I'm Taken Back By You

So classes have been going well. We really got to get our hands on editing yesterday in film and it was so much fun. Actually, it's not that fun working on a cooking show but once I start editing my own stuff, I'll be thrilled. One of our film teachers took us to this little cafe on our break right before it was about to close, and they basically gave away everything for free. That's the time to go. I had a quiz yesterday and two today. I think I did really well though. I have 2 oral presentations due next week and then another the week after that. Then believe it or not, it's midterms already.

I learned a lot today in Love, Sex, and Marriage actually. Usually I'm really not interested in history but I think it helps learning about it here. We watched this movie about Cosimo di Medici and how he appointed Brunilleschi to solve the problem of the dome on The Duomo, and how he had to come up with an entirely different kind of architecture to keep it held up..and how he was the one who pretty much invented 3-D perspective on paper.

It really opened my eyes and made me appreciate that I walk by the Duomo every day that I'm here, as well as Santa Croce where Micheleangelo's tomb is. Sometimes I forget that I'm here but it kicks in every once in a while, and I'm like wow. I'm sooo lucky.

This weekend we are going to see the opera in Milan. We also might take a little day trip to either Verona where Romeo and Juliets balcony is or this other city where Pinnochio takes place: I forget the name.

Next weekend is PARIS! I can't believe I'm going to see the eiffel tower. Illegal or not, I'm writing TF&NC at the top of it and take a picture, just like Kris Roe from the Ataris did.

Then the weekend after that I get my NICKKKK. <3

THEN weekend after that I get Mommy and Daddy :o)

Miss you all.

I have postcards, I just really need to send them out. Sorry!

love.love.love

So I can finally knock riding a gondola in Venice off of my bucket list. It still feels like a dream that I haven't woken up from yet.


I only got 3 hours of sleep last night because Lauren, Nick, and I thought it would be a good idea to go out for a night on the town until 2, only to wake up at 5 to catch our 5:47 train to Venice. Somehow I was fine and full of energy all day. We made friends with a Spanish family on the train ride there because they helped us with our connections the whole way there. Once we were there we all took a picture together with our masks. (I only have a few pictures of Venice right now. I'm waiting for Nick to upload all the good ones)


Venice was beautiful and exactly what I imagined it to be. I always get so worried before I go somewhere that I hyped it up so much and waited for it for so long, and then I'm going to be disappointed...but so far, nothing has happened that way. Every corner you turned, you could find a little bridge, or steps leading right down into the water. One thing that was intimidating about the city though was that it was SOOOO confusing, and so easy to get lost. Everything looks the same and the streets are not positioned in any sort of strategic way.



We went to Venice during Carnivale, so some of the attire being worn was quite interesting. We did get masks before we went though to fit in, and I don't regret it because they are beautiful and something I can keep forever. It reminded me of Salem around Halloween, except MUCH classier and more extravagant. Some of the costumes were insane. Some of these people must spend hundreds of dollars on their costumes.

The cathedral in Venice was beautiful. I realize that it's in Italy, but it reminded me of the castle in Alladin. haha and Morano glass was EVERYWHERE..so pretty though. We walked through a factory and saw them making the glass. So cool. I wish i could have bought everything, but instead I settled for a 10 euro bracelet.

So about the Gondola ride. While I would have preferred my first experience to be a romantic one, this was still quite an adventure. I was PETRIFIED the entire time because I didn't get to sit in like one of the main seats that faces foward...I was in like a side seat..and he did not strategically place us and the gondola was tipping the entire time. Like inches from the water. I was holding on for dear life. We kept asking the man to sing for us, but he wouldn't. He claimed he only sings when he's drunk, so Nick sang instead.

On the train ride back it was pretty full, so we all got split up, and me and Nick were in a completely different car than everyone else. We ended up meeting some really cool people who we hope to keep in touch with. Aside from that, the woman next to Nick had a beard, and the woman across from that was touching her husbands genitalea and giggling about it. Only us.

School is starting to get a little harder. I feel like everything is about to hit hard cause all of a sudden I have a ton of tests and projects coming up. I love my film teacher so much though. He walked into class yesterday with his boxers on his head. Haha, our teachers are so chill here. It's nothing like in America where it's completely unacceptable to hang out with your teachers outside of school. Here they like want to be our friends and we sometimes see them out. So much fun they are.

