blogging session is very much in order for tomorrow.
For now, though, I am off to start on my homework...
Wish me luck!
LOVEEEE.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
This is not a real post
I admit, I am a horrible updater. Ahhhhh. I am sorry.
Some fun and interesting things actually have happened the past few days, but I have simply not had time to document everything yet.
But I am going to be getting on a train to Rome for about 4 hours this afternoon... So I'll try to write stuff down and eventually put it all on here when I get back. :)
Maybe.
Just know that I am having an awesome time and trying to enjoy it as much as possible while I'm here. And I'm going to do the same when I am in Rome this weekend. I am so excited!
I am seeing so many things that I have read about so many times but never really thought I would see in person. I mean, I saw "David" last night... as in Michelangelo's David. The real one.
For now, I'm off to cram some stuff into a backpack, eat breakfast, and head to school. I get to leave early to catch my train (because I was unwilling to pay 24 Euros extra for a shorter trip and later starting time...).
I will take millions of pictures while I'm in Rome, so be prepared!
Some fun and interesting things actually have happened the past few days, but I have simply not had time to document everything yet.
But I am going to be getting on a train to Rome for about 4 hours this afternoon... So I'll try to write stuff down and eventually put it all on here when I get back. :)
Maybe.
Just know that I am having an awesome time and trying to enjoy it as much as possible while I'm here. And I'm going to do the same when I am in Rome this weekend. I am so excited!
I am seeing so many things that I have read about so many times but never really thought I would see in person. I mean, I saw "David" last night... as in Michelangelo's David. The real one.
For now, I'm off to cram some stuff into a backpack, eat breakfast, and head to school. I get to leave early to catch my train (because I was unwilling to pay 24 Euros extra for a shorter trip and later starting time...).
I will take millions of pictures while I'm in Rome, so be prepared!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Back to the old grind...
So I guess I am getting bad about this whole blog updating thing. So sorry!
Yesterday was a pretty boring day. I was tired from this weekend, but I got enough sleep that I didn't feel exhausted for school. And it was great to wake up and have my regular breakfast here... certain things like that about having a routine are really comforting to me.
Class was, well, class. Anytime I have to be cooped up inside when I just want to be out enjoying Italy isn't exactly my favorite. But I feel like I am least making some progress with my Italian. That is all that I can hope for. I don't know if I'll even have an opportunity after this month to really speak or practice my Italian, so what I'm learning seems like mostly something which will benefit me now.
But I guess maybe I'll just try to become fluent and move here eventually. =)
From what I've heard others talk about, it sounds like everybody had a great weekend. From Rome to Rimini to Cinque Terre... But I must say that I think our trip sounded like the best. How can you beat sea kayaking in Elba? It would take a lot.
After class I went to lunch with Sara, Jessica, and two other girls from our group Katie and Lauren. We all had calzones for 4 Euros. Mine was spinach and cheese... super heavy, but very good.
After lunch, we decided to find somewhere to study for the tests we all had today. We ended up going to the Boboli Gardens (which are apparently pretty famous), climbing up a pretty long ways, and finding a nice patch of grass to study on. I think I've forgotten how to study, though, so that made it difficult to even attempt to get anything done.
I walked home with Sara and Lauren after we stopped to shop a little in H&M. And, of course, I had to have my gelato at my favorite place on the way home. Flavor of the Day: Straciatella. SO GOOOOOOOOD.
It was really hot, and I was pretty gross, so I relaxed a casa for a little while. I added my host mother Gianna on facebook, and then I went to get Laura (Semmel) from the Duomo. We finally got to actually hang out in Italy... what a novel idea. It's crazy that we're both in the same city and the same time, just with different programs.
But I was so glad that she got to come over for dinner. She has to pay for her own food, which stinks, and we always have more than enough food to go around. At the table we had Gianna, Katie (the Thai lady), Ana (the Russian lady), Kate, Kayla, Sara, Jessica, and me PLUS Laura, Matt's friend, the two Austrian girls (Anna and Denise) who are staying with us for the week. Oh, and Matt and Paolo had their own romantic table for two. What a crowd, right?
We ate by candlelight, which made for a pleasant ambience. And the dinner was fantastic, as usual. We mostly talked in English, though, since so many of the people there didn't speak Italian. So I really got to contribute to the conversation this time!
After dinner, I walked Laura back to the Duomo, came back to the apartment, and attempted to study for a while. Let's just say that I failed to do so... It is just so much easier not to! And, of course, I had to attempt to keep in some kind of touch with people via facebook... It's bad that that's almost as much of a distraction here as it is at home.
And now onto today...
This morning was my first test for my class here. I’ve felt a little bit behind everybody since we started classes, and I wasn’t expecting too much of myself on this. But I got up at 6:3o (UGH) to attempt to study. I even studied during my sacred yogurt and granola breakfast time!
I assumed we would take the test at 9, when classes start, but we ended up not taking it until 12, the last hour of class. And waiting is the worst part! Before the test, we learned the conditional tense… which I actually know really well already. So hallelujah, praise the Lord. I may not be behind for this section!
When we finally took the test, she let us use our books. But I still thought it was pretty difficult. Languages are not exactly my cup of tea. But we’ll see how it turns out…
I went to lunch with the same people from yesterday at “Il Porcospino”… at least, I think that’s what it was called. It means “The Porcupine” in English. Katie made friends with the waiter on past trips to Florence, and I guess she goes to this place pretty often. I had pizza margherita for about the 3rd or 4th time this trip, but I tried some of Jessica’s and Katie’s pesto gnocchi. It was delicious!
We had a few hours to waste so Lauren, Sara, and I walked around the market for awhile. I had a pizza box with leftover pizza in it, and I got a few strange comments from people along the way. One was something about a pizza party; but my favorite was when a random guy walked up to me, looked me straight in the eyes, and just said, “Thank you.” Lauren and I almost died laughing.
We tried to go to a travel agent to figure out plans for this weekend (hopefully Rome…), but they were super slow, and we needed to get back to school to meet our group. I guess we’ll have to go again tomorrow.
Anyway, the entire Alabama crew loaded up in two vans and headed up to where Gabriella and her husband, the heads of CLIDA, live. It was a very long, steep ride; my stomach was not feeling so hot when we got there, but the house was worth it. And there were cherry trees right outside. I WANT CHERRY TREES WHEN I HAVE A HOUSE. So amazing, and the cherries were delicious. We had tons of fun picking them and eating them… and making hilarious jokes about them. But Kirk kept throwing them at me, and I almost had to hurt him.
And then we started our cooking lesson… Basically, we put on some super cool plastic aprons and just divided into groups to work on some part of our meal. Lauren, Ben, and I peeled tomatoes and chopped up garlic and onions. We weren’t very skilled, so it took a while… and my hands still smell awful from that!
We ate our huge dinner, and I truly enjoyed the company of the entire group. And I saw a scorpion and made friends with a giant stuffed gorilla named Filipo… il mio ragazzo per la sera.
And the ride back was molto interesante. It is nice making new friends that I can joke and have fun with and make the most of my time here with. Overall it was most definitely a fun night, although I was sad I had to miss dinner with the family. There’s always tomorrow night, except that Matt and his friend are going to Scotland and won’t be here.
Oh, and I missed my daily dose of gelato today. How sad! But I made up for it with plenty of other sweet treats. Cake and chocolates at the Materassi’s house. If I am not 20 pounds heavier when I return, I will consider that a failure.
