follow me to my new address

in the literal world and in the virtual world, I mean that both ways. I am moving to Gainesville and I am moving my blog to a different url. This is my new url, if you feel like following me. Now that I'm not in Italy, I'm not really sure what I'm going to say.


http://pavonepavleenpau.blogspot.com/

Born in the USA

So I'm back home I haven't posted about it yet. Maybe people aren't expecting me too. But basically I haven't done this because I'm crashing at my dad's, who doesn't have internet. I have an iphone now, but posting a blog by iphone... ugh, that sounds awful.

Last Saturday I said goodbye to my friends who I had to wake up, and left my apartment, 25 Via Fra'Angelico, for the very last time. The bus wasn't too full, which was nice because I had a lot of stuff taking up space, and a nice Italian man helped me take my bag off the bus. BUT I couldn't have my last Italian bus experience go smoothly! That would be too weird! As my bus, the ever late 14, pulled up to la stazione di Santa Maria Novella, the blu Sita navetta por il aeroporto pulled out... 15 minutes early! All my careful planning was for taught! So I sat around waiting for the next one, listening to two non native Italian speakers talking in Italian to each other and translating everything they said, just like a creeper. Is that even the favored phrase these days? "Creeper"?

I almost didn't make it out of Italy. That ash cloud that had been constricting my airways (not the continents, but my personal airways, which I keep inside of my throat,) which had reached Florence but wasn't supposed to be a problem that day, was, in fact, a problem. The pilot says, "Unfortunately, there will be a no-fly ban put in place in 20 minutes. So we're taking off in 10." Thank goodness! I made it out!

It was really surreal to fly into Paris CDG. I saw the Eifel Tower, the Arc d'Triomphe, the Sacre Coeur, all the biggies, all the things I'd seen 6 years ago, but I saw them from above. It was really very cool.

My flight home was awesome. I had 1st class luxury. The guy sitting next to me, and about 10 of his buddies, were all from a Coca Cola bottling company and the company sent them to ATL in the prima classe to attend a Coca Cola conference. Talk about a sweet job. I watched The Young Victoria and Precious and I cried during both of them. Unashamedly. Who cares if people see me crying over touching things? Also, the man next to me was asleep lol.

I had a bit of a freak out when I got in the U.S. It was super weird to be there. The man at Customs didn't think I was me. He looked at my passport for a long time, had me take off my glasses, had me turn over another ID, and still had me look at him glassesless for a while. I was wondering if I wouldn't be allowed back in just because I change my hair all the time. Finally he let me pass and I waited for my bag. I looked at the time on my watch (military), the time on my phone (Italian), and the time on my boarding pass and thought I only have 30 minutes! By the time I acquired my bag, I thought there were only ten minutes. I called family and said I doubted I would make it and got in line at Delta. Meanwhile, a baggage man walks up and says, "Is anyone here Jessica?" It was me, and I had dropped my passport! I have it in this little owl cover, but the Customs officer took it out of the cover to look at it. I just shoved it back in, but didn't tuck it back in, and it dropped out in my haste. Then the Delta woman told me I had like 40 minutes. I just felt flustered and dumb.

Now imagine this: You're riding up an escalator and this smell hits you. It's grease and nausea. It just smells like being sick. That's what America smells like. That's what my very first reminder of America was. I was disgusted. I wondered what all the visitors think. We're so used to it, we don't realize. I tell you, it's horrifyingly awful. Then I was shoved into a giant mass of people speaking English and eating fast food. There wasn't Italian anywhere. I'm walking through all these masses and I feel so stressed and bewildered. What is this place? I thought to myself, "I want to go find a bed of Italians and jump in it." I started thinking in Italian. I wouldn't look at anyone, and I pushed through everyone. I went into automatic Italian defense mode. It was five in the morning where I was from and I was tired and surrounded by all these stranieri. It was stressful and awful and I hated it.

We landed 45 minutes late, but I'd been asleep the whole time. I tried to think what it would be like to see my mom but I couldn't. It was now 6AM my time, 12 AM their time, and life was still pretty weird. I was too tired to be happy really. I see Mom... and then I saw Ivan... and then I saw my sisters and their mariti and mia amice. It could have been more joyous if I hadn't been so bewildered and tired. And Delta broke the zipper on my front pocket of my suitcase.

There is so much space here in America. There is so much space between buildings. Holy crap, yards are huge! Buildings are big, and I went to get a toothbrush at like 1 AM! When is the last time I was able to acquire anything useful that late at night? It seems like, never.

That night seems like years ago now. It's something I barely remember.

Marissa, Tom, and I went to Lake Ella the next day and met up with Mom. We decided to get lunch, but everything sounded heavy to me. We ended up getting, dun dun dun, pizza. I wasn't ready to leave Italy yet. But Chinese for dinner! I mostly ate the rice, though the lo mein wasn't as greasy as I thought it would be.

Since then I've just been getting used to being here again. I can watch TV in English. Wow! I've been driving around. I got an iPhone. I still haven't finished that dumb book I've been reading. I've been trying to catch up on sleep, but I'm still jet lagged. I used a dryer for the first time last night! How exciting! How soft clothes are when they haven't been dried outside! And then rained on and then dried again!

I'm in Gainesville helping Stace and Kim move. We went to Moe's for dinner, but I slipped back into my Italian mindset. I told Kim I didn't have any cash, meaning, I don't have any cash, can I borrow some from you so I can buy dinner? But she said, I don't have any cash either! Don't you have a card?

...

Right. In America, I can use cards to buy dinner. Righttttt.

I'm exhausted. I miss my friends back in Italy. I still think of Italy as home, even though I'm not going to be just hopping on a plane and going back. I'm not going back, not for a long time. I'm not okay with that.

Italian is slipping out of my grasp since I'm not using it all the time. Fortunately, Italian and Spanish are pretty close. I texted Kim entirely in Italian the other day, and she knew what I said and replied in English. Tonight I asked Stace something in Italian, and he replied in Spanish. I'll be taking Italian again soon, and talking with friends in Italian. It won't be so bad. Only yesterday I forget the word for rabbit when I saw two on the side of the road. I don't like that it's slipping away. I don't like that at all.

"Girl's not dumb."

So my flight is still a go-go. I feel a little sick and a little sad to be leaving. It just blows my mind. Gina and I have become such good friends, and the same with Renee and Pati. Alex and I were just getting to be friends. Kevin and I often stay up til 3 AM just talking and laughing! It's over and sono molto triste.

I made a 10/10 on my oral Italian exam btw. I was really happy about it. And I feel pretty sure that I did well on my written exam. I also feel like I did well on all my other exams.

Last night was our farewell dinner. It was delicious. There was the typical Toscana apettizer, which is meat, cheese, bruschetta, and a pate. Plus the brought out fried pizza dough, which was AMAZING. Dinner was a gnocchi (a little too salty, I thought, which is saying something) a lasagna, and a papa al pomodoro. Dessert was a tiramisu and biscotti, which you dip in a sweet wine. Some CAPA kids, including myself, did a little skit mocking our teachers and the staff. The prize was a 50€ cook book, which I didn't want because it would have added like 10 lbs. to my suitcase. It's alright, cause I didn't win. I mocked Jeremy and his Mannerist jean metaphor and how much he hates Mannerism. He actually got mocked the most. Jordan's mockery of Guido was fantastic, I can't believe he didn't win. It was so Guido. And Kevin mocked Lorenzo with the typical, "Ciao Ragazzi... we are closing!" It was hilarious. Lorenzo should be doing that right now, in fact, because CAPA closed technically 12 minutes ago. Hmmmm...

Yesterday I was making a list of things I will and won't miss about Italy. What I won't miss?

A certain someone, unforutanetly, made it to the top of the list
Not having a washer
Skeazy guys
No fountain soda
The expense of the euro

What I will miss
Everything else
My friends
My home
the GARLIC
the language
The experience of getting to use that language every day and getting better and better at it
the store Promod
The art
Anto (my Italian teacher)
the stress free life
my kitchen
taco night
all the fun things there are to do
on and on and on and on and on...

Home is in Your Head

I don't want to leave, not really. I've made a home for myself here. And even though I am excited about things to come this summer, I keep viewing them as something distant, something I will eventually get around to. But there's only two days left now, and I have to acknowledge that the end is LOOMING. My suitcase has been packed. My carry on has been packed and repacked. I finally finished buying gifts. I'm started to get annoyed by nagging things like my thighs because it's so warm at home and where are my summer clothes? I'm not going to be able to cook all the time. My produce won't be as fresh. My food won't be as delicious. This is apparently just a fact. Everyone says the food won't be as delicious. My garlic won't fill the entire kitchen with the smell of deliciousness. Life will be hard again. School will be boring and overloaded again. I'm so not looking forward to returning.
Sorry if that hurts or offends you, but that is how I feel.

volcanic disruptions

I should be able to make it home. I should be able to make it home. I should be able to make it home?

When Dad was booking my tickets, I went out on a limb and asked for first class. And to my surprise... the answer was yes. Maybe this was just my being a genius, because since I have premium tickets, I am less likely to get bumped from my flight.

Now there's all kinds of articles about confusion in the airports and warships picking up British citizens and limited airspace.... I really want to make it home. I really want my bag to not get lost. I really want to have smooth sailing. My flight is at 1, so I need to get there at 11. Dad told me to get there early in case of problems. How early is early? Florence airport is smaller than Tallahassee's, and it's boring when you get there early. I got there early for Amsterdam, and what did I do? Read and be bored for hours. I hope I can get on my flight okay. If I take a cab (if I have the money to take a cab) I'll get there with time to spare But I'll probably just take a shuttle, which is 15€ cheaper.

Today I finished buying gifts. I was looking for cute, fashionable sandals. I tried on so many pairs, but I didn't find any I like

I have 2 exams tomorrow, and I haven't started studying yet. I can't inspire myself to care.

ima fight til we see the sunlight

That song always makes me want to dance.

Tonight is the very last Taco night for Kevin and I! :( Sad! We're switching roles. I always make the queso and he always makes the spicy, but tonight we're switching so that when we get home we'll both know how to do both. Everybody in gli Stati Uniti, prepare yourselves! We're making tacos when I get home!