Nicks visiting sooo soooonnnn :o)

We can go, only if you believe

So the much dreaded weekend alone while my roommates were in Vienna, actually turned out pretty fantastic. Friday morning, I was awoken by the pounding on my apartment door from Nick, because my phone and somehow died in the middle of the night. He was like "Get ready, we're going on this walking tour".. So i was like ughhhhh fiiiiinnnnneee. So i got ready really fast, and then we went and grabbed pizza at this random place, which was really delicious and only like 1 euro for a slice. Then we went on this walking tour to the Piazza di Michelangelo. It is this castle looking thing really far up on a hill across the bridge. I wish I could describe to you how absolutely beautiful it was up there, but I can't. Nothing I say can give it justice. Not to mention, that just being across the bridge, is in itself, and adventure. It so quiet over there, and much more like a town, rather than a city. It's a lot less common to find people that can speak English over there.

So after we climbed to the top, (up these stone steps, and through trees overhanging the path), our tourguide, who also happens to be my love, sex, and marriage teacher, bought us all gelato. She is the biggest sweetheart in the world. I got pistachio, and it was amazing, but I really need to stop eating so much gelato, because apparently it is one of the most fattening things you can eat. I'm not all too concerned about it though, because with the amount of walking I'm doing, it has to all be evening out. Anyways, once at the top there was the most AMAZING view of the entire city of Florence on ONE side, and then on the other side, it was the country. It's exactly how I picture Ireland to be. It was all green, and rolling hills, and just absoutely beautiful. I personally preferred the country side sooo much more, while everyone else was aweing over the view of the city. The was a bronze copy of The David up there overlooking the city, but I didn't think it was a very good copy.

We spent hours up there, even after the tour left, just exploring every little nook and cranny. We found a few walking paths, played on a park for a little while, and then found a woman walking her dog. We stopped and played with her dog for a little while, and got talking to her, and apparently she's like a pretty famous designer. She's American, and has a place in Italy, and NYC. Three other people from our tour, also caught up to us at this point, and we got talking to them, and made friends. They were a lot of fun, and we all ate pizza together before we parted ways.

I went home and took a nap before I got up and ready for the night. Nick came over and then we were off to Lochness to meet our Italian friends. They had a reserved table. It's nice having friends who "have the in". It was quite an eventful night. I didn't have to pay for my shot, and the bartender took it with us. I was like huh, that was nice, but def. not something I should get used to. So anyways, we met another one of their friends named Nicola, who was quite a riot. He could not get my name right for the life of him, and throughout the night, I was called things such as "Debra, Audrey, Cara, Adrian, Elizabeth, Francesca, and Isabel." None of them are even close to my name, let alone to each other. Lots of fun that night. Nick walked me home cause I was tired, and then went out and partied with them some more.

The next day, he called and woke me up at 12:15, which whatever, I guess I had to be up..and was like "Let's go to Assisi" which is like a train ride away. So i was like ok, got ready really fast, and went to go meet him at The Duomo. As I'm sitting on the steps of The Duomo, I'm watching the funniest thing ever. All these illegal alien vendors were in front of the steps, trying to sell their stuff. Every time a cop car passed through, they'd pack up their stuff really quickly, and pretend they were just walking around looking at stuff. This happened like 4 times, and finally a cop car actually stopped. One guy didn't pack is stuff up on time, and just dropped everything (which happened to be these stupid little camera tripods, that nobody is going to buy), and sprinted as fast as he could. The police, all dressed up like guards, with their tall helmets on, went and picked up all his stuff, threw it in the back of their cars, and left. Finally Nick came, and he surprised me with a Valentines Day cupcake. He felt bad that I had to be apart from my Nick on our first Valentines day.

So we get to the train station, and realize that the next train to Assisi, isn't until 4. So we were like, hmmm, lets just pick a place, and we literally picked a place depending on what train left next. It ended up being Arrezo. It was 5 euros, and an hour and a half train ride. We had NO idea what to expect, but it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was like THIS is what I pictured Italy to be. It was a very small town, and there doesn't seem to be any bars, or anything to do, but it was absolutely beautiful. So different from Florence. Nick took a ton of pictures that I don't have yet, sooo you'll have to wait on those. We went into a beautiful church, and there was some sort of ceremony going on. There were flowers EVERYWHERE, and it was gorgeous, and we thought for awhile that it might have been a funeral, but we still aren't sure. It seemed wayyy to solemn to be a Valentines Day mass.