So I guess that’s all for the past two days. I so wasn’t planning on writing this tonight, but if I fall behind I may never catch up.
I hope life is fabulous for everybody! <3
Yesterday was a pretty boring day. I was tired from this weekend, but I got enough sleep that I didn't feel exhausted for school. And it was great to wake up and have my regular breakfast here... certain things like that about having a routine are really comforting to me.
Class was, well, class. Anytime I have to be cooped up inside when I just want to be out enjoying Italy isn't exactly my favorite. But I feel like I am least making some progress with my Italian. That is all that I can hope for. I don't know if I'll even have an opportunity after this month to really speak or practice my Italian, so what I'm learning seems like mostly something which will benefit me now.
But I guess maybe I'll just try to become fluent and move here eventually. =)
From what I've heard others talk about, it sounds like everybody had a great weekend. From Rome to Rimini to Cinque Terre... But I must say that I think our trip sounded like the best. How can you beat sea kayaking in Elba? It would take a lot.
After class I went to lunch with Sara, Jessica, and two other girls from our group Katie and Lauren. We all had calzones for 4 Euros. Mine was spinach and cheese... super heavy, but very good.
After lunch, we decided to find somewhere to study for the tests we all had today. We ended up going to the Boboli Gardens (which are apparently pretty famous), climbing up a pretty long ways, and finding a nice patch of grass to study on. I think I've forgotten how to study, though, so that made it difficult to even attempt to get anything done.
I walked home with Sara and Lauren after we stopped to shop a little in H&M. And, of course, I had to have my gelato at my favorite place on the way home. Flavor of the Day: Straciatella. SO GOOOOOOOOD.
It was really hot, and I was pretty gross, so I relaxed a casa for a little while. I added my host mother Gianna on facebook, and then I went to get Laura (Semmel) from the Duomo. We finally got to actually hang out in Italy... what a novel idea. It's crazy that we're both in the same city and the same time, just with different programs.
But I was so glad that she got to come over for dinner. She has to pay for her own food, which stinks, and we always have more than enough food to go around. At the table we had Gianna, Katie (the Thai lady), Ana (the Russian lady), Kate, Kayla, Sara, Jessica, and me PLUS Laura, Matt's friend, the two Austrian girls (Anna and Denise) who are staying with us for the week. Oh, and Matt and Paolo had their own romantic table for two. What a crowd, right?
We ate by candlelight, which made for a pleasant ambience. And the dinner was fantastic, as usual. We mostly talked in English, though, since so many of the people there didn't speak Italian. So I really got to contribute to the conversation this time!
After dinner, I walked Laura back to the Duomo, came back to the apartment, and attempted to study for a while. Let's just say that I failed to do so... It is just so much easier not to! And, of course, I had to attempt to keep in some kind of touch with people via facebook... It's bad that that's almost as much of a distraction here as it is at home.
And now onto today...
This morning was my first test for my class here. I’ve felt a little bit behind everybody since we started classes, and I wasn’t expecting too much of myself on this. But I got up at 6:3o (UGH) to attempt to study. I even studied during my sacred yogurt and granola breakfast time!
I assumed we would take the test at 9, when classes start, but we ended up not taking it until 12, the last hour of class. And waiting is the worst part! Before the test, we learned the conditional tense… which I actually know really well already. So hallelujah, praise the Lord. I may not be behind for this section!
When we finally took the test, she let us use our books. But I still thought it was pretty difficult. Languages are not exactly my cup of tea. But we’ll see how it turns out…
I went to lunch with the same people from yesterday at “Il Porcospino”… at least, I think that’s what it was called. It means “The Porcupine” in English. Katie made friends with the waiter on past trips to Florence, and I guess she goes to this place pretty often. I had pizza margherita for about the 3rd or 4th time this trip, but I tried some of Jessica’s and Katie’s pesto gnocchi. It was delicious!
We had a few hours to waste so Lauren, Sara, and I walked around the market for awhile. I had a pizza box with leftover pizza in it, and I got a few strange comments from people along the way. One was something about a pizza party; but my favorite was when a random guy walked up to me, looked me straight in the eyes, and just said, “Thank you.” Lauren and I almost died laughing.
We tried to go to a travel agent to figure out plans for this weekend (hopefully Rome…), but they were super slow, and we needed to get back to school to meet our group. I guess we’ll have to go again tomorrow.
Anyway, the entire Alabama crew loaded up in two vans and headed up to where Gabriella and her husband, the heads of CLIDA, live. It was a very long, steep ride; my stomach was not feeling so hot when we got there, but the house was worth it. And there were cherry trees right outside. I WANT CHERRY TREES WHEN I HAVE A HOUSE. So amazing, and the cherries were delicious. We had tons of fun picking them and eating them… and making hilarious jokes about them. But Kirk kept throwing them at me, and I almost had to hurt him.
And then we started our cooking lesson… Basically, we put on some super cool plastic aprons and just divided into groups to work on some part of our meal. Lauren, Ben, and I peeled tomatoes and chopped up garlic and onions. We weren’t very skilled, so it took a while… and my hands still smell awful from that!
We ate our huge dinner, and I truly enjoyed the company of the entire group. And I saw a scorpion and made friends with a giant stuffed gorilla named Filipo… il mio ragazzo per la sera.
And the ride back was molto interesante. It is nice making new friends that I can joke and have fun with and make the most of my time here with. Overall it was most definitely a fun night, although I was sad I had to miss dinner with the family. There’s always tomorrow night, except that Matt and his friend are going to Scotland and won’t be here.
Oh, and I missed my daily dose of gelato today. How sad! But I made up for it with plenty of other sweet treats. Cake and chocolates at the Materassi’s house. If I am not 20 pounds heavier when I return, I will consider that a failure.
So I guess that’s all for the past two days. I so wasn’t planning on writing this tonight, but if I fall behind I may never catch up.
I hope life is fabulous for everybody! <3
Monday, June 8, 2009
I wouldn't mind being exiled here...
Again, the internet here hates me, so here is my blog from the weekend!
Okay. I am definitely not making any promises about the length of this blog. I haven’t had an opportunity to update in three days, and I am going to write as much as I can remember. I won’t be offended if you choose not to read all of it. I will begin where I left off last time:
We did end up getting to go out with our host father on Thursday night, and it was a lot of fun! It was the 3 Alabama girls, 5 Kansas girls, Matt, two of his friends, and—of course—Paolo. Perfetto! We went to a club called “Central Park,” and danced for a few hours with a bunch of randos. Then we had to pay 10 Euros to get out when we left (Lame!). Sorry family, but we didn’t end up getting back to the apartment until around 3:30 AM.
Ero molto stanca la prossima mattina, to say the least. I got up early Friday morning, around 7 AM, to shower and get my stuff packed up before school. Class felt super long because it was Friday and because I was beyond exhausted. We practiced il congiuntivo, or the subjunctive tense, most of the morning. That wore me out more than anything.
After class Sara, Jessica, and I went to a travel agency just outside our school to book train tickets for the afternoon. It was already after 1, and our train was leaving in like 1 ½… and we had at least an hour of walking to get back to our apartment and to the train station. Uh-oh! We ate lunch on the way and rushed as much as possible, so luckily we got there in plenty of time for our train.