My oral went well. Only, I said it really really fast, so it was shorter than it was supposed to be. I was a tiny bit nervous. Oh well. She saw it written out, and she knows how long it would have been if I had been slower. I ended it with, "Insegno lei. La prima cena è italiana! è possibile risotto con salsicci." Which, if you had heard all of it, you would know that "lei" is Kim, as in, I'm going to teach Kim how to make Italian food since I'll be living with her, and the first dinner might be risotto with a spicy sausage." Risotto is delicious, I ate it last night. I hope Stace and Tom are okay with not eating meat whenever I cook something, because there just won't always be meat. A cheese risotto = molto buono!

I enter into the Pioneer Woman's website competitions to try and win the fabulous cooking utensils she gives away (thepioneerwoman.com) and today she is giving away an apple green mixer. I'm bound to win someday! I really wanted to win last week's competition - it was a crock pot and a cookbook! The cookbook I'll buy anyway. The food inside sounds delicious.

So, Nemo came last week, which is why my updates were few and far between. As in, I think I only posted one. So our cooking class was not in Italian! How disappointing! I learned all these kitchen terms just for it. It was really hard to remember kitchen terms... I was like, okay, I mash things with a glas... what would the actual utensil be called? What are measurements? I do it all by hand here... hmmm... and I couldn't remember a lot of cooking verbs, but Nemo and Kevin helped me out. BUT there were two other students who didn't speak Italian, so the teacher taught in English. I did get a sweet cookbook entirely in Italian. I can read it too! And Anto gave us a recipe that day in class for popo al pomodori in Italian. Look out world, all I want to do with my life is make ya'll fat. The food was good. We made a pannacotta, which was really easy, and rich and delicate, but not really my kind of dessert. After the class, a bunch of CAPA kids went out, and Nemo obviously came too. I assume he enjoyed it? We taught another kid to play convergence, and he taught Kevin some weird math game. We got home around 3.

We made our very last day trip to Volterra. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy it. The countryside around, however, was beautiful! And I really enjoyed the view. But other than that, it was nothing spectacular. I wish we'd gone somewhere else.

Kevin, Nemo, and I watched The Exorcist and The Village that night. When I returned Catch me if you Can and Night at the Museum and check those out instead the woman at the desk laughed at me, and said, "Molto pensato, eh?" (heavier?) I enjoyed that she was so friendly, because typically, they're not. It's just all business.

Well, Nemo left Sunday. The city is covered in little white parachute seeds. Pati and I went down to the Cascine and the seeds looked like summer snow. That's what we called it. We're so poetic.
The Italian guys here are getting worse. One rode past us twice and then stopped and got off his bike. He tried talking to us, but we both just ignored him and read. In response to this, he pulled out a camera and took a picture of us! UGH! And he was the same guy that bothered Pati in the park by her house. Plus, the other night at Bigallo, there were these guys who tried to stop me from leaving the room by stretching out their legs and then they asked, "do you like sex?" UGHHHHHH THEY'RE SO SKEAZY. Maybe the really bad ones come out in the summer.

We've all been so concerned here because of the volcanic ash. Some programs have already ended, and no one can go anywhere. Some people were planning on traveling by train, but all the trains are pretty much full. It's been really worrisome. Yesterday I resolved myself to staying here because I found out I don't have to register for summer classes til the 10th. And then housing came by and said we could stay until Monday. But Dad sent me an email that said flights from Atlanta to Paris are operating tomorrow, so I think I will get home. The only concern would be if my flight from Florence to Paris were canceled, but today NYTimes said all the Italian airspace was opened. I wasn't sure about that, because they also updated a map that said most of the airports in Italy are closed. But I'll find out.

Well, I have an art history exam tomorrow. Not too concerned. Did the reading, now I just have to memorize some dates. I think Kevin and I are going to watch the final episode of Dexter, Season 2 with our tacos tonight instead of watching a movie, because of the exam tomorrow.

Il martedi

Ahh, I want to update, but I'm thinking in Italian because I have to give an oral exam soon. I'm going to be talking about cooking here. "è una spatola. Ho portrato esso perche cucio spesso in la apartamenta mia. ....." and on.

A brief update, then??
Il venerdi scorso, il mio amico Nemo e io, abbiamo preso una clase de cucina. Ho pensato la classe è stata in italiano. è stato aventuroso! Ma, sono state due studentesse non hanno parlato in italiano, cosi il capocuoco Ricardo ho insegnato in inglese."

Lol, I really don't have time for this update, I'm sorry. That says, Last Friday my friend Nemo and I took a cooking class. I thought it was in Italian. It was very exciting! But, there were two other (female) students who don't speak Italian, so the chef, Ricardo,taught in English.
So sad, my class was in English! I'll update later. Lots has happened.

Ciao ragazzi!

La fine settimana fina

That probably doesn't make sense. It literally translates as, The last of the week last." But it means, to me, the last weekend. Cause the word for weekend is "fine settimana." See?

So Nemo arrived here on Wednesday. I was so excited! I haven't seen Nemo since senior year! He's studying in France, and so now here he is on his break. We went and signed up for our cooking class with Altrevento. It's a really good menu. Gnocchi in a sage and butter sauce, bruschetta, and some kind of chocolate cream thing. Florence for Fun was just offering pasta al arancia and carmelized apples, bleghhhh. Now, here's the rub - I corresponded with them entirely in Italian, I paid in Italian, and then at the very last minute I thought to ask, "è la classe in italiano o inglese?" O, Italiano! Haha, so... what an experience to anticipate! It's in a couple hours. But my teacher thinks that I have a good enough grasp on Italian that I can do it, and help him out too. In fact, she made me feel really good about my Italian. I think I'm rather good at it too, and I love it.
There was a cross cultural reversal shock meeting that day. It made me even more nervous to go home than I already am! My taste buds have changed apparently. I'm going to eat and all the food will be sweet for like a week and I'll have a very upset stomach. And lines! I've forgotten how to queue up! In Italy, you fight to get to the front, and if you don't, the little old lady certainly will! I'm going to get into so much trouble with customs and just everywhere. And I'm going to get hit by a car, because I'm so used to jaywalking everywhere and with less than a foot between me and that car but Americans will hit meeeeee oh noooooooooooo I'm really nervous to come home!
Gina and I made chicken marsala burgers that night, and of course Nemo got one too. But it was a lazy night. I just walked him around the city and showed him the sites at night.
Yesterday was my busy day, so he spent most of it alone. I went back to the Palatine Galleries with Ren Art and I think I want to go back one last time before I leave. Then psych we reviewed for our exam next week, because EXAMS ARE NEXT WEEK! OH NOOOOO
We took Nemo to the leather market, and I have almost finished buying gifts now. I also got a sweet white leather wristband that makes me look cool. Molto forte, yo.
Kevin and I made tacos again, only they were out of our sheep cheese at Coop! So we replaced it with provolone piccante. Spicy provolone?? Is this in the states? Somebody find out for me and tell me right away! It is so delicious! It's not super spicy, it just has a little bit of a kick and mmmmmm. We watched Catch me if you Can while eating and had just a really great time. Nemo and I taught Kevin how to play Convergence and it was really successful. I knew they would be besties lol!
If you can't tell, today I am joyous!
In Italian today, we played a funny game where we all pretended we'd been crashed on a dessert island. We all made a speech to try and see who could be the leader and who would be elected. My speech went, "Farò fare Will construcione tutti case. Farò uno fuoco e Kyle vedrà il fuoco. Sarò la cucina e sarete cogliere il cibo. Sopravvirremo!"
Or, I will make Will build all the houses. I'll build a fire and Kyle will watch it.I will be the chef and ya'll will gather the food. We will survive!"
But Will got elected, because he's going to make everyone cook for him and if we have to, we'll eat each other. Lol, what a terrible captain, I don't know why we elected him. I voted for Patrick, personally, because he had us build a boat.
I joined a group on the internet today. Back in Atlanta, it's a group of people who get together to speak in Italian. When I get there, I'm going to hang out with them. I'm going to look for one in Gainesville too, but I can probably find one on UF's campus. I'm going to miss speaking in Italian so much! I wish OU offered it!
I'M SO EXCITED FOR MY COOKING CLASS TODAY, YAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

Partire è un po' morire. Mi dispiacerà lasciare l'Italia, che amo molto.

I've done something really dumb

And that is... going to be prefaced. Every M,T, and F I have Italian. These classes are at different hours every day. Last night Gina and I were making plans and we agreed to go to the Ciompi Market, because I didn't have class until 11 30 on Mondays. I get to school around 11 20 and I'm not concerned. 11 30, I walk down the hallway, but the door is still closed. So then I check the schedule... and today is when I have class at 10 30, Friday is when I have class at 11 30. Ugh! My second to last week and I've forgotten my schedule?? That's so frustrating. Fortunately, there's another Italian I class at 12 30, and I'm going to go to that one, and feel like an idiot.

So Italy has got these monstrously big misquitos. A couple weeks ago Renee and Gina kept getting bit on their faces while they slept. They get inside because we have to open the windows if we want to avoid mold in our apartment. I was feeling pretty glad that they weren't biting me, and I figured that it was because I close my door all day. Then a week ago one bites me in my sleep and leaves a gigantic red spot bigger than anything the other girls have gotten. Since then I've slept with the covers over my face. Last night I'm about to turn off my light when I look up at the ceiling above my pillow. There's a misquito there, just... waiting. Waiting for me to go to sleep. I thrawted him and slept covered all night til this morning. Ha! I hate misquitos. One bit my hand the other day and it itches really bad.

Other than that, I've had such a cultural weekend! Friday we went to the Boboli gardens and sat around and tried to get some sun. I did the first cartwheel that I've done since my ankle injury because I was feeling so good and I'm pretty sure I sprained my wrist. It made a big "crack" sound and hurt really bad and I saw spots for a while. I wore a tank top though, which was fantastic! That was the night of our best tacos yet, we finally got the sheep cheese to mozzarella cheese to parmesean cheese right and we mixed in three different kinds of meats. It was super good. We had a lazy night in because the next day, Gina and I went... horseback riding through the Chianti region!