After that, we started making our way back to the train station, and made it just in time for the next train back. Nick decided to be risky and not buy a ticket for the way back, because seriously, we have not been checked for our ticket YET. I was way to scared to do so, because my luck, the one time I don't buy a ticket, would be the one time they check, but we have yet to see anybody working on the train.

Got back and got ready really quick. We went out and met our Italian friends at Naima. Totally different bar, totally different bartender, and I STILL didn't have to pay for my drink. Not to mention I went up twice. I'm becoming wayy to spoiled. We didn't stay out for very long. To be honest, I think we were both miserable that we were alone on Valentines Day and we were surrounded by cute couples. I went home and talked to my Nick for hours, and then went to sleep.

I have my ticket to Ireland, so I am officially going with my Nick when he comes to visit. I'm soooo excited :o).

Some work, but more play

So my school week is already over. It went by pretty fast, and I would say it went well. Monday was just Italian at 5:50, and it went well. I love my teacher so much. He's really helpful and really helps you to understand. Plus he's crazy and hilarious.




Tuesday was a loooonnnnggg day. My first class was at 12, and it was the European Union one that I have with Stella and Paige. She assigned us into groups and each group has to do an oral presentation on a different country. The 3 of us being annoying had Stella go ask her if we could switch around the groups so that we could be together seeing as we live together and it would just be the easiest thing. She put the 3 of us together with ease, and we got France as our country. When somebody else asked to be switched, she said "no". Ha, I need to stop getting so used to always getting my way.



Next I had Film for 5 1/2 hours. I decided I'm going to do a music video for my final project instead of something with dialogue, cause well, lets be honest..I'm not good at writing dialogue, I'm only good at memorizing it and acting it out. Besides, if I can't act, I want to edit, so editing is really what I'm going to concentrate on for my project, and I want to make it like awesome, and i can't wait.



Today I had 3 classes, and in Love, Sex, and Marriage, we went on a really long tour of Florence, and at the end of it we climbed to the top of the Duomo. I did not like it at all. There were 466 steps, and they were steep, and all closed in, and like spiraling in most spots, and I realllly like had an asthma attack. My whole chest like closed up, and I really couldn't breathe. The view was beautiful, and i have pictures of it that I didn't upload yet, but I still don't know if it was worth the pain that I am STILL feeling in my chest. On our way to the Duomo, some painter guy picked me out of like the center of our tour, and pointed to me and was like "YOU, with the bun on your head! I want to draw you! I give you half price!" I kinda just looked down and turned red, while everyone in my class laughed including my teacher.



Tonight Lauren and I made eggs and toast for dinner. It wasn't very good.



My roomates are all leaving me tomorrow for Vienna, so I'm going to have to find something really fun to do by myselfffff.

Pisa

So yesterday i woke up at 11:30, got ready real fast, met Nick at the Duomo, walked to the train station, and 5 euros later, Lauren, Nick, and I were off to Pisa. The first thing we saw when we pulled into the train station at Pisa was a goat in a stock yard. We weren't really sure what to make of it. We got off and realized that we were in a beautiful Italian city, with a much different vibe from Florence. In Florence, every corner you turn you see an American student, while in Pisa, is was all Italians. It was much quieter in Pisa, and more peaceful, and you could walk straight through a market without anyone harrassing you to buy something. We walked through the town and turned a corner, and all of a sudden, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is standing right before us.

It asbolutely did not seem real. This is something that you hear about and see in books, or posters, and there it was, right before my eyes. I have no idea how that thing has not fallen over yet. The time we spent by the tower, was the only time that it didn't rain there. We took millions of pictures, and laughed A LOT. On our way back to the train station though, I was absolutely miserable. Because I am too stubborn to purchase rain boots, my feet were entirely soaked, and freezing, and blistering. We stopped in this dessert place, and everything in this shop looked DELICIOUS. I'm sure everything was delicious too....except what we got. Funny that when we asked for it, the woman acted really surprised. It was on the bottom shelf and had probably been sitting there for months. She put it in a box and gave it to us, and we sat down and dug in. After a few minutes of pretending like we liked it, and that we had made a good choice, we decided that it was like eating a stick of butter.