The train made a lot of stops, and we actually had only a few minutes to switch trains in Livorno and Campigia Marittima. Actually, in Campigia we got off our train and got back on the same one. Finally, we got off in Piombino. We were supposed to get off at Piombino Marittima, but we were confused and got off at the wrong one. So we had an awfully long hike to il porto where we were supposed to buy ferry tickets.
We got ferry tickets from Piombino on the mainland to Portoferraio on Isola D’Elba. We had to run to catch our ferry (which was HUGE), but once we got going the view was amazing. We were on the boat at the perfect time. The sun made everything even more gorgeous, and it was hilarious seeing how the ridiculous wind made my hair go crazy.
It was love at first sight. Between Elba and me, that is. Such a beautiful island! Where Napoleon was exiled, for those of you who aren’t history buffs like myself. Actually, I had never heard that until Sara was telling me what she hoped to do for the weekend. Still, very interesting. But being exiled in paradise doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world.
We needed to get to where we were staying for the night before it got too dark, and we ended up taking a ridiculously expensive taxi (45 Euros, split 3 ways) to get there. But I got to practice my Italian with the cab driver, and I was proud of how well I was able to communicate in at least parts of the conversation.
The driver, Marco, dropped us off at our hotel, Hotel Yacht Club, in beautiful Marciana Ma
rina. After we checked in, we went for a walk around town and enjoyed the last rays of sun. Then it was just super cold and windy. Not exactly what we had expected for an Island paradise in June… And none of us had packed appropriately. We were really all just worried because our cab driver had said that the weather was supposed to be bad the next day, and we did not want our plans to be ruined.
After finding the beach where we were supposed to kayak in the morning we stopped in a few cool shops, grabbed some dinner that had probably been sitting out for a while, and headed back to the hotel to relax with showers and the American movie Fracture dubbed in Italian.
We went to bed early after praying for good weather, slept for about 8 hours, and woke up to enjoy a huge complimentary breakfast. I was happy to see that it was not raining, although it was overcast and not too warm. We made our way to the beach, anyway, and met our instructor Gaudenzio. He told us the water was too rough for anybody but experts (which we are obviously not) to go out alone, so he agreed to give us lessons in the bay for the set price. Hallelujah!
I literally may have died if I had gone out without him. After he gave us wetsuits, life jackets, and kayak skirt things to put on, we headed out to the beach where our kayaks were. We learned how to get into our kayaks, put the skirt around the seat to keep water out, and then how to get out in the water. The first thing we actually learned in the water was how to handle the situation when you capsize. That meant he flipped our boat over into the super salty bay of what Sarah has informed me is the Ligurian Sea. I think he said 36 parts per thousand salt? Whatever it was, it tasted like licking a salt shaker whenever it got in my mouth.
The whole thing was a little terrifying at first, but it turned out to be really fun. After we had semi-mastered the whole capsizing thing, it was finally time to learn how to kayak. My arms are not so in shape, so that part was pretty tiring. Our instructor took me and Sara on a short trip out to these awesome rocks, but he didn’t want to take two novices any further… especially because I don’t believe we signed any kind of waiver. I was proud of myself for not capsizing in the deep water. Relaxing and thinking clearly under pressure are not so much my best talents.
We went back to the bay, took some fun pictures, changed out of our amazing wetsuits, rinsed off, and paid our 25 Euros a piece. Worth every penny… or Euro cent… especially since the instructor should have cost us much more.
We went to find an ATM and a bus stop before doing anything else. After a quick lunch at a cute restaurant on the water (where I had what has become my favorite sandwich of tomatoes, mozzarella, lettuce, and this one with balsamic vinegar. YUMMMM!), I took a nap on the beach. I used my purse as a pillow and wrapped myself as much as I could in my tiny little towel. Darn wind made it not so comfortable, but it was an enjoyable sandy venture nonetheless.
I was kind of sticky, sandy, and still salty from the water, so I took a nice relaxing shower and rocked out to some Italian MTV (which actually plays music videos!). We then went out to enjoy our second, and last, night in Elba. We saw so many familiar faces on our walk. It makes me think that Marciana Marina is the kind of small ocean town where everybody knows everybody. Che bello! But that also means that they surely knew we were tourists… and some of the few Americans, since most of their tourists are Italian or German.
We took pictures by a fountain, and of course I managed to sit in some bird crap. Uber lame. My poor pants. Earlier this week I totally stuck my hand and notebook in bird poop outside the Uffizi. FML. But we found a water spout where I attempted to wash it out, at least… making my butt less dirty and more wet.
After that adventure, we climbed out on the awesome rock Sara and I had kayaked to, took some gorgeous pictures (“Sarah, don’t pose that hard!”), and went to a cute pizzeria for dinner and good conversation. Then we stopped in some cute stores on the way home and, of course, got gelato. I tried Nutella flavor this time, and it was quite yummy.
We went to bed super early since the bus we had to catch was at freaking 6:55 AM. We woke up in plenty of time, checked out, grabbed some fruit that was already out for the complimentary breakfast, and made it to our bus stop. We loaded the bus and listened to some rocking techno-ish dance music… which was in English, at least. Just how I want to start an incredibly early Sunday morning.
The bus took us back to Portoferraio, where we were supposed to catch a ferry back to Piombino. We walked around the town a little first, thinking we may go to the Napoleon museum before realizing we were just too worn out. And I had a splinter in my foot (which still refuses to come out). So we sat for a while, watched a sea gull attack a plastic trash bag, and went to get on the ferry.
I mostly just sat inside and wrote on the ride back to Piombino, and the ferry seemed to take a lot longer than it had in the other direction. Things just go slower on Sundays, or so it seems. When we got back to mainland Italy, we found the train station 2 minutes from the port which we were supposed to go to in the first place on Friday… which made a difference of about 25 minutes in walking time. Yay!
Okay. I am definitely not making any promises about the length of this blog. I haven’t had an opportunity to update in three days, and I am going to write as much as I can remember. I won’t be offended if you choose not to read all of it. I will begin where I left off last time:
We did end up getting to go out with our host father on Thursday night, and it was a lot of fun! It was the 3 Alabama girls, 5 Kansas girls, Matt, two of his friends, and—of course—Paolo. Perfetto! We went to a club called “Central Park,” and danced for a few hours with a bunch of randos. Then we had to pay 10 Euros to get out when we left (Lame!). Sorry family, but we didn’t end up getting back to the apartment until around 3:30 AM.
Ero molto stanca la prossima mattina, to say the least. I got up early Friday morning, around 7 AM, to shower and get my stuff packed up before school. Class felt super long because it was Friday and because I was beyond exhausted. We practiced il congiuntivo, or the subjunctive tense, most of the morning. That wore me out more than anything.
After class Sara, Jessica, and I went to a travel agency just outside our school to book train tickets for the afternoon. It was already after 1, and our train was leaving in like 1 ½… and we had at least an hour of walking to get back to our apartment and to the train station. Uh-oh! We ate lunch on the way and rushed as much as possible, so luckily we got there in plenty of time for our train.
The train made a lot of stops, and we actually had only a few minutes to switch trains in Livorno and Campigia Marittima. Actually, in Campigia we got off our train and got back on the same one. Finally, we got off in Piombino. We were supposed to get off at Piombino Marittima, but we were confused and got off at the wrong one. So we had an awfully long hike to il porto where we were supposed to buy ferry tickets.
We got ferry tickets from Piombino on the mainland to Portoferraio on Isola D’Elba. We had to run to catch our ferry (which was HUGE), but once we got going the view was amazing. We were on the boat at the perfect time. The sun made everything even more gorgeous, and it was hilarious seeing how the ridiculous wind made my hair go crazy.