They drove us out to this farm house and it was really nice and strange to be in a car. My horse's name was Rien (Rienne) and we fought a little bit. She was a trekking trained horse, and I was a Western trained rider. Trekking horses get more slack in the rein than Western trained horses. We argued right up until I hissed at her in Italian, and then we cooperated more. "Facciamo una coda!" Which means, We make a line, because she kept trying to walk on her own side. The path through the woods was a little bit precarious - the horses' hooves kept slipping. It was a little nervewracking sometimes, but it was a lot of fun. Then we had a wine tasting. The white wine was really good but the red was really dry. Really really dry. The day ended with a Tuscan meal that was super delicious. I played with dogs and wore a tank top and it was so sunny and wonderful. The ride home was down this little winding road through all these villages and it was super fantastic. He drove really fast and it was just a lot of fun, and we all sang songs. Bushes kept coming in my window haha.
It was so sunny and wonderful that Gina and I didn't want to go home. We sat in the grassy area outside of the train station and just basked. What a wonderful day!
When we did go home, I fell asleep. I probably would have stayed asleep until the next day if a misquito hadn't bit me on the face. Arg misquitos! So I woke up and make lasagna soup, which was really good. Only it was really spicy, because I forgot my pepperocini garlic mix doesn't have a little filter and I poured in like 1/5 of the bottle. I watched Breakfast on Pluto and then Kevin and I watched V for Vendetta. Good lazy night to pair with my good active day!

We were sort of lazy yesterday. I cleaned and excercised. But I needed to go listen to the Gregorian chanting, which I thought was at 4 30. It was at the church of San Miniato al Monte, which is on the oltroano and up some really steep hills. So I booked it and was there by 4 36, only to discover that at this time of year it isn't until 5 30. Once it started, it was really interesting for about 15 minutes and I was making a lot of observations to myself and enjoying it. Then I started getting sleepy. Then maybe 10 minutes later it turned into a Catholic mass. I was in the middle of the bench and couldn't get up so... I stayed for mass. Until the sacrament was dispensed, when I got to get up and leave while everyone else got up to partake of the host. It was a little awkward for me to be sitting there as a tourist while there were other people there for Church. I was literally pained when some woman started taking pictures. It hurt. I don't know if she was American or not, which would make me feel a little better if she wasn't. But it was an active religious ceremony, not Disney world!
So leftover lasagna soup on a quesadilla is really delicious.

And now we get to the most exciting part of my weekend! Alex calls and asks us if we want to go to some hotsprings in the middle of nowhere with this Italian guy she knows. I can predict reactions. Some of my friends are cheering this idea on, and some of my friends and most of my family is thinking, Oh good, Jessica would never do something like that. Actually, everyone is probably thinking I would never do something like that. Because I wouldn't. Go out into the middle of the woods, into the middle of nowhere, over an hour outside of Florence with people I don't know? When I have no way of leaving if it goes bad? Who wants to get raped? I don't.
Only... I did! Gina, Kevin, Alex, this guy Massimo, and I all went to these hotsprings in the middle of nowhere over an hour outside of Florence and it was fantastic. We were back in a car (and here I thought I was going to die - I was in the middle seat, which has no seatbelt, and he drove at the average speed of 120 km per hour.) The music was good. The baths were fantastic! Someone went and carved actual tubs into the stone and there were little thermal waterfalls. It was a really Italian experience, because only Italians go there (unless you're not Italian and you know someone that is.) It was so relaxing and so much fun. My skin feels really good now too, because they're healing waters. We were there for a couple hours and then we went home, where I had one of the best sleeps since I've been here. I'm so glad I ditched my old prudish self and went.

una bella fine settimana!

It's a beautiful weekend!

Yesterday I ate McDonalds (we all get there eventually.) I just wanted a soda, and then I realized I was hungry because I hadn't eaten all day. Then I got lost for the first time in a long time. I was tired and a little malcontent.

I went to bed yesterday before 7 30 and I woke up today at 10 30. Whoops! That's 14 hours!

I'm going to go to the Boboli gardens soon, because it's a beautiful day and we're all going to go get some sun.

Ciao ragazzi!
Jessica

the worst part about having a blog is trying to think up clever titles for each post

Yesterday Pati and I met up around 6 40 and decided to go to the leather market. We ran into Alex on the way there. We just wandered around. I'll need to go back eventually, but I don't want to lol. It's awful right now, with all the tourists.
Alex and I decided to to to dinner. I haven't been to a sit down dinner since spring break (well, that I paid for. Cheri and Kathy took me to two.) It was really good - fountain soda (a coveted and longed for object,) gnocchi with smoked salmon and little shrimp, and we both got an appetizer. So, when you go to Italy and the English menu says, soup of mussles, it's not a soup FYI. It's a giant bowl of mussles that you eat out of the shell and it's almost too much for two people. But dinner was good and I was glad to go out. I don't know why I didn't just read the Italian menu.
Afterwards we went to the bar J.Joyce and played foosball with some Italian guys. We asked them and they just wanted to play. When we were done, they didn't try adn skeaze on us. I appreciated that.

Today I went to see.... the David, again. After yesterday! The really frustrating thing about taking the art history courses here is that you always go to the same place. But, interesting fact you don't learn about the David usually. So, when you look at it, it's obvious that his hands are too big, and everyone says so and how could Michelangelo mess up his proportions? Well, the David was made to be viewed from the top of our cathedral. So the proportions had to be tweaked so you could see him from up there. All the sculptors do that here. They don't teach you that in your basic art history course, and they should. We also went to the New Sacristy today, which is just a big Michelangelo room... slash tomb for the Medicis, but Michelangelo himself pretty much said, no one will care about these people in 1000 years.

Oh. I just had a weird moment. I've been thinking it's 2 30, but it's only 12 53. Weird. That just messed up everything I was thinking about not doing. Now I have time to do it.

I'm really frustrated. Today, I had the brilliant thought that maybe I could pay for my summer UF classes with my bright futures, because you have until like the end of your sophmore semester to activate it. I go to open my bright futures email... and then I remember that LESS THAN A WEEK AGO I was trying to send myself this really big document that I needed for class and my mailbox was full and it wouldn't take it and I kept deleting everything trying to get it. I deleted the bright futures email and then I deleted my deleted folder just to try and get this one stupid document. A week ago. Not even!
I emailed bright futures and told them the gist and asked if there was a way to get my pin number back. They have to have students who've had emails crash or something. Most people probably wrote theirs down. I never did, because I go to school in ATL and I knew I was going to stay there. The UF summer classes thing was unexpected. Well crap. Also, trying to enter the public system is confusing me. I can't figure UF's website out at all. The registrars website gives you someone to email with questions. But it's not the registrars office your email goes to, it goes to the admissions office, where someone says, sorry, we can't help you out, go to the registrars website to get their email. ... really? really.

Oh hey, it's homemade taco thursday.

high waisted sailor skirt

That's what I'm wearing today, along with a shirt with... funny sleeves! If it hasn't hit the states yet, this trend is big ya'll.

So my paper is done! It was done on Monday I think. But I turned it in late because the when I put the flash drive in, the paper opened up a big page of symbols. So I had to entirely retype the assignment. My teacher was really nice though so he said it was okay. Also, I had my first draft to show him, but I'd written all over it.

I didn't leave my apartment for two days. That's what I do everytime I have a big assignment. I made Italian meatball soup on Monday and it was really good. I wanted to make Lasagna soup tonight, but I still have some of the meatball soup left. I should probably finish that off. Tacos again tomorrow, so I guess I'll make the Lasagna soup on Friday.

Sorry I'm so constantly talking about food lol.

Pati came home yesterday! It was really exciting to see her and just hang out. she's supposed to call soon and we're going to go get gelato and eat it by the river.

I'm registered for classes! Modern Art, Modern and Contemp Lit, 18th and 19th Century Lit, and Core.

I almost didn't get my classes. But I am no longer angry. Today everything is zen. We went and saw the David again, and went to Palazzo Vecchio in class and it was a really good class. Last night Kevin and I sat in the kitchen and listened to Paramore until 3 in the morning. I've been doing my quad and core excercises. I fixed my iPod shuffle to have really good songs on it. It's been a good day, despite the poor start.

You've got it, you've got it, some kind of magic

I should be working on a paper. Actually, I am, in fact, working on a paper. I've been reading articles on rood screens and what the Uffizi's real function is supposed to be for hours. I've been reading about the life of Vasari. I've been taking notes and writing sentences and paragraphs, so I guess I'm doing good. I've also worked out, lifted my water bottle weight, and taken a shower, plus I read a little bit from Norman Mailer's The Castle in the Forest. So I guess today has been pretty productive. I'm really tired and I want to go to bed, but I want to try and have my paper done before all my roommates get home tomorrow night. Or at least, almost entirely done with just a little bit left to finish on Tuesday. This paper is due on Wednesday, so I think I'm in really good shape. I just need to not sleep until 1 tomorrow.

This is the first real work I've done since I've been here, and it's like... refreshing. I haven't had a hard time convincing myself to do research or to read these long historical documents. It's normally such a struggle at school, because I have so many other boring things to do and I get so stressed that I don't want to do any of it. But this time I'm okay with it. It's not like I've done anything but read and work on Italian and go out and have fun since I've been here. Why can't school always be like this?

Yesterday I made meatballs and they're really good. They were meant to be a snack for the next few days, but for some reason today I haven't eaten an actual meal, so every now and then I munch on them. I think I will go munch on them some more.

They might make it til tomorrow, but I'm not making any bets.

Buona Pasqua

So, today is Easter. That's a really big deal here in this predominantly Catholic country. So... how do they celebrate it?

Well, I'm not living with Italians, so I can't exactly say. But this is what I do know. In the morning, they go to Easter mass. Then around 11 there is a big explosion of the cart, which I don't know what exactly it symbolizes, but that's what they do.

They give their children these big chocolate hollow eggs with surprises inside. I asked my Italian teacher why, and she told me it's because early Christian depictions of the Virgin have her with an egg on her head. These eggs can range from really really simple 5 euro eggs (that are still bigger than my hand) to really elaborate and ginormous and fancy. I saw one that had a castle built into it, and it was somewhere between 30-40 euro.

After that, I don't know what they do. Today and tomorrow everything is closed, except for restaurants and some places in the center. What is the significance of tomorrow?

So I would love to tell you about the explosion of the cart, but... I can't. Why? Because I dreamt I was there so I missed the real thing. I really really dreamed I was there, like I was at the Duomo but there weren't a lot of people around so I started asking people in Italian if this was the right spot for the explosion, but since I didn't know the word for explosion I kept saying "boom!" The explosion I dreamt of was nice though. Big fancy cart, lots of nice fireworks. Whoops.