We got back to the train station and made the next train back to Florence. We looked through all our pictures, and both Lauren and Nick made fun of my stupidity. They made fun of the fact that I thought cats really did have nine lives, they made fun of the fact that I thought goat cheese was made out of the goats head hahaa, and they made fun of how I accidentally rubbed my boobs instead of my stomach out of satisfaction from my meal. It's fine I like getting teased. The train finally arrived in Florence and after nearly getting sqwoosed by the door, we jumped out, only to realize we were at the wrong stop. SO we had to run and yank the door back open, and it's beeping like crazy warning us that it's going to shut, and Lauren and Nick dive in, and I'm like screaming as it's shutting and I jammed my umbrella in, and they pried the door open and I had to jump in as it was violently shutting on me. I'm pretty sure I have a bruise on my arm. So after catching our breath, and laughing a little, we awaited the next stop BY THE DOOR this time. We waited there with a man from Nigeria, a little old woman, and another woman with a suitcase. The train stops and the black guy basically pushes us out of the way, opens the door and leaps out. Next while the little old lady was trying to get out the doors shut right on her. Like she was literally smooshed right in between the two doors. hahahahah. So Lauren and Nick like pry it open and she scoots out, and then the other lady was like freaking out cause she had a suitcase and had no idea how she was going to do this. So Nicks like, I'll help you. So me and Lauren jump out. The door shuts again. He pries it back open to hand us his camera bag, the doors clamp shut with the camera bag between. We yank it out, and he next jumps off with the suitcase. The doors zoom shut again, and the lady like DIVES off, almost falling because she's wearing high heels. It was the most intense experience of my life.

We get home change out of our wet clothes. Amanda had dinner waiting for us on the table. I frantically look up cheap flights for travel, talk to Nick online, and then this Nick came over, and was like UM, we're going out. So we had to quickly get ready, and then we went out with our new Italian friends. It was quite a good time because we get to experience their way of life, rather than go into a bar that's full of Americans.

Today was a lazy day. I did homework, talked to Nick , went to the grocery store for supper, and then Amanda and I made eggplant parmesian. Neither of us had ever made it before, but it was really easy, and really really good. Tomorrow classes resume.

That's Amore

So let me catch up on what's been going on in Florence. It has still been raining on and off every day. I think it might be time to invest in a pair of rainboots no matter how ugly they are because I'd rather that than ruin my uggs, or wear off Tom Delonge's signature from my converse. So i think last time I wrote I was excited about my video class and that was on a Tuesday, so I should probably start from Wednesday. Wednesday I had 3 classes. My first class was Terrorism, and I walk in and notice that much to my dismay, it was the same teacher that I'm terrified of from my European Union class. My heart immediately dropped into my stomach, and I felt anxiety rushing to my chest from all throughout my body. My first thought was "I want to go home, I've been having bad luck left and right." Once I realized that there was only 8 people in the class, it wasn't that bad and I began to get used to it. After I went to Love, Sex, and Marriage. That should be quite an interesting class, and next time we were told to wear comfortale shoes because we are climbing to the top of The Duomo. I went home and was able to take a 2 hour nap before my last class of the week which was Italian again. This time I realized that I'm going to be more than OK in the intermediate class, and I'm going to stay in it. I love our teacher; he's absolutely crazy.

We've been cooking a lot in our apartment. Wednesday night Stella and I came up with an excellent creation, and made something similar yesterday. Tonight we made salmon, and made some amazing rise cause we just started throwing random food in it like mushroom, garlic, wine, and salt, and it ended up being amazing.

Last night we went to the Irish Pub "The Lions Fountain" again, and we saw the computer technician guy that works at our school. He introduced us to his Italian friends, and one of them immediately fell in love with Lauren and her blue eyes. He's really sweet and works at the Uffizi museum. He gave us an entire tour today for free and some of the art there was amazing. I never was entirely into art, but just knowing how old some of it was and that I was standing in front of an original painting that people in their lifetime never get to see, absolutely took my breath away. I got to see The Birth of Venus, and The Primavera. I also got to see Agony In the Garden. I learned lots symbolization that was very interesting such as if there is a dog in a picture with a couple it means that they are commited. If there is a dog in a picture with just a woman, it means that she is not pure, and could either be an adultress, or just sleeps around.