It was love at first sight. Between Elba and me, that is. Such a beautiful island! Where Napoleon was exiled, for those of you who aren’t history buffs like myself. Actually, I had never heard that until Sara was telling me what she hoped to do for the weekend. Still, very interesting. But being exiled in paradise doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world.
We needed to get to where we were staying for the night before it got too dark, and we ended up taking a ridiculously expensive taxi (45 Euros, split 3 ways) to get there. But I got to practice my Italian with the cab driver, and I was proud of how well I was able to communicate in at least parts of the conversation.
The driver, Marco, dropped us off at our hotel, Hotel Yacht Club, in beautiful Marciana Ma
rina. After we checked in, we went for a walk around town and enjoyed the last rays of sun. Then it was just super cold and windy. Not exactly what we had expected for an Island paradise in June… And none of us had packed appropriately. We were really all just worried because our cab driver had said that the weather was supposed to be bad the next day, and we did not want our plans to be ruined.After finding the beach where we were supposed to kayak in the morning we stopped in a few cool shops, grabbed some dinner that had probably been sitting out for a while, and headed back to the hotel to relax with showers and the American movie Fracture dubbed in Italian.
We went to bed early after praying for good weather, slept for about 8 hours, and woke up to enjoy a huge complimentary breakfast. I was happy to see that it was not raining, although it was overcast and not too warm. We made our way to the beach, anyway, and met our instructor Gaudenzio. He told us the water was too rough for anybody but experts (which we are obviously not) to go out alone, so he agreed to give us lessons in the bay for the set price. Hallelujah!
I literally may have died if I had gone out without him. After he gave us wetsuits, life jackets, and kayak skirt things to put on, we headed out to the beach where our kayaks were. We learned how to get into our kayaks, put the skirt around the seat to keep water out, and then how to get out in the water. The first thing we actually learned in the water was how to handle the situation when you capsize. That meant he flipped our boat over into the super salty bay of what Sarah has informed me is the Ligurian Sea. I think he said 36 parts per thousand salt? Whatever it was, it tasted like licking a salt shaker whenever it got in my mouth.
The whole thing was a little terrifying at first, but it turned out to be really fun. After we had semi-mastered the whole capsizing thing, it was finally time to learn how to kayak. My arms are not so in shape, so that part was pretty tiring. Our instructor took me and Sara on a short trip out to these awesome rocks, but he didn’t want to take two novices any further… especially because I don’t believe we signed any kind of waiver. I was proud of myself for not capsizing in the deep water. Relaxing and thinking clearly under pressure are not so much my best talents.
We went back to the bay, took some fun pictures, changed out of our amazing wetsuits, rinsed off, and paid our 25 Euros a piece. Worth every penny… or Euro cent… especially since the instructor should have cost us much more.
We went to find an ATM and a bus stop before doing anything else. After a quick lunch at a cute restaurant on the water (where I had what has become my favorite sandwich of tomatoes, mozzarella, lettuce, and this one with balsamic vinegar. YUMMMM!), I took a nap on the beach. I used my purse as a pillow and wrapped myself as much as I could in my tiny little towel. Darn wind made it not so comfortable, but it was an enjoyable sandy venture nonetheless.
I was kind of sticky, sandy, and still salty from the water, so I took a nice relaxing shower and rocked out to some Italian MTV (which actually plays music videos!). We then went out to enjoy our second, and last, night in Elba. We saw so many familiar faces on our walk. It makes me think that Marciana Marina is the kind of small ocean town where everybody knows everybody. Che bello! But that also means that they surely knew we were tourists… and some of the few Americans, since most of their tourists are Italian or German.
We took pictures by a fountain, and of course I managed to sit in some bird crap. Uber lame. My poor pants. Earlier this week I totally stuck my hand and notebook in bird poop outside the Uffizi. FML. But we found a water spout where I attempted to wash it out, at least… making my butt less dirty and more wet.
After that adventure, we climbed out on the awesome rock Sara and I had kayaked to, took some gorgeous pictures (“Sarah, don’t pose that hard!”), and went to a cute pizzeria for dinner and good conversation. Then we stopped in some cute stores on the way home and, of course, got gelato. I tried Nutella flavor this time, and it was quite yummy.
We went to bed super early since the bus we had to catch was at freaking 6:55 AM. We woke up in plenty of time, checked out, grabbed some fruit that was already out for the complimentary breakfast, and made it to our bus stop. We loaded the bus and listened to some rocking techno-ish dance music… which was in English, at least. Just how I want to start an incredibly early Sunday morning.
The bus took us back to Portoferraio, where we were supposed to catch a ferry back to Piombino. We walked around the town a little first, thinking we may go to the Napoleon museum before realizing we were just too worn out. And I had a splinter in my foot (which still refuses to come out). So we sat for a while, watched a sea gull attack a plastic trash bag, and went to get on the ferry.
I mostly just sat inside and wrote on the ride back to Piombino, and the ferry seemed to take a lot longer than it had in the other direction. Things just go slower on Sundays, or so it seems. When we got back to mainland Italy, we found the train station 2 minutes from the port which we were supposed to go to in the first place on Friday… which made a difference of about 25 minutes in walking time. Yay!
Our train was already there, even though we were an hour early, so I got onto it and just fell asleep on and off until we reached our first destination of Pisa. Unfortunately, the famous tower was a very long walk from the train station, but we took our tired feet and walked there anyway. These opportunities don’t just come around every day! We took a few cheeseball pictures with the tower, looked at the souvenirs, headed back to the train station, grabbed some food, and boarded a train to Firenze.
After only 2 days away from Florence, coming back still felt like coming home. I’ve grown attached to our Italian family, and I missed seeing them and trying to communicate with them at dinner. Those 2 days were plenty long to be away from them. We took the bus from the train station home, for the sake of our worn out extremities, and got back very quickly. Good call on that.
Paolo gave me a huge hug when he saw me, which made me very happy. I showed him some of our pictures from Elba, and he smiled or laughed at quite a few of them. Then the roommates and I relaxed for a few hours before dinner with the family. Oh, how I missed free food, and the people. Kate wasn’t feeling well and didn’t eat with us, and Kayla has still not returned from what I’m sure was a crazy trip to Rimini. But we did have two semi-random Austrian girls there who are staying here for a little while? I really have no idea. Oh, and P.S., the whole meal was vegetarian. Progress!
I talked to Matt for a little bit, and now it is time to crash before a long week of school commences in the morning. But I can’t wait to hear about everybody’s weekend in the morning. I’m sure my fellow Alabamians will have some crazy stories to tell…
Arrivederci la prossima edizione! Ciao, and major congratulations if you actually read all of this. I must say, I wrote A LOT. But it was an amazing weekend, and I just couldn’t help it. :)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Under the Tuscan Sun...
I am actually posting this on the right day. Looks like everybody is getting two servings of my blog today. :)
Just another beautiful day in Italy… although even that does not seem to be enough for me to wake up when my alarm goes off. Sleeping is just easier than waking up and going to class. But I refuse to waste my time in Italy sleeping! Which is why I’ve decided not to at all tonight. Just kidding!