Because I have nothing better to do??

I'm sure I mentioned that my dad gave me permission to go shopping. Well, first off, I got lots of nice new clothing and that was really exciting. But second, there is something about Italians and shopping that I want to let you in on.

Living in Italy is expensive. It's really expensive. Minus buying food at the grocery store (at least in my opinion - I just bought tons of groceries for 16 euro, but maybe the Italians think it's expensive.) They used to go out to the pizzeria once a week. Now, maybe only once a month. The children don't leave home until about 30-40 years of age, because otherwise they'd have to pay for a place to live, and that's just too much. That's typically when they get married. They might move out to a different city for college and share an apartment, but they usually return home afterwards. (Interesting fact - it is pretty much illegal to have a job if you're a teenager, and most people don't get they're first job until somewhere between 24-26.) The birth rate here, if I remember correctly, is less than one child per couple. You can have half a child. The reason you don't have more than one is because having a child is expensive, and living is expensive, and your first child is typically born when the woman is around 35. After that, we all know about the ticking clock. So if you were thinking that the Italians have big, happy, loud, lovable families - you were wrong, change that idea.

Now if you're thinking to yourself, what the heck is Jessica going on about, none of this has anything to do with shopping... well, that's what I was going for! Because the thing is, that with it being so expensive to live and so expensive to have babies, you would think that they would not want to spend a lot of money on clothes. That is SO not the case. Would you like a new pair of sandals? I would, and they're really cute over here. Would you like to spend 135.oo euro on them? I wouldn't either, but they won't have a problem with it. Apparently, the one thing they aren't economical about it shopping. Bags, 40 euro. Shirt, 40 euro Shoes, 100+. Pants, bam, you're out of cash.

It's expensive to shop here. But the month of sales are fantastic. 70 euro boots? Now they're 19. So you feel so justified, spending half the money you were going to because it's the month of sales. But the reason it's sale time is because of the new collections coming in. And then you just spend so much.

I saw the cutest pair of sandals. They go in between your big toe and the toe that is next to it and they have a little strap that goes up to the ankle strap. The strap was decorated with beautiful cute blue bows and I wanted them. Almost 200 euro, were they? Yes they were.

this day should not be lazy

but at this moment... it is. I will soon finish my laundry, go grocery shopping, go to the science museum, and then go to the library. I will study. I will do research. These are my goals for today.

I will also update my blog about the happenings of the last few days, starting with Thursday, because Thursday was a Good Day.

For some completely unknown reason, Ren Art wasn't a pain. This was probably just a fluke. Also, we were talking about Leonardo. Also, I think Paola seemed a little sad.

I didn't buy a bag for my laptop. The bag I was going to by doesn't zip across the top, and while I've never been pickpocketed at an airport before, or know anyone that has, why risk it? I decided to shop around. There is a really beautiful bag at Accessorize that zips across, has the inner pocket for the passport, and is covered in birds and flowers. However, it is also sort of huge... but maybe not as huge as it is when it's full of paper. It's almost 50 euro though, so I decided I would take some time to think about that, before I bought a 50 euro bag. It will probably be gone before I'm done thinking about it... there were only two in the store yesterday.

Psych was pretty interesting. We played a game where we were divided into two groups. One of a us was a culture and the other group were anthropologists. It was all about the difficulty of getting to know one another from a cross cultural stand point. Apparently, it's really common in business classes, so maybe you've played it before. After we were done playing, we talked about mental health in Italy. We didn't talk about it near enough. I would like to talk about it more.

She did give us a sheet of paper with mental problems that seem to be purely cultural. One of them was called "blacking out" and is limited to the Southern United States and the Caribbean. It is when you just randomly pass out or go through "fuzzy" periods and forget how to function for a few seconds. I was like, wait a minute! I've heard of this! I know people this has happened to! This has happened to me! Amy thinks it's just because it's so hot haha. Honestly, before I went to college I don't think I knew the term "black out" drunk. I knew it as a term for passing out. We used the term "bat shit" drunk in high school, or just drunk.

After class, Gina, Kevin, and I went to Santa Maria Novella Stazione to buy train tickets to Naples for the weekend. We went to the window and I said, "Vogliamo andare a Napoli a domani. Il treno e a quaranta e venti." (There should be an accent mark on that first "e".) The ticket seller and I successfully managed to talk about what we wanted and how much it cost and we were just about to pay when he told me it was sold out. Bummer! We'd already booked the hostel and everything! But as much as I really wanted to see the South of Italy and Herculaneum and Pompeii, I also really wanted to see the Explosion of the Cart here in Piazza Duomo. And I really had to work on this paper.... so I was willing to just accept it and do whatever here for the weekend. We went to the library and canceled our hostel but Gina and Kevin and Bryce still wanted to go, so they got tickets and rebooked the hostel.

Since I have been here, I have been craving a crepe. We were going to a movie that night and didn't have time to go home and get dinner. So I got a crepe at this place that I had seen, Gina got a burrito at the place across from it, and Kevin got a kebab (gyro) at the place right next to it. It was all really convenient and really good! The crepe man and I talked all in Italian and it was exactly what I wanted.

We had some time before the movie so we went to the market of the boar. There are two things you're supposed to do with the big boar statue at the market. First, you rub it's nose. Second, you put a coin in its mouth. If it drops out of the mouth and into a drainage hole, you get good luck. All three of us won! Haha, we'd never done it before and our luck was assured.

Except, of course, when it came to the movie. Our luck was not assured in that aspect. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief was terrible. Bad acting, bad direction, too much in one movie - it was just bad. Don't waste your money on it.

Yesterday was Friday and Friday was Alright. I went to school and was informed that Housing would be coming after six because one of our heaters is leaking and is causing wood rot. Seriously, our apartment has been falling apart, so this new event was just like, oh, we're still falling apart. Our balcony door doesn't close, our water keeps going below 0, our washer went crazy... etc. etc. But remember my experiment where I wasn't going to clean? Well, this is what I learned. Most of the dishes get done. If there are some leftover in the sink, no one will own up to them, each of us insisting "I always do my dishes." But after we'd put them on the drying rack, that was it. It took days and days for the dishes to get put away. It only happened when there were so many dishes on the drying rack that we just couldn't wash any more of them. No one swept, wiped off the stove, the wall above the stove, etc. The drain cloggers were rarely emptied. So yesterday, I had quite a mess to deal with. I went home after class and I cleaned. I wiped down the table, the counters, the disgusting stove tops. I didn't have to clean out the drain clogger because Gina did it yesterday - our other roommates had done a lot of cooking and they hadn't cleaned it out. I swept and swept. I made the couch that Emily had promised to make, since she's the one who messed it up. I cleaned so much that I was in a little bit of a rage about the condition of the apartment and how everyone insists they clean, but no one really does.

Here's the tricky thing about Florentine floors. They look clean. E.M. Forster wrote about it in A Room of One's Own. He said something along the lines, on the very first page of the book, "The floors that always look clean but never truly are." You're not supposed to walk around barefoot in your home here. A Florentine would tell you it's because sickness comes from cold feet. I will tell you it's because they don't want you to know how dirty the floors are. They don't want to know themselves. I can walk around barefoot for less than thirty minutes and come away with black feet. My roommates have noticed and told me they were disgusted. I told them, it's from our floors. They were then even more disgusted... but not enough to sweep.

Also, our apartment came with about 5 brooms. But there is not a mop. I am going to clean them though. Everything is going to be closed, Sunday and Monday, because of Easter. So I might as well clean the floors.

Back to yesterday... Gina and I met in front of the Duomo and went shopping. We ended up in a Murano glass store. She bought her mom's present and I bought a big hunkin ring that is half Murano glass and half Dijon glass and entirely fabulous.

Kevin and I made fish tacos last night with a goat cheese parmesan cheese queso topping. They were pretty good, but they needed more spicy and more fish. We watched 28 Days Later which I've been wanting to watch since I first realized our library had it. It was checked out for weeks! Thursday was also good because I finally got it.

I'm not going to have time to go to the Science museum. Who am I kidding? It probably closes at 5. I stayed up until almost four reading Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. I don't really like it, I don't think, but I'm not sure, so I kept reading it. I did something I haven't done... maybe ever though. I was really bored, so I skipped ahead looking for an interesting part. That makes me feel like a bad person... but I was really bored. But because I was up til 4, I woke up around 1. A day wasted? Probably not. There's still stuff I can do. Mainly homework and grocery shopping.

paramore paramore paramore

I don't think I'll really have time for two blog updates today. But! A funny fact. You know how in America we have those "Baby on Board" signs? Well, they have them here too. They say, "Bimbo a bordo." I laughed when I first saw it. I hope you laugh too.

There will possibly be more than one post today

But I'm not yet sure.

First let me say, I AM SUPER TIRED. I had a vision of me sitting down in the Bargello today and just passing out.

Why am I so tired, you might ask?

Well first off, I have been unnaturally tired lately anyway. But today is my 8:30 morning class and we had an assignment due. My writing portion was done yesterday, but I had to add on some footnotes. I tried doing it last night on Emily's computer and then send it to myself by stolen internet, but Emily has a Mac and I got to the place about inserting footnotes but couldn't figure out how to actually put them on there. So I had to wake up this morning and get to school early to edit the document here. Guido was late to open the doors by about 6 minutes and then the internet didn't work.
But because I haven't been able to turn in a serious assignment late since like, the 5th GRADE I rewrote the entire thing! I took the printed version in front of me, and typed it up all over again with footnotes included this time. That seems like slightly too much work even now that it's done.

I've been meaning to mention my ankle for a long time now, but I keep forgetting. So. How awesome is it that I have managed to go this long without any serious debilitations! I hurt really bad for a week or two at one point, and I've used my muscle binding tape a couple times, but it's been good! It's been really really good. I have taken a lot of Motrin lol. And during spring break they were swollen to an incredible degree. But still amazing! Now I'm just pudgy with low endurance lol. The worst thing about losing weight is when your skin gets all nasty and here the worst thing about losing weight is that I'm also losing muscle. I'm not even losing a lot of weight, but I am losing a LOT of muscle. All summer to work out in the UF gym?? Yes please.