Some interesting side notes that I've noticed. Lauren and I have noticed that we have seen literally maybe 3 kids since we've been here. I have no idea why, but apparently isn't a place to raise kids? Also I was thrilled today that I bought a bottle of water for 50 cents.

I booked my flight to Paris. I'm going the first weekend of March and I will be there for my 21st birthday. I'm waiting on other cheap flights before I book anything else. Some goal places: Ireland, Egypt, Greece, Prague. But Prague's looking pretty expensive right now. Germany I know I'll get to when Mom and Dad come so that's exciting. Nick and Amanda just booked their tickets to Ireland for spring break. They are going to Scotland, Ireland, and London, and then back, and all of that together cost less than 75 Euro. That amazes me.

Tonight after we cooked dinner, we went out to a bar called Lockness. It was a lot of fun. They played like oldies music and everything had a red tint. I was having quite a lot of fun lighting a toothpick on fire and poking people's hands with it while shouting "STIGMATA." This was probably a result of seeing so many Jesus related things in the Uffizi museum today. I made the mistake of wearing heels out, so I was definitely walking bear foot on the way back. A bouncer at the door of one of the bars that we passed, stopped me and politely asked, "May I kiss your feet?" While it was a nice gesture, I simply just laughed in his face, and kept walking. I couldn't help it.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to Pisa. I haven't heard many good things about it but it only costs about 5 Euro to get there by train, and it's something that I have to experience while I'm here.

i smell your skin on the empty pillow next to mine

Soooo I hated my first class this morning. We have this teacher who just calls on us randomly by looking at the attendence list. I HATE THAT. It gives me terrible terrible anxiety, and then I just sit there like tense, and my heart pounds, and there's a knot in my stomach, and I can barely breathe. If I knew the answer, I would raise my hand. That class put me in such a terrible mood. My next class put me in a better mood though ...introduction to creative video making..our teacher is crazy cool. He wore black skinny jeans, and combat boots up to his knees, a black shirt, he had grey spiky hair, and black rimmed glasses, a leather bracelet, and earings. He's my favorite. This class looks like it's going to be awesome. I don't care that it's 6 hours. As a group we have to create a cooking show. Then on our own we get to make a travel documentary and then come up with our own script and make the movie. I plan on putting a lot of time and effort into these films, because I really want to get an awesome internship next year--one that will actually take me somewhere in my carreer. So after that I went to the store, and got the ingredients for guacamole, and came home and made it all my myself. I must say it was very good, and lasted all but 5 minutes in our apartment. Nick came over and we started planning some trips, such as Paris. He found a wicked cheap flight for 46 Euro round trip. We all went out to dinner around the corner minus Stella. We hadn't eaten there before but it was soooo good. I had a plate of pasta for only 6 euro and it was phenominal. The waiters there were so funny too. One of them was appauled that I was only drinking water, and came over and dumped the rest of my water into Emily's glass and then poured wine into mine. Then he taught us how to say innapropriate words in Italian and we all toasted to it. I hope that my classes are good tomorrow. I have my second Italian class and if it still scares me then I'm going to go down to beginner, even thought that class would be way to easy for me. I just can't make myself happy. I hope this rainy weather stops. It's making me sad and I fear that my uggs are ruined. Ok I'm going to go do my nails, try and force myself to learn some Italian and then look online for some cheap flights. Ciao!

This long distance is killing me

I think it's better for me to not get into too much detail about this day, because I hated this day.

Last night was pretty fun..we went to an Irish Pub called the Lion's Fountain to watch the super bowl. We shared a booth with these guys who were also American and traveling around. They gave us lots of tips oh cheap travel, and I looked up some of the websites to see how cheap it would be to go to Ireland, and it's looking pretty good.

So as I said earlier, I'm not getting into detail about today but, I'll list:
it rained
our washing machine pipe burst
I miss Nick
we got lost on our way to Italian class and showed up 30 minutes late
I barely remember anything of Italian
I saw an extremely depressing movie (even though the movie theater was beautiful)
and more...

Hopefully tomorrow will be better because I get to start my creative video making class.