We ate breakfast and headed to CLIDA, used their working internet for a bit, and then went to class. We did grammar for the first two hours. I am NOT a fan, and of course I seem to be behind everybody else. My teacher is understanding, but I don’t want to slow the other students down. I may end up having to drop a level. Dr. Picone told me that would be fine… apparently I am the only student from UA who tested into level 3 anyway. But I am going to keep trying for as long as I can. That may only last until I get started on the little bit of homework my teacher gave us for the night. :P
After our break we just had a conversation for a couple of hours. Or, I should probably specify, my teacher and the students from Miguel (the Canadian Ivy League-ish thing) had a conversation while the rest of us just listened. I’ve discovered that I am actually pretty good at the listening thing. It is the speaking thing that seems to get me every time! I just get embarrassed and freeze up and make everybody think I’m lacking in the brains department.
It is kind of an ego check, which I guess I may have needed anyway. There are just so many people so much smarter than me. My teacher went around the room asking each person what they were unsure of that we had just gone over. Everybody else was saying, “niente,” (meaning nothing); before I even had a chance to answer for myself, my teacher Maria said, “molto,” (meaning a lot). Hahaha. Oh well. I would almost rather my teacher know I am slower than others than me have to try to hide it for the next month.
After class was over, I grabbed a yummy tomato and mozzarella sandwich and ran back to the apartment to put up my notebook so I wouldn’t have to carry it around. The group met back up at CLIDA to go on our afternoon trip to Settignano. We waited at a bus stop for almost half an hour and then spent another half an hour on the bus (my first experience with Italy’s public transportation system… not too terribly comfortable, but quite convenient).
Following a very hilly walk (So much walking today!), we arrived at a beautiful garden called Villa Gamberaia. Dr. Picone gave us a brief history of Italian-related things. History’s not my style, though, so I admit I didn’t pay the closest attention. I just sat there and appreciated the gorgeous view of Tuscany and of the gardens.
The whole group walked around taking tons of pictures and just looking at everything. It’s truly incredible how much more beautiful things are here. I appreciate the beauty in parts of Alabama, particularly Tuscaloosa on gameday ;), but not much I’ve seen can even compare.
After some time relaxing there, and sticking our feet in a pool that I would not have minded jumping in (even completely clothed), we headed back toward the bus stop. Our bus was waiting there, so we all had to run to catch it. I wish I’d had my camera out then… that sure would have been a memorable picture.
We had a crowded, sweaty bus ride back to downtown… but the gelato that Sara, Jessica, and I got afterward. Today’s flavor was tiramisu. YUMMY. Just what I needed.
Now we are back at the apartment trying to plan our weekend. If things work out correctly, we will be heading to Elba to go sea kayaking. It sounds amazing, and I hope everything comes together. :) I don’t know the next time I’ll be on the computer since we may be leaving right after we get out of class tomorrow. RIDICULOUS!
For now, I am just going to rest up before dinner. We may be going out with our host father tonight, which I am sure will be AMAZING. =) He is hilarious. And hopefully this will give me a chance to work off some of the million calories I am sure to consume tonight at dinner.
P.S. I miss all of you dearly! I hope everybody is enjoying America for me while I’m enjoying Italia. I can’t wait to see all of you when I get home… Until then, I am going to appreciate the time I have here. It’s already starting to fly by!
Just another beautiful day in Italy… although even that does not seem to be enough for me to wake up when my alarm goes off. Sleeping is just easier than waking up and going to class. But I refuse to waste my time in Italy sleeping! Which is why I’ve decided not to at all tonight. Just kidding!
We ate breakfast and headed to CLIDA, used their working internet for a bit, and then went to class. We did grammar for the first two hours. I am NOT a fan, and of course I seem to be behind everybody else. My teacher is understanding, but I don’t want to slow the other students down. I may end up having to drop a level. Dr. Picone told me that would be fine… apparently I am the only student from UA who tested into level 3 anyway. But I am going to keep trying for as long as I can. That may only last until I get started on the little bit of homework my teacher gave us for the night. :P
After our break we just had a conversation for a couple of hours. Or, I should probably specify, my teacher and the students from Miguel (the Canadian Ivy League-ish thing) had a conversation while the rest of us just listened. I’ve discovered that I am actually pretty good at the listening thing. It is the speaking thing that seems to get me every time! I just get embarrassed and freeze up and make everybody think I’m lacking in the brains department.
It is kind of an ego check, which I guess I may have needed anyway. There are just so many people so much smarter than me. My teacher went around the room asking each person what they were unsure of that we had just gone over. Everybody else was saying, “niente,” (meaning nothing); before I even had a chance to answer for myself, my teacher Maria said, “molto,” (meaning a lot). Hahaha. Oh well. I would almost rather my teacher know I am slower than others than me have to try to hide it for the next month.
After class was over, I grabbed a yummy tomato and mozzarella sandwich and ran back to the apartment to put up my notebook so I wouldn’t have to carry it around. The group met back up at CLIDA to go on our afternoon trip to Settignano. We waited at a bus stop for almost half an hour and then spent another half an hour on the bus (my first experience with Italy’s public transportation system… not too terribly comfortable, but quite convenient).
Following a very hilly walk (So much walking today!), we arrived at a beautiful garden called Villa Gamberaia. Dr. Picone gave us a brief history of Italian-related things. History’s not my style, though, so I admit I didn’t pay the closest attention. I just sat there and appreciated the gorgeous view of Tuscany and of the gardens.
The whole group walked around taking tons of pictures and just looking at everything. It’s truly incredible how much more beautiful things are here. I appreciate the beauty in parts of Alabama, particularly Tuscaloosa on gameday ;), but not much I’ve seen can even compare.
After some time relaxing there, and sticking our feet in a pool that I would not have minded jumping in (even completely clothed), we headed back toward the bus stop. Our bus was waiting there, so we all had to run to catch it. I wish I’d had my camera out then… that sure would have been a memorable picture.
We had a crowded, sweaty bus ride back to downtown… but the gelato that Sara, Jessica, and I got afterward. Today’s flavor was tiramisu. YUMMY. Just what I needed.
Now we are back at the apartment trying to plan our weekend. If things work out correctly, we will be heading to Elba to go sea kayaking. It sounds amazing, and I hope everything comes together. :) I don’t know the next time I’ll be on the computer since we may be leaving right after we get out of class tomorrow. RIDICULOUS!
For now, I am just going to rest up before dinner. We may be going out with our host father tonight, which I am sure will be AMAZING. =) He is hilarious. And hopefully this will give me a chance to work off some of the million calories I am sure to consume tonight at dinner.
P.S. I miss all of you dearly! I hope everybody is enjoying America for me while I’m enjoying Italia. I can’t wait to see all of you when I get home… Until then, I am going to appreciate the time I have here. It’s already starting to fly by!
By the way, the picture at the top of my last post was actually from today. But I put it on the wrong entry and can't figure out how to delete it. Just know it is of the garden I went to today!
Art Appreciation
Yesterday's post, since the internet decided to stop working again...
Non posso credere di essere in Italia. Ogni giorno vedo qualcosa famosa di cui ho sentito ma che non ho visto mai. Non voglio mai tornare in America, ma mi amano i miei amici e la mia famiglia più di Venezia. Ho cominciato la mia classe italiana a CLIDA oggi. Non era facile, ma spero di imparare più di tutte le altre persone. Se faccio attenzione nella classe e provo di studiare (quando non voglio fare un’altra cosa), penso di potere essere quasi scorrevole in italiano.
Translate it guys! Devo praticare il mio italiano TUTTO IL TEMPO.