I want to go to bed so bad. But I can't. I have more class. I have more assignments. I have to go to Promod and buy a carrier bag for my laptop for when I come home. I've accumulated enough stuff that I am going to have to carry my laptop home. I didn't want to bring it home at all, not really, but what if there is something I forgot to back up on my hard drive? So I will be doing that. Today. Now. Soon.

Ren Art wasn't so bad today. This was the first day I realized the professor isn't Italian. She's apparently from somewhere in South America, but her name is Paola and she speaks Italian, so I didn't figure it out. I don't know why it wasn't so boring today. Then I went and finished the Bargello. It's got some nice Donatello's, which you can't take pictures of, and some nice bronze birds, which I did.

I really like birds.

I guess I should go. It's almost one. I need to buy that bag and get lunch and go home and then come back. Grossssss.

Senza Parole

So would a double major in art history and English with a minor in Sociology help me get into the FBI?? It would probably help if I could speak Spanish and Italian fluently, plus more languages. This is something I should get on! A major in sociology would have helped me more lol. How do you get into the FBI in the first place?

SO SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH ME! UGHHHHHHHH Today I slept until 2:50! I went to bed around 2. That means that I slept almost thirteen hours. Thirteen hours! I was late to my 3:30 class by 5 minutes because I woke up 40 minutes before I was supposed to be there!

I am trying to get everything in order to come back to the States. I have been contacting people at UF, people at OU, printing registration requests, etc. etc. I am trying to find out if my Netflix DVDs have been returned so that I can put the account on hold. I need to change my address with OU. I need to change my address in general. I'm not really sure what my new address is. If I move to ATL, can I change my address to an apartment there and still be a Florida citizen?

Last night I made spaghetti with tomatoes and artichoke hearts. If anyone ever finds a recipe for this that calls for 1 cup heavy cream and 2 tbsp. butter, cut both of those in half. It was so heavy I wanted to puke. And I have leftovers! ugh.

Life has become really stressful lately.

Sad News

I just found out the Tyler Rowland, who I went to Maclay with, passed away on Friday night. He had cancer. The last I'd heard, he was in remission. I had no idea it had become a problem again. He was really smart. He was on NPR when he was still in high school. He was really ambitious, from what I could tell, and he really was interested in exploring science. He figured out how to make some kind of useful alcohol from kudzu. I wasn't very nice to him in high school, though I never particularly thought I was being mean to him either. I always just thought I was joking around, but I know he didn't like it.
This is the second member of the Maclay family to die in less than a year.
More people I know have died in the last twelve months than have my entire life, I think. And three of them have been my age. I would like this to stop.
The worst thing is, right before the very first death, I was just thinking to myself how fortunate I was that I didn't know anyone my age who had died, in comparison to a lot of other Maclay kids who know people that have died in car accidents. Should have knocked on wood.

An Announcement

I thought I might mention, to anyone who is not yet aware, that I will more than likely not be living in Tallahassee this summer. This sucks to the 9th degree, and I am really not happy about it. But it seems most likely. I will probably (??) go to Gainesville and take classes at UF for the summer. This is a good thing. I can continue Italian, maybe take a sociology course, an English lit or an art history. This will help me graduate on time. Also, now I'm thinking it would be sweet to become part of the FBI and chase serial killers, so I should start sociology ASAP. Lol, I'm not joking, I would really like to do that.

I would like to introduce to you ... my new layout!

I was really excited to get a new layout on Saturday night. I spent a really long time looking for one haha. After putting it up, we went to the boys' apartment to play beer pong, but really we just threw ping pong balls everywhere and tried to block each other. It was really fun. I fell asleep at 2 AM because I was reading the Cranford Chronicles by Elizabeth Gaskell. Her novellas are definitely not as good as North and South.
I had to wake up at 5 AM! I only had three hours of sleep. And you know what I did what that three hours of sleep? I climbed mountains!
We went to the five lands, or Cinque Terre. They are these five small towns that have hiking trails in between them. Some of them are really easy. The Via D'Amore is just a path. But the last two, on the way to Monterosso, are pretty difficult. I believe the book described them as being "fit for an Olympic athlete." They were like STRAIGHT up hill. We got to Cordiglia, and it said, Complementi! You've just climbed 382 steps. The last one was the worst for about 20 minutes, but then it got really easy and fun.

I'm going to tell you my history of falling. TOMBOLA! First off, I only do it on our little gite. I don't ever do it in Florence.
So... in Rome I fell twice. Once we were walking down a sloped pathway to get to the grocery and the ground was wet. I was trying to keep up, and my feet just slid out right underneath me. In the VATICAN, however, I fell for real. I missed a step and fell down like 5 more. It hurt really bad and I didn't want to talk to anyone afterwards because it freaked me out.
In Pisa, I straight up face planted. I didn't step up and so I fell flat on my face.
In Amsterdam, I fell off the road and twisted my right ankle.
I'm sure there have been others, but those were the most memorable.

While I was climbing down a mountain, however, I tripped twice. The one place you don't want to trip, and I did it. First, I was going to take a picture of Gina. We were on a cliff side, like three feet from the edge. I tripped over Pati's foot and went sprawling forwards. I almost died.
Second, we were climbing down the path, and it was all sharp rocks so we had to be really careful about where we stepped. There were a lot of people in front of me. My ankle gives out, I'm falling forwards... and Kevin grabs me by the backpack and pulls me back up. Thank you Kevin, for saving my life. And the lives of those in front of me.
I kept having visions of my ankles giving out just at the right moment for me to fall. The emergency number was 115. I had it down. There were trails where there was only room for one person to walk, and there were no railings separating us from the Great Beyond.
Even while it was exhilirating, fun, and awesome, it was also really painful. I had to take my prescription pain killers when I got home. I twisted both ankles numerous times, but particularly the right one. The bones kept smashing together. The two most frequent sayings of Saturday for me were, "OW!" and "Oh shit shit shit!" Kevin knew that when I said the second phrase, he should watch out for my life. We thought people being behind me was safest. But then it turns out that I can trip upwards too, so being in front of me... also dangerous.

Yesterday was Daylight Savings Time here. I hate daylight savings time! Get rid of it! I miss my hour! I woke up at 2 PM instead of 1. Today I went to a different class section because I went to bed at 2 AM instead of 1 AM and woke up at 10 20 instead of 9 20. UGHHHHHH my Italian teacher is really nice though, so it worked out.
Yesterday was also the first time I managed to find the Cascine, which is the really big park here. My main problem?? I thought it was on the Oltrano (the other side of the Arno (river)) and not on my side. ...Sort of a really big problem. It was really nice though. There's like a giant flea market, a fair, big fields to play soccer. I found a tree that was MADE to sit against. It had arms and everything. I leaned against it and wrote in my travel journal and watched people playing soccer. It was a really nice day. When it started getting dark, I went to the bank of the Arno and watched the sunset and just lay down in the grass. It was probably one of the best days here.

I can't believe we have four more weeks, three more weekends, and then I am back in the United States.

I've seen better days

This has been a relatively mediocre to just plain terrible week for most everyone here at Team 25 (and Kevin too... he's team 55, but he's over here enough to be Team 25.55.) Everyone seems to be having problems with housing, jobs, more housing, summer plans, etc. etc. My last three days have been not so good, and it's sad because I was so excited to get another card. That day I was just angry and frustrated. Yesterday I was just still a little irritated, but a lot of good stuff happened. Today has just been shit.

Dinner for Wednesday was a combined effort between Gina and I and the result was a delicious homemade hot potato soup.

Earlier that day I emailed Dad and asked him if I could go buy some new clothes. Call me an idiot, but I didn't think I needed summer clothes here. Apparently... I do. I also told him about my lack of jeans. So he told me I could go get some new clothes, which I partly took care of yesterday. Yesterday started out really well. I was early to Ren Art, which never happens. And then, Paola wasn't there! Jeremy taught it, and I love Jeremy! He took us to the Uffizi and we just looked at art and learned random stuff. I went straight from the Uffizi to H&M. I bought a really cute, slightly too big high waisted skirt, a new pair of shorts, and a shirt. I went to Zara and discovered why people love it so much. Now I love it too! Plus I got jeans for 15 euro! And a really cute shirt. Promod was slightly disappointing though. The whole reason I decided to ask was because they had a grey cardigan with a giant strawberry on the back and I loved it. I had tried it on two days prior. Only two days! But they were all gone, and I couldn't buy the one on display.

I have acquired a nice number of shirts with funny sleeves here. Funny sleeves seem to be the thing. I'll probably finish shopping on Monday. I need to buy summer shoes... my flats have got holes in them. I tried on a floaty, ruffly, bright multi colored shirt and H&M. I couldn't decide if I wanted it or not. I kept thinking how my hair looked like Botticelli hair, probably because the Botticelli's were supposed to be our main focus at the Uffizi (even though they weren't.) But even if it looked like it would have been nice in the Renaissance, it looked terrible yesterday. I think that was distracting me. I'll figure it out on Monday. It's not very me, it's not something you would typically see me in, but it is very nice.

Then last night we made homemade tacos again. Anyone who knows me at home knows that I abhor spicy. In Italy however... this is absolutely not true, I love it and I crave it. Last night they were so spicy Kevin's eyes were watering, our noses were running, and I loved it the whole time. We watched The New World with Colin Farrel, which was pretty good even though I had the overwhelming sense that nothing was really happening, even though I knew it was, and then we watched The Silence of the Lambs. In Italian, it's called Silenzio degli Innocenti, which means the silence of the innocent and doesn't really make sense. The word for lamb is agnello, so I don't know why they didn't keep to the title.

Today just wasn't that good. I didn't do as well on my Italian quiz as I thought I did, I mixed up venire and andare, and I felt dumb. More stuff happened that was also upsetting. I would rather live in Tallahassee this summer than anywhere, but the transient student deadline for FSU is up. UF's isn't, so I can try and take lessons there and that will get me closer to finishing my major. That would be good. I've also been thinking about taking some sociology courses.

Maybe I will go into the FBI.

It's been a lazy day. I finally ate my butterfinger that Elena sent me. I succeeded in almost watching an entire episode of Criminal Minds. Gina and I just spent the last 30 minutes killing the misquitos in her rooms, even going so far as climbing a ladder to get to them. We vanquished them all.