Just kidding… enough of that. English is so much easier and faster per me! Allora, penso di scrivere in some kind of hybrid language for a while.
So, today was the first day of class. It was a little strange actually having to wake up and go somewhere… especially when that somewhere is school. We all got our class assignments… Apparently I tested into level 3. I’m pretty sure that was the level I was supposed to test into after my 4 semesters of italiano, but I am honestly not sure if I have adequately prepared.
Here’s a shocker: I am basically the slowest person in my class. Not too shocking considering that I am always slow and that I am the only person from Alabama. Then there are four Kansas University girls (including my housemates Kate and Kayla), 4 people from what they claim to be like a Canadian Ivy League school, a woman from Germany, and a woman from Argentina. And most of them seem to be ridiculously good at Italian.
My teacher is named Maria, and she seems really cool. She was willing to slow down and explain when I was particularly lost, which was MUCH appreciated. Four hours is definitely stretching my attention span, but hopefully I will get used to being in class that long eventually. Hopefully by the time it’s over, at least…
After lunch about half of our group went to the Uffizi (a huge art museum) to eat lunch and at least start looking at some of the art (for free… yay museum passes). There is so much, it took me forever just to look at everything on the third floor. But I definitely saw works by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raffaello, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. I feel so cultured now. And my legs feel exhausted. I am in serious need of a pedometer to see just how far I walk every day.
Sara and I both took forever to look at everything, so we ended up leaving around the same time. We went to CLIDA to use their internet since ours seems to be down nel nostro appartamento all the time. Then we walked home, discovered a piazza and market place that we had yet to visit, got some gelato (today’s flavor for me being menta), and came home.
Dinner was absolutely delicious tonight. We had bowtie pasta with pesto (il mio favorito), salad, lots of cheese, a yummy vegetarian patty of some sort (well, everybody else had big hunks of meat while I ate soy), tomatoes with mozzarella, and fruit for dessert. I am starting to grow more stomachs, just as Paolo advised me…
And now I’m in my bottom bunk writing this and then perhaps trying to study il congiuntivo stupido for a while. We’ll just have to see how that works out…
I kept today’s update pretty short, didn’t I? Maybe because almost 4 hours of writing this morning (given, that was Italian…) has kept me from wanting to do so for pleasure. But here you go anyway. ;)
Buona notte a tutti!
Non posso credere di essere in Italia. Ogni giorno vedo qualcosa famosa di cui ho sentito ma che non ho visto mai. Non voglio mai tornare in America, ma mi amano i miei amici e la mia famiglia più di Venezia. Ho cominciato la mia classe italiana a CLIDA oggi. Non era facile, ma spero di imparare più di tutte le altre persone. Se faccio attenzione nella classe e provo di studiare (quando non voglio fare un’altra cosa), penso di potere essere quasi scorrevole in italiano.
Translate it guys! Devo praticare il mio italiano TUTTO IL TEMPO.
Just kidding… enough of that. English is so much easier and faster per me! Allora, penso di scrivere in some kind of hybrid language for a while.
So, today was the first day of class. It was a little strange actually having to wake up and go somewhere… especially when that somewhere is school. We all got our class assignments… Apparently I tested into level 3. I’m pretty sure that was the level I was supposed to test into after my 4 semesters of italiano, but I am honestly not sure if I have adequately prepared.
Here’s a shocker: I am basically the slowest person in my class. Not too shocking considering that I am always slow and that I am the only person from Alabama. Then there are four Kansas University girls (including my housemates Kate and Kayla), 4 people from what they claim to be like a Canadian Ivy League school, a woman from Germany, and a woman from Argentina. And most of them seem to be ridiculously good at Italian.
My teacher is named Maria, and she seems really cool. She was willing to slow down and explain when I was particularly lost, which was MUCH appreciated. Four hours is definitely stretching my attention span, but hopefully I will get used to being in class that long eventually. Hopefully by the time it’s over, at least…
After lunch about half of our group went to the Uffizi (a huge art museum) to eat lunch and at least start looking at some of the art (for free… yay museum passes). There is so much, it took me forever just to look at everything on the third floor. But I definitely saw works by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raffaello, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. I feel so cultured now. And my legs feel exhausted. I am in serious need of a pedometer to see just how far I walk every day.
Sara and I both took forever to look at everything, so we ended up leaving around the same time. We went to CLIDA to use their internet since ours seems to be down nel nostro appartamento all the time. Then we walked home, discovered a piazza and market place that we had yet to visit, got some gelato (today’s flavor for me being menta), and came home.
Dinner was absolutely delicious tonight. We had bowtie pasta with pesto (il mio favorito), salad, lots of cheese, a yummy vegetarian patty of some sort (well, everybody else had big hunks of meat while I ate soy), tomatoes with mozzarella, and fruit for dessert. I am starting to grow more stomachs, just as Paolo advised me…
And now I’m in my bottom bunk writing this and then perhaps trying to study il congiuntivo stupido for a while. We’ll just have to see how that works out…
I kept today’s update pretty short, didn’t I? Maybe because almost 4 hours of writing this morning (given, that was Italian…) has kept me from wanting to do so for pleasure. But here you go anyway. ;)
Buona notte a tutti!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
View from the top... of il Duomo! :)
Here is my update from yesterday which I was unable to upload because of severe lack of internet:
Before I begin, let me assure you that this entry will not as long as the last. Promise! Well, promise is a strong word…
We got a little bit of a late start this morning… just enjoying our last chance to sleep in before classes begin tomorrow morning. I am at least a little terrified about being immersed in Italian for 4 hours every morning, but I am really hoping that I will somehow just magically pick it up… with the help of a professional, that is.
We got going a little bit after noon. We were afraid the weather would be cold and rainy like yesterday, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was sunny and beautiful… just the way Florence should be. We were all starving because we slept through breakfast. We walked down our street and found a little store with relatively cheap food. I had a bottle of water and a panini with lettuce, tomato, and A LOT of mozzarella. Yum! And all for less than 5 Euros, which is better than I’ve been paying so far. Italy is expensive, especially in places where there are so many gullible tourists like myself.
We ate our lunch while sitting on the steps of Il Duomo, or the Cathedral of Florence Santa Maria del Fiore… I’m a little confused if Il Duomo refers to the entire church or not, but it is much easier to type and say, so that’s what I call it.
After Jessica bought some hot purple sunglasses, we stood in line for a little while to get inside the cathedral. It was beautiful! There were beautiful stained glass windows and a lot of paintings, most of which I knew absolutely nothing about since I don’t really know anything about art at all. But I did recognize one called “Dante and his Divine Comedy” by Domenico di Michelino. I assume I saw at some point when I read La Divina Commedia in Maurizio’s UH 300 class first semester. And the fresco on the ceiling of the cupola (if that makes sense… I am reaching a little out of my comfort zone in an attempt to describe these things) was gorgeous!
When we finished looking at the inside, we got in line to climb the 463 steps to the top of the dome. I guess that sounds like a lot, but it felt like even more for my poor legs. I am out of shape! Before we got inside, we met a guy In front of us whose daughter goes to Alabama. Can you say random? And there were two guys behind us who actually go to UGA. The world just feels like it keeps getting smaller and smaller…
After climbing what felt like millions of steps, we finally reached the top. There is simply no way to describe how incredible the view was. I don’t think anybody could understand by looking at my pictures. It was too beautiful. I could see myself in a scenic home in Florence. Yep, sounds like a plan to me. :)
We stayed up there for a while; Sara wrote in her journal, and Jessica and I just sat there in awe of the amazing buildings and hills and sky and etc. Che bella! We descended the 463 stairs, which seemed more complicated even though it was much less physically demanding. I was feeling a little claustrophobic, particularly when I had to suck in and let people pass who were making their way to the top. When I finally got to the bottom, I noticed my legs were shaking. Kind of pathetic but true. If I didn’t have to pay 8 Euros to climb to the top, I would totally do it every day and call it cardio.
We figured a workout like that surely deserved some kind of reward. So naturally, gelato! I truly believe Americans would be SO much happier if there were at least one gelateria on every block. It is amazing to see Italians out after work talking, walking their dogs, and simply relaxing. It sounds like a pretty sweet life to me. Unfortunately, Americans are not as active as Italians, and a happy thing here such as gelato may only contribute to America’s laziness and obesity epidemic.
To work off that gelato even more, we walked around for a while looking for the post office and a few random stores. Then we met Laura (who is finally in Florence and awake at normal times!) and her roommates on the steps of Il Duomo. We went back to see their apartment, which is amazing, and we all hung out and talked there for a little while.
We came back to our apartment where I totally crashed. I am a huge fan of pre-dinner naps. No real surprise there.
Huge family dinner, again… although with a few less people. I tried to talk to my host family in italiano. Can you say FAIL? I just wanted to ask if Laura could come over for dinner one night. Pretty easy words, right? Well, apparently they just don’t make sense coming out of my mouth. But I will not give in! I will try again tomorrow.
Now it’s time to be super lame and go to sleep early before my first day of classes at Centro Linguistico Italiano Dante Alighieri. Good luck to me…
Sono senza il internet!
Hey everybody!
So I definitely wrote an entry last night, but the internet at my homestay is not so dependable... I am at my school right now mooching off their internet, but I promise I will update the blog as soon as I can. :)
I hope you are all doing amazingly, and know that (depending on who you are) I probably miss you a lot a lot a lot. Si manco molto!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Firenze! =)
Okay, so I've figured out that if I don't update this multiple times a day, I am totally going to forget everything I've done. There is just so much going on in Florence!
After the last post, I didn't quite get to pass out. My roommates Jessica and Sarah and I met Kate, a girl who is staying at our homestay from Kentucky, and walked with her to meet her group at "Il Duomo", which is a straight shot down the road that we all live on... maybe a 10 minute walk. It is beautiful, and about half of the pictures that I've taken so far are of that building.
Afterward, we walked around Florence and attempted to find where our school, CLIDA (Centro Linguistico Italiano Dante Alighieri) is. We knew it was in the Piazza della Repubblica, but we had no luck finding it. Addresses on i piazzi are a little confusing.
We ended up coming home after that, where I passed out for a few hours (unintentionally) until dinner time right around 9 PM. And oh was dinner interesting. We knew that this was a big apartment, but little did we know that we have a miniature world represented here. I feel so much more cultured having met all of these people.
Our dinner crew: our "parents" Gianna and Paolo; their daughters (who don't eat at the big table with us, because there isn't enough room) Martina, and... I'll get back to you with the other two. Too many names; a guy named Matt, who goes to Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and who has been studying here since August; Matt's friend Alex, who is from Germany and attends law school there, but who went to high school in the United States; Matt's friend Amanda, who has been studying in Florence since August but will be leaving next week; Rachel, a girl who used to live here who is from Jersey (a small island which is sort of part of England but has its own currency and government); Anna, a lady from Russia; a woman from Thailand who apparently doesn't speak a word of Italian; a girl Paige who showed up later who used to live here; the two girls from KU who are also staying here, Kate and Kayla; and finally myself, Jessica, and Sarah.
It is exhausting just reading that. Now imagine trying to have a conversation with all these people... in Italian. Ridiculous! My skills are definitely not up to par. It is my goal to be able to at least follow what we are talking about at diner by the end of this trip, and maybe even to contribute by the end of everything.
Those people who speak English were very helpful, so I mostly know what we talked about. And I can tell that everybody is hilarious and nice and that all of us are going to get along very well. Dinner lasted almost 3 hours with talking, eating (SO much food, although I felt like I inconvenienced them with my vegetarianism), wine, after dinner jelly beans, and more talking. It was a great first night. :)
Now on to yesterday... I'll try to be somewhat more concise.
Sara, Jessica, and I woke up to eat breakfast. We weren't too rushed because we didn't have to be at school until 10:30 AM for our placement tests (other days we will have to be there at 9 AM... whooo). We found our school (thank goodness), took our tests, watched them graded, and were told to come back Wednesday. (Today, Tuesday, is a national holiday of some sort). We don't know what level we tested into, so I guess we will all see on Wednesday.
We cam back to our appartment for a few minutes to put up our school supplies and then went back out in Florence. We ended up eating at a pizzeria on the Piazza della Signoria. We were sitting outside, but then it started raining and got cold (the one time I decided against bringing my jacket, of course), so we moved inside. Lunch was good, although we didn't exactly know the customs and how to go about asking for the check and tipping.
After lunch we ran into a few people from our group (Ashley, Chauncey, and Kirk) and talked with them in the freezing rain (well, it felt like it) for a while. Then we walked down to the river and crossed the bridge into the jewelry district, where we admired store windows for a few hours. :) We went to a postcard shop Sara had read about and went to a book store before walking back to our appartamento. It really is great how we can walk everywhere in Florence! I didn't know everything would be so close, although there is still a lot of walking.
We came back to our homestay, got ready for dinner, and returned to CLIDA for orientation and dinner with our group. One of the school's directors, a sweet old Italian man whose name has escaped me, oriented us for a while. He seems nice and eager to help. He also had a great quote (talking about alcohol, but which could be applied to most things) about how things are best enjoyed in moderation. I will get that from Jessica and write it in here eventually.
Then we went to dinner at I Quattro Amici. It was amazingly nice and so much fun. I sat at the vegetarian and fish meal table which included me, Sara, Lauren, Dr. Picone, Betsy, and Dr. Picone's son Benjamin. Again, HUGE meal with 5 courses. Paolo told us later that we need at least 4 stomachs to eat in Italy. And I believe him!
We came back to our apartment, talked to our family, gave them our gifts, and then Sara and I ended up going out with Matt, Alex, Kate, Kayla, and a huge group of Kansas girls. We didn't stay out too late but ended up coming back and talking with Jessica forever.
We eventually went to bed, slept too late (although my body needed it), woke up, and are now about to head out into Florence for the day. Here we go again... :).
After the last post, I didn't quite get to pass out. My roommates Jessica and Sarah and I met Kate, a girl who is staying at our homestay from Kentucky, and walked with her to meet her group at "Il Duomo", which is a straight shot down the road that we all live on... maybe a 10 minute walk. It is beautiful, and about half of the pictures that I've taken so far are of that building.
Afterward, we walked around Florence and attempted to find where our school, CLIDA (Centro Linguistico Italiano Dante Alighieri) is. We knew it was in the Piazza della Repubblica, but we had no luck finding it. Addresses on i piazzi are a little confusing.
We ended up coming home after that, where I passed out for a few hours (unintentionally) until dinner time right around 9 PM. And oh was dinner interesting. We knew that this was a big apartment, but little did we know that we have a miniature world represented here. I feel so much more cultured having met all of these people.