Tomorrow we're going to Cinqueterre. We reserved a hostel, only to decide to cancel it. We canceled it three days ahead of time and we never heard back from the hostel. So now I have to go talk to them and make sure they're not going to charge me. If they do, I'm going to have to contest it with Visa. Ugh.

What you are now, I once was. What I am now, you will still become.

Okay, for any of you that have told me you can't figure out how to comment on this blog, that should be undone by now. I have just edited it so that anonymous people can blog, which means, not my followers (of which I have 5! how exciting!)

So last night was the CAPA apertivo! I brought my oreo balls, some people brought lasagnas, pastas, even chips and salsa. The restaurant where we had our welcome dinner provided papa al pomodoro, which is a delicious soup-like meal of tomatoes and bread all mashed together and cooked in a soup pot. When everyone was done eating, we went to the student lounge where the two Mikes played chitarra (guitar) and we all sang the lyrics. Lorenzo danced around and it was just incredibly fun. Then Alex, Gina, Kevin, and I went back to Kitsch, where we had Gina's birthday apertivo, and we met up with Megan and Renee. We thought they were going to be having a giant dolci apertivo, but they lied, so we didn't buy it.
There is a place here called Cafe BeBop, which I believe I briefly mentioned a post or two ago. We went back last night for the Beatles cover band, and it was really fun! It was less skeazy than other bars here because it is only half American, and the rest of it is Italian. This less skeazy quality did not, however, prevent me from having this conversation -
"Do you speak Italian? Parla italiano?"
"Not really. Parlo un po."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"...Yes."
"You're lying! She told me you don't have a boyfriend already!" (he points to Alex.) "You see, I'm asking because my friend, Simone, he likes you, but he doesn't speak any English."
"I'm not interested."
"I'm really sorry you're not interested, because he really likes you."

Oh Italian men. There must be good ones out there somewhere. There is a certain group of American women here who are married to Italian men, so they must find ones that don't creep them out to the extreme somewhere.

We also ended up at Red Garter last night. Gina and I wanted to kareoke "Spice Up Your Life!"
by the ever-classic Spice Girls, but the instant we got up there they started playing "Bad Romance" so we had to sing that. It's not that fun of a song to kareoke to at all, and my throat hurt something awful afterwards. We'll get to the Spice Girls eventually.

I just got really confused when I read my opening sentence from the last post. I made that delicious quesadilla on Friday I think. I think. I am fairly sure? Yes, that sounds right.

I believe I just rocked my Italian quiz. I should probably go back to class, but the break seems to be continuing. When I get back, we're going to start learning the PAST TENSE.

I have an experiment that I have decided to conduct. I am NOT going to clean the apartment, and I'm going to see what it looks like in a week or so. I will only do my own dishes. I will only clean up big, obvious messes made by obviously me, like ganache on the counter or popcorn kernels everywhere. Do you know how hard it is to only clean specific parts of counterspace? It's not exactly easy. I'll stop cleaning out the freaking drain clogger. I will cease to sweep. I'm tired of feeling like I'm the only one that actually actually cleans. We have a trash schedule now, so the trash will always be done. But I will not wipe down the stove when it's covered in spaghetti sauce.

I have to go back to class.
I'll let ya'll know how this experiment goes.

Only 3 more weeks?! I never want to leave!

Geez, what's up!

I made a delicious Italian quesadilla for lunch. It was really fantastic. That night Pati, Kevin, and I went to the BeBop Cafe and listened to a Pink Floyd cover band. Then we went to Bigallo, met some people there, went to Amadeus, and danced for a really long time. Writing about bar hopping is pretty boring, unless there was something specifically awesome that happened.

Saturday I spent most of my time inside cleaning. I did take a little walk (a little 45 minute walk) to the Ospedale degli Innocenti to see the Della Robbia's. There was a protest going on about animals. I sat there for a while and watched, but I left when the protestors started beating drums. You don't want to be in a protest here - you get beat up. So I figured I probably didn't want to be a bystander near by either.
I went to the leather market and I finally got my new travel journal. 10 € baby.

That night I made a chicken parmesan burger. It was incredibly delicious. If you don't know what to make for dinner tonight, make this. I couldn't handle how good it was. Megan, Renee, and I started watching Philadelphia and it was really really good, but it was too scratched so we couldn't finish it. Instead we watched Domestic Disturbance with John Travolta, which was AWFUL. Such a disappointment after the goodness of Philadelphia.

Yesterday was Gina's birthday! We went to Piazza Michelangelo because she had never been before and just hung out. I made her a chocolate cake with a homemade ganache. We let it cool in the fridge while we went out to apertivi, which I hadn't been to yet. Apertivi is where you buy a drink and then get limitless food. It doesn't have to be an alcoholic drink, just a drink. There was a lot of ethnic food at last night's apertivi, which was very suprising. There just isn't a lot of ethnic food here. It was really delicious. The same place is having a dessert apertivi tomorrow, and we're going to go for that. I think they have cupcakes!

We went home and ate cake and she opened her presents. She cried, she was so happy. It made me feel really happy, because Renee, Gina, and I are such good roommates and I really love them and I wish we all lived in the same place back home, or that we all just actually lived here. We all just hung out and Pati stayed the night.

Tomorrow night is CAPA's apertivi and I'm making oreo balls covered in leftover ganache.

I guess not a whole lot of cultural stuff has happened for me this week. I went to the Bargello and saw a bunch of Donatellos. I hadn't realized we got into that museum for free. Wednesday I went on a St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl and that was really a lot of fun. Jordan stole a big St. Patrick's Day Guiness leprechaun hat but he didn't want to wear it. I guess in the spirit of the moment I decided that I wouldn't look like an absolute fool if I wore it... and I wore it for the entire night. When I woke up the next morning I was like "What was I thinking!?" Oh well.

I did sleep through Ren Art, and so my Thursday was so much more pleasant than it normally is. I slept through, got up and ate lunch, did my laundry, took my own sweet time about life, went to CAPA and looked up recipes, and had Cross Cultural Psych. How cruel to see what my Thursdays could be like... only to know that I can never do it again.

So last night Kevin and I decided to try and make tacos. We made a homemade taco sauce and a homemade queso to go on the tacos, and all in all the project was a COMPLETE SUCCESS. They were so freaking good! I would post pictures, but my new SD card and my laptop aren't getting along. I'm going to have to find a way to post pictures on the internet using someone else's computer I think, or else no one will get to see the rest of my Italy trip until I get home.

Pati and I talked about doing something cultural today, but I haven't heard from her yet, and I've just been lazing around. I'll call her or fb her eventually.

I'm thinking about using my remaining tortilla shell to make a homemade quesadilla for lunch. It was so nice to eat such a good taco last night. Mmmm!

Number of jeans brought to Italy: 2

Number of jeans thrown out: 1

Number of jeans remaining: 1

Number of jeans with holes in unfortunate thigh area: 1

Today the bus was either 4 minutes early or 9 minutes late or two minutes early. And I will never ever know.

This is my good friend Elena. I just wanted to show you since it didn't work yesterday. Love you Elena!

Random Note

To Those Of You Who Follow This Blog...

you should know that while it says I just posted an absurdly long post about cooking at 7:01 AM or whatever, I really posted it at 3 24 PM. Approximately 6 minutes before my Italian class.

To Cook Something New, or Something I Already Have?

For those of you who don't know, I have spent much of my life in love with cooking. I can see how you wouldn't know this, as I went through a 2.5ish year period where I didn't want to cook because I was really lazy and almost the only thing I ever made was cookies, pizza rolls, and spaghetti. Not always, but almost always. Before that, you might never have realized it either because all of my cooking time was spent at Duncan's house so you never would have realized I was making anything since we ate all of it there.

Previous to that, however, I really enjoyed cooking. I didn't have a lot of variety in my cooking, but I loved it. The very first thing I ever made was scrambled eggs and I think I was around 7. I believe that even now, even when I absolutely hate eggs with a very large passion (though not products that have eggs in them... seriously, what a fallacy of an argument) I believe I make some mean scrambled eggs.
(Please do not bring up the case of my loving Egg Drop Soup. For one thing, I can't eat too much of it because it is too eggy. For another, do you expect me to be able to explain my taste preferences to you? Becauase I can't and I won't.)

Last summer in my sublet, I didn't get to make mad meals all the time because I was always doing school work :( Though we did have a big dinner one night with spaghetti and home made garlic bread and asparagus.
And last fall I didn't get to cook at all because the kitchen in my dorm was broken.

But here I am a cooking goddess! Our cooking utensils are incredibly limited. No microwave, no moka machine, no blender or hand mixer or anything to make the job easier. No measurement utensils, and not even a decent mixing spoon. I had to borrow Kevin's whisk the other day.

Last week I came up with the incredibly brilliant idea of making a menu. As in, each night would be planned out. I stuck to it pretty well, until I realized that it makes grocery shopping really not cheap.
Per ejemple... this was what I ate all last week.
On Monday, I made Minestrone. Ugh, it had kale in it, but it was really pretty good. I used a beef stock in it.
On Tuesday I had a rice and asparagus soup, only the rice sucked up all the water, so it was like a cheeseless risotto. And I used the Classico stock, and that's when I decided that cooking with stock is a gift given to us by the cooking gods.
Wednesday was my already posted about Chicken Noodle Soup.
Thursday I made risotto, which was really good and I ate every last bite of it, except the one bite I gave to Emily.
Friday I made homemade Chicken Fettucine Alfredo, which was good but I wanted it to be more fattening.
Saturday was Pati's meal night, and Sunday and Monday I ate out with Cheri and Kathy.
But I did make Oreo Balls on Sunday.
Now this week I was going to make spaghetti with artichoke hearts and tomatoes, potato soup, fried mozzarella balls with cheesy olive bread, Italian meatball soup, spaghetti and meatballs, beef lo mein, and a macaroni. I want to make these things really bad! Only I have some groceries left that I still need to use... so I guess I will be making a pesto fettucine tonight with asparagus.

But these will be the things I make soon! I have the brilliant idea of making a ton of meatballs one night and being able to use them for days. I'm thinking about making Beth's cheesy meatballs if I can make my own baking mix without a mixer.

But right now I DESPERATELY want sawmill gravy and biscuits, so I really hope that I can make this homemade baking mix recipe work!

In case you wonder what I do with all my time here (other than reading and cooking, which I think is what I do with most of it) I spend a lot of time at school. If you thnk that I am doing school work at school, you're wrong. I possibly spend 98.9% of my time here at school looking up recipes on websites to take them home and cook. I will quite probably buy a fancy Italian cookbook right before I leave (right before because they're not cheap) and when I get home I'm buying New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel and I was going to buy Naples at the Table only Cheri told me she will buy me that for my birthday. And when I get home, Mom better watch out! The Kitchen is Mine!

I have the Prince of Egypt Plague song running through my head

Life is going fantastically! After I was done with class and computer stuff yesterday, I met up with Cheri and Kathy. I took them to the Piazza Michelangelo which was fantastic yesterday. The sun has been out for days and yesterday it was so incredible warm and clear. Thus... the tourists are out in full force :( But yesterday was beautiful, and it looks like clear days ahead! (Cosmic joke?? The instant I buy rain boots it ceases to rain??)
We wandered around the leather market, and I found a 10 € leather bound journal with the fleur d'lis symbol of Florence which I will go back to purchase today. Before I left for Italy, my sister (in law) Beth gave me a travel journal. I finished all the pages while I was in Germany, so I am seriously falling behind, and I need a new travel journal ASAP.
After we went through every corner of the leather market, we went and had dinner at a place Kathy ate at years ago. I got the veal scallopine in a truffle sauce. It was light and delicate for the first few bites, but then it got REALLY heavy. It wasn't as good as the place the night before, but the place the night before was hiding away and not so touristy. We did have a really good wine though. Kathy bought us gelato afterwards and we separated, with plans to meet this afternoon at 11 30 for lunch.
I really didn't want to wake up today. I was having really really weird dreams, but I can't remember how they went at all... no wait, I just did. They're too weird to post. ...Actually, I think that dream was from the night before. Last night's dream was still really weird. I can't remember it almost at all.
But I'm glad I did wake up, because they changed the lunch time to 11. I rushed there, only to find out they didn't open for lunch until 12. We wandered around and went into this store called De Herbore which is full of lotions and "smelly stuff" as they called it. Which totally reminded me that I have an Italian lotion that Kathy sent Cheri and I am almost out of and I need to buy soem more of it. But Cheri bought herself some smelly stuff and then she gave a lemon lotion to me! It was very unexpected, but I was very grateful. So we went and got a breakfast kind of deal at Chiaroscuro, which was pretty good. And then I had to say goodbye because today they're going south! It was so nice to spend time with Cheri and Kathy these last three days. I had a really good time. I was also really glad that I've spent enough time wandering around Florence so that I could take them places and navigate the back roads. Imagine how ashamed I would be if they came and I couldn't take them anywhere!

Today I had my first experience with the Italian post office (posteitaliane.) You take a numbered slip of paper and get in line. Now mind you, that numbered slip of paper means absolutely nothing. It does not determine in what order you are called on at all like it does in say... Amsterdam. The first time I got in the wrong line and an old Italian woman told me to go to the other line. Then I managed to get in the slowest line in the world. I was really nervous as I continued to get closer and closer, thinking things like... I don't know any words that relate to the post office other than "Ho uno paco." "He doesn't look very friendly." "What if he doesn't speak any English!" "What if there's a package charge and it's like 50€???" But I got up there, handed in my slip and my passport, said, "Ho uno paco." He went and got it, got me to sign the slip, and I left. Whew! I didn't have to pay anything, it wasn't difficult, I didn't have to answer any questions!
The package is from my good friend Elena Villa.
This is my good friend Elena....?? I tried to upload the photo... dang it, where is it?! Maybe I just uploaded it twice. Grrrrr!
ANYWAY it's from my good friend Elena Villa, who has, sadly, left me to wallow alone in the state of GA without her sunshine presence. She's taken it to Wisconsin, where they could probably use the sunshine a little bit more.
All I knew was that she said she was sending me chocolate and gum. And when I opened it... WOW! All kinds of candy! Four three-packs of Orbit spearmint gum! Swedish fish, red vines, a giant Hershey bar, sour heads! But best of all... A BUTTERFINGER!

I've gotten so many gifts and American goodies lately! My life is awesome!

Good Vibrations

This was such a wonderful weekend!
Friday night the internet was working so well I got to watch an entire episode of Criminal Minds! This episode was based off a fictional book called Empty Planet, but I really wish it were a real book. It sounded like such a good read.
On Saturday Kevin, Pati, Gina, and I were going to go to Volterra, but we'd missed the bus. So instead we went to Viareggio. This was the most relaxing little town, and it honestly was like a crappy Florida beach town and I loved it. We sat on the beach and ate lunch, walked around, got French Fries. We were some of the only tourists there. We decided we're going back our very last weekend to go swimming.
After Viareggio, we went to Lucca, which is the world's largest producer of toilet paper (or at least one of them.) We walked around the Medieval wall and just sat. Firenze is so hectic sometimes, it was so nice to just sit.
After we got home, I ran to the library and rented movies. Pati, Kevin, Gina, and Emily all made a spaghetti with an avocado, red pepper, tomato, feta, and a tiny bit of tequila sauce. It was really pretty great. The feta here tastes sort of strange. Afterwards, Kevin and I watched Alien Resurrection, which was really bizarre, and I realized I hadn't seen the third one yet.

Yesterday was an exciting day!
I woke up, cleaned the whole apartment, and baked Oreo Balls. Then I went and met Cheri and her sister Kathy in the middle of the Ponte Vecchio. I was so glad to see her! It's been a year since I've seen her even in the States. We wandered around. I took them inside the Palazzo Vecchio. Then we had an apertif at the Piazza della Reppublica, which was really good. Afterwards we had dinner at this little Tuscan restaurant. We all got an antipasto and a secondi. My antipasto was an artichoke and cheese salad. Raw artichoke. Mmmmmm! Americans need to use artichoke more often! Cheri got pears and cheese with honey (pecorino) and Kathy got a mozzarella dish with tomatoes and lettuce. It was fun to try all these things I never get to try because of the cost. Then I got something called ossobucco, which was this deliciously flavored dark meat. Cheri got wild boar and Kathy got a balsalmic steak. We all shared and it was just so good. Afterwards Cheri bought us gelato. I haven't eaten so much food since .... I don't know, Christmas?? Thanksgiving?? It was so MUCH! I thought I was going to burst, so I walked home. Cheri also got a red wine for the table. I don't usually like red wine... it turns out that 1, 50 € red wine is just nothing in comparison to real red wine.

So now I'm going to call them up and see what's happening. I'm so glad to have people here in Florence!

Kitchen Troubles and Rainy Days

This hasn't been the best week in our kitchen. On Monday, Renee placed the sieve on the hot stove and now it's melted. On Tuesday, I caught one of dishclothes on fire. I don't know if anything happened on Wednesday, but yesterday both Gina and I burned ourselves. Tonight has been harmless... but only she has cooked so far. Emily won't be cooking at all - she's gone to apertivo.

On the path I take to Coop, someone has spray painted "G.U.E. Mafiosa, Sinistra Italia."

The Mafia is not just on TV and in the Godfather. It's real here. They killed a black youth a couple months ago up here in the north. And yesterday, an Italian told me that they ARE the government in the South. So I hope there's no Mafia in my neighborhood. I don't think so? Because today someone added anarchy signs and wrote something about Bologna. I don't know.

Last night I made a successful risotto. Tonight I'm going to make a chicken fettucine alfredo with asparagus. I just haven't wanted to cook yet. I've been nonstop GO GO GO all day.

Yesterday we met our psych teacher's Italian fiance. He told us all kinds of things and answered our questions. It was really interesting. He told us about the Mafia thing, and he said that the North pays 80% of Italy's taxes, while the South pays only 20% and that is because of the Mafia. P.S. The South is anything under Tuscany.

Today has been long. I was up until almost three in the morning finishing The Time Traveler's Wife and I woke up at 10 30. Emily's Italian class was joining mine because we went to the Palazzo Davanzatti today (which, P.S., I went to yesterday with my Ren Art class.) It was pretty cool. It's a big medieval tower palace.

But on the way back to CAPA she drove me NUTS! She went off to get lunch and I met Pati at CAPA to go to the San Ambrosio market.

It's a half indoor, half outdoor market, and their veggies are cheap and fresh. I bought a big beautiful garlic there today, because my supermarket ones are tiny and puny. We bought all kinds of things for this dinner Pati was going to make tonight. Then I went to Il Centro and bought lunch (3 euro and I paid with CARD! That's so exciting and different here!) But then I walked the 20 minute walk home to put the groceries away, the bus was 5 minutes early so I walked the 20 minutes to school, forgot that CAPA closes at 3 30 on Fridays, got kicked out, and STILL hadn't eaten my sandwich. Which I just remembered I still have half of, and it is sitting on my bed. Dang it.

I got manzo today, which is this weird kind of red beef I've never tried before. It wasn't bad. I don't know if it was good either.

So Gina, Emily, Kevin and I head towards Ponte Vecchio, because it's covered in jewelry stores and they're looking for charms. Kevin leaves us, Pati meets us, Emily is driving me crazy, and we find an American bakery. It's super far away, but cheap and good and I think I might start going there to study. They have bagels, which is ASTOUNDING.

On the way back, we stopped in a shoe store with rain boots. I've been thinking, maybe I wouldn't get sick so often if I had dry feet and jeans. So I tried on like ten pairs, because giant dancer calves aren't condusive to rain boots, but I finally find like ankle rain boots. So my three year search for rain boots is at an end, and when I go back to the monsoon season at OU, I won't have constantly wet feet there either.

I came home, went to Coop, missed my turn, walked FOREVER, and finally got here. You can't imagine how much walking I have done today. I'm just so tired. This is my first time to rest.

Oh, and Pati isn't making the dinner she was going to make anymore. There's a bus strike in town tonight, and she lives really far away, so she went home before they stopped running.

Gina, Pati, and I might be going to a town called Volterra tomorrow. It's supposedly really beautiful, and get this, is Edward Cullen's favorite place in the world. Yeah, that means nothing to me either.

Cheri and her family are also coming tomorrow. I may not go to Volterra if Cheri flys directly into Florence, because it's now a toss up as to where they're going to land.

Honestly. Italian transportation. UGH!

A useful thing to know about our buses: You will NEVER know if they are late or if they are early. There will be one 14 bus scheduled to arrive at like... 11:47 AM and the second 14 bus is supposed to arrive at 11:54. Now, because of these closely timed schedules, you'll just never know. Unless of course, the 14 B and the 14 C drive up right after each other. Or if both of them come 5 minutes early and you sadly watch them drive away as you exit your apartment building.

Check it

Check it out. This is my homemade chicken noodle soup. It took over two hours. I made the broth and then I made the soup. It was delicious. I think it even made me feel better. Now my biggest problem is a dry throat. An incredibly dry throat - I am the most parched person in the world.

But check out these mad skillzzzz.

I believe I might be dying. I am going to turn into a giant ball of snot. Tears will constantly leak from my eyes, even after death, and since I'm going to die in Italy, they'll make me a Saint because of this bizarre miracle.

Since I am sick, I have been in a really big soup mood. Sunday I had a Bavarian soup. Monday I had minestrone. Last night I made rice and asparagus soup, but the rice soaked up most of the soup part. It was still really delicious. Today I am going to make homemade chicken noodle soup in the hopes that it will make me feel better with it's miraculous wholesome American properties.

If not, I'll see ya'll on the other side of the veil.

I think Italy is making me ill.

Normally, I get sick like once a year and that's all.

So I got sick in January or Feb and I expected it.
But it was pretty bad because I got a fever and I don't get fevers EVER unless I am seriously sick.
But I had a fever on Monday and possibly yesterday too and I am just really sick all the time.

Plus, I have been sneezing nonstop since Sunday or Monday.

I think Italy has DESTROYED my immune system (which doesn't make any sense to me, because I'm pretty active and I eat well here.)

Italy

I've been trying to think of things to tell you about Italy.

So... notes on Italy (but spf. Florence.)

The weather is March is bipolar. Some days it rains, some days it snows, and some days it is hot as anything.

When walking down the sidewalk, which is eensy weensy, so it's unlikely that you will actually be on a sidewalk, you take the street side when you're walking towards an older person. Your age... it doesn't matter, but they'll probably make you do it anyway.
It's easier just to walk on the street.

Everyone walks on the street, because the sidewalks are too freaking small.

If you're walking down the street and you hear a "ting!" it means, There is a bike behind you, get out of the way.
Because they won't slow down for you.

When you're talking to an older person, you say "Scusi" if you need to get by or get their attention.
But if you're talking to someone your age or younger, you say "Scusa."

Before 12-1 PM, you say "Buongiorno!" to people to greet them. This means "good morning."
But after 12-1 PM, you say "Buona sera." This does not mean "good afternoon." "Good afternoon" is "Buon pomeriggio" but no one says it. Possibly "pomerrigo." I can't remember right now.
My Italian has been a little off since I haven't used it for a week.

You can jay walk everywhere except major roads. Then you still might almost get hit by a car while you have the right of way, but don't worry... they stop. Or swerve around you.


Yesterday an older woman stopped me and asked me which bus to take to the center. I replied she should take the 14, because it stops near Il Duomo. She asked me where the bus stop was, and I told her it was just up ahead.
And just so you know... THIS TOOK PLACE ENTIRELY IN ITALIAN! Heck yeah!


Also, last night I went to see Alice in Wonderland in the Original sound. Minus the last like 10 seconds, I really liked it.

This Blog Post Could Swallow a Whale: Otherwise Known as, Spring Break in Europe

So it's been a week since I've written. That means I have a lot to say!
Saturday I did go back to the Uffizi. Gentileschi's "Judith Beheading Holofernes" was supposed to be in there, but I had yet to see it. I kept asking, "Dove l'arte di Artemisia Gentileschi?" I continued to not be able to find it. I had this vision of me stomping around the Uffizi asking every single worker, "Dove l'arte di Artemisia Gentileschi?" just over and over again. BUT it turns out there is a door that has always been closed, every time I've gone, and her art is behind there. It is also with like ten other paintings with dripping bloody bodyless heads.
I spent a happy solitary evening with only me! I watched Singing in the Rain, which I rented from the Obblate library.
Sunday I was seriously thinking about going to Vinci, but I couldn't figure out how to get there. I also didn't want to get there only to find out the museum was closed because it's Sunday. So instead I went to the Palazzo Pitti and finished off the entire Palentine Gallery.
Now, both the Palazzo Pitti and the Galleria degli Uffizi used to be Medici palaces. I would like to know why both of them have so many flights of stairs! Clothes used to be way heavier. How could a woman in one of those dresses ever climb so many? It's like ... 4 flights to get up into both galleries! Then at the end of the Palentine Gallery, a sign invited me to take the Grand Staircase down. This grand staircase is in fact 6 flights of stairs. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. What were those Medici trying to prove anyway?

Monday I had also thought about going to Assisi to see Giotto's frescoes, but decided I had way too much to do. The apartment was a total mess and I still had to pack. My laundry had been hanging out to dry for hours, but it was still wet when I left Italy. I had to hang it in my closet and hope for the best. Everyone here in Florence dries their clothes by hanging them out the windows. Now apparently there is a law that makes it illegal to do this in Italy (at least, that's what the tour guide in Sienna said.) This law just must not apply at all to Florence, or they may just not care enough, but they are definitely not following it. The problem I've had so far is that every time I've hung my clothes out to dry, it's rained. It didn't rain Sunday or Monday, but they were still wet. Apparently, this is supposed to be efficient and fast and they love the smell of fresh air in their clothes. I.E. dirty city air caused by smog pollution, which even the Florentines have been protesting lately.

I've been mixing up my languages lately. The other day I ordered a cup of gelato. I said, "Vorrei il bicchere da two euro." Not due euro, but two. The other day when my Italian teacher asked me my birthday, I gave her the date in Spanish. Then last Tuesday when I got on the bus to the airport I said, "Scusi, è l'autobus per la aeropuerto?" Just in case you were wondering, the Italian word for "airport" is "aeroporto" not "aeropuerto."
In l'aeroporto, I was really bored. The airline wasn't sure that if the flight was leaving from Florence or from Bologna. I don't know how you don't know that kind of thing, but it was eventually established that it was leaving from Florence.
I arrived in Amsterdam and I was a little nervous. I didn't tell anyone at home, because I didn't want people to worry, but I flew in alone and there was no one in Amsterdam yet. But Everyone was friendly and every body spoke English! The city was so beautiful, not skeezy at all! My directions to my hostel were terrible... I got lost for two hours. But finally some nice British people showed me the way on their google phone and I got there. There was a big beautiful park next to it called the Vondelpark, and I actually walked in there for a while (not willingly... the hostel people told me to walk through the park to find the hostel.) It was really safe and really nice and I didn't feel unsafe at all.
Unfortunately, that night people had sex in the room I was sleeping in. It was a 14 person room. They couldn't have chosen a less public time? It was really awkward, and their sexual enjoyments didn't end after sex. THEN THEY GOT UP AND LEFT THE ROOM! They weren't even staying in the room, or even the hostel as far as I know! The next morning I woke up and two other girls were sleeping in the bed, because it was THEIR bed and two random people had sex in it.

I already feel like I've been writing forever. Do you feel like you've been reading forever?

Renee arrived Wednesday morning. I went and met her at the train station and we tried to figure out how to get to Munich. We hadn't been able to find anything cheap the week before, and so Renee figured maybe we could find it cheaper at the actual train station. We couldn't. We tried everything... we looked at buses, planes, and other trains. But we'd already booked our hostel in Munich and our train ride home. We finally just bought the tickets and went to the hostel.
We took the tram. Now, public transport in Italy is Terrifying. It took me until two weeks ago to convince myself that I was not going to die in a bus crash. The streets are narrow, the buses practically scrape the cars they're driving past, and the drivers drive a little too fast for comfort. But this tram was easy and safe feeling! It was fantastic.
We didn't do a lot on Wednesday. We accidentally wandered into the Red Light district. It was a wrong turn and I realized we were the only girls on the street and then we saw women dancing in windows. Whoops.
We also bought Bagels! I had a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. They don't have bagels in Italy.
There's a big market on one of the canals that is all flowers. It's full of tulips. I thought about buying some bulbs, but then I thought maybe you can't bring flowers like that back from EU? So I didn't.
But that is mostly Wendesday. We bought dinner from the grocery store (Chinese spicy noodles!) and tucked in early.

Thursday was a much busier day. We went on a free walking tour of Amsterdam and learned some pretty interesting things. For example, pot is actually not legal in the Netherlands at all. They just have a policy that since it's not hurting anyone, they're not going to do anything about it. Coffee shops are where you can smoke pot, and everyone knows that. If you want actual coffee, you have to go to a cafe. The number of coffee shops in Amsterdam has gone from over 400 to about 250, and only 9% of the actual population smokes it. The rest is just tourists. The prostitutes have some sort of weird union. Also, the Dutch people are the tallest people in the world. Then we just learned a whole bunch of stuff depending on where we were... like about Anne Frank and a lot of random stories about urination that you probably wouldn't hear on a tour not led by grad students. For example, there are these green things all over the city - they're public male urinals. But back in the 70s, women decided they were tired of having to pay for the toilets and they demanded their own public urinals. The city didn't agree, so a whole bunch of women went to the biggest bridge in the city, hiked up their skirts at the same time, squatted down, and peed all over it. They told the city that if they didn't get public urinals, they would do it on every bridge in Amsterdam - and there are over a thousand bridges. The city gave in, but it still didn't work out because that was back when heroin was big and the junkies would go get high in there and sometimes assault the women who came to use the bathroom.
Now they advertise concerts and things like that.
After the walking tour, we went to the Heineken Experience and learned how they make beer and stuff like that. It was fun. They had kareoke games and pictures machines and a sort of ride. The sort of ride reminded me of the sort of ride in Jurassic Park in the science lab.
We went back to the grocery. I got little premade weiners and that cheese that sorts with the word "Port" and ends in another words that costs like 8$ at home. Here it was less than 2€! We pubcrawled that night and spent most of it with these really nice German guys we'd met on the walking tour. There was this crazy Romanian guy named Alexander (Aleksandar?) - that's relevant, I promise. The crawl was a lot of fun. We danced a bunch and Renee found a French man and we both got t-shirts.

The next morning I went to the Van Gogh museum alone. It was pretty spectacular. The third floor had UNEXPECTED ODEON'S! Nothing of