Our dinner crew: our "parents" Gianna and Paolo; their daughters (who don't eat at the big table with us, because there isn't enough room) Martina, and... I'll get back to you with the other two. Too many names; a guy named Matt, who goes to Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and who has been studying here since August; Matt's friend Alex, who is from Germany and attends law school there, but who went to high school in the United States; Matt's friend Amanda, who has been studying in Florence since August but will be leaving next week; Rachel, a girl who used to live here who is from Jersey (a small island which is sort of part of England but has its own currency and government); Anna, a lady from Russia; a woman from Thailand who apparently doesn't speak a word of Italian; a girl Paige who showed up later who used to live here; the two girls from KU who are also staying here, Kate and Kayla; and finally myself, Jessica, and Sarah.
It is exhausting just reading that. Now imagine trying to have a conversation with all these people... in Italian. Ridiculous! My skills are definitely not up to par. It is my goal to be able to at least follow what we are talking about at diner by the end of this trip, and maybe even to contribute by the end of everything.
Those people who speak English were very helpful, so I mostly know what we talked about. And I can tell that everybody is hilarious and nice and that all of us are going to get along very well. Dinner lasted almost 3 hours with talking, eating (SO much food, although I felt like I inconvenienced them with my vegetarianism), wine, after dinner jelly beans, and more talking. It was a great first night. :)
Now on to yesterday... I'll try to be somewhat more concise.
Sara, Jessica, and I woke up to eat breakfast. We weren't too rushed because we didn't have to be at school until 10:30 AM for our placement tests (other days we will have to be there at 9 AM... whooo). We found our school (thank goodness), took our tests, watched them graded, and were told to come back Wednesday. (Today, Tuesday, is a national holiday of some sort). We don't know what level we tested into, so I guess we will all see on Wednesday.
We cam back to our appartment for a few minutes to put up our school supplies and then went back out in Florence. We ended up eating at a pizzeria on the Piazza della Signoria. We were sitting outside, but then it started raining and got cold (the one time I decided against bringing my jacket, of course), so we moved inside. Lunch was good, although we didn't exactly know the customs and how to go about asking for the check and tipping.
After lunch we ran into a few people from our group (Ashley, Chauncey, and Kirk) and talked with them in the freezing rain (well, it felt like it) for a while. Then we walked down to the river and crossed the bridge into the jewelry district, where we admired store windows for a few hours. :) We went to a postcard shop Sara had read about and went to a book store before walking back to our appartamento. It really is great how we can walk everywhere in Florence! I didn't know everything would be so close, although there is still a lot of walking.
We came back to our homestay, got ready for dinner, and returned to CLIDA for orientation and dinner with our group. One of the school's directors, a sweet old Italian man whose name has escaped me, oriented us for a while. He seems nice and eager to help. He also had a great quote (talking about alcohol, but which could be applied to most things) about how things are best enjoyed in moderation. I will get that from Jessica and write it in here eventually.
Then we went to dinner at I Quattro Amici. It was amazingly nice and so much fun. I sat at the vegetarian and fish meal table which included me, Sara, Lauren, Dr. Picone, Betsy, and Dr. Picone's son Benjamin. Again, HUGE meal with 5 courses. Paolo told us later that we need at least 4 stomachs to eat in Italy. And I believe him!
We came back to our apartment, talked to our family, gave them our gifts, and then Sara and I ended up going out with Matt, Alex, Kate, Kayla, and a huge group of Kansas girls. We didn't stay out too late but ended up coming back and talking with Jessica forever.
We eventually went to bed, slept too late (although my body needed it), woke up, and are now about to head out into Florence for the day. Here we go again... :).
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sono in Italia!
After a long day (or days?) of travel, I have finally arrived in Italy!
My internal clock is pretty messed up since Italian time is 7 hours ahead of Alabama time. It isn't even 5 pm yet, and I am ready for bed. Even though it is 10 am at home. Probably because I didn't really sleep last night. Ahhhh. I am even confusing myself with this jet lag stuff!
Anyway, Mom and Scotty drove me to Atlanta, the group flew from Atlanta to Frankfurt (my homeland!), and then we flew from Frankfurt to Florence.
We took a cab to our homestay... which is amazing. We met our "parents"... who don't speak much English. Uh-Oh! This is going to be a long month! And we met their daughters, who are crazy. They have that squishy stuff that makes farting noises, and they are still in the stage where they think it's hilarious.
Okay... My brain has ceased to function, so I am going to stop writing now... and probably pass out and further screw up my sleep schedule. :)
Arrivederci!
My internal clock is pretty messed up since Italian time is 7 hours ahead of Alabama time. It isn't even 5 pm yet, and I am ready for bed. Even though it is 10 am at home. Probably because I didn't really sleep last night. Ahhhh. I am even confusing myself with this jet lag stuff!
Anyway, Mom and Scotty drove me to Atlanta, the group flew from Atlanta to Frankfurt (my homeland!), and then we flew from Frankfurt to Florence.
We took a cab to our homestay... which is amazing. We met our "parents"... who don't speak much English. Uh-Oh! This is going to be a long month! And we met their daughters, who are crazy. They have that squishy stuff that makes farting noises, and they are still in the stage where they think it's hilarious.
Okay... My brain has ceased to function, so I am going to stop writing now... and probably pass out and further screw up my sleep schedule. :)
Arrivederci!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Procrastination at its finest
So... It's almost 2 AM. And I'm not finished packing. Oops.
But I have miraculously found time to make a new blog post. I am so glad my priorities are in order.
It's kind of hitting me that I am actually going to Italy... today-ish. I am almost inspired to write part of this post in Italian. Almost. But I don't want my non Italian speaking friends to feel left out. So English it is!
Okay. Time to pack, shower, power nap, and then head to the airport. Wheeeee.
P.S. I am going to miss my friends and family SO much. But 4 weeks really isn't that long. And hopefully there will be lots of fun stories for all of you to hear... or read. :)
But I have miraculously found time to make a new blog post. I am so glad my priorities are in order.
It's kind of hitting me that I am actually going to Italy... today-ish. I am almost inspired to write part of this post in Italian. Almost. But I don't want my non Italian speaking friends to feel left out. So English it is!
Okay. Time to pack, shower, power nap, and then head to the airport. Wheeeee.
P.S. I am going to miss my friends and family SO much. But 4 weeks really isn't that long. And hopefully there will be lots of fun stories for all of you to hear... or read. :)
Crunch Time!
And the packing begins...
24 hours until I'm supposed to be at the Atlanta airport to check in.
Today may be a long day.
Oh, and I'm taking bets on how many important things I'll probably forget.
AHHHHHHH.
24 hours until I'm supposed to be at the Atlanta airport to check in.
Today may be a long day.
Oh, and I'm taking bets on how many important things I'll probably forget.
AHHHHHHH.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Like Twitter, but longer... right?
So here goes nothing. I've created a blog. I haven't blogged since Xanga. Old school! I do have Facebook and Twitter, but I guess I felt the need to further expand the influence which the internet has over my life.
Anyway, I am leaving for Italy on Saturday. As in 2 1/2-ish days from now. It hasn't quite hit me yet. If it had, I probably would've started packing already. But I like procrastinating anyway. It makes life more interesting. :)
Anyway, I am leaving for Italy on Saturday. As in 2 1/2-ish days from now. It hasn't quite hit me yet. If it had, I probably would've started packing already. But I like procrastinating anyway. It makes life more interesting. :)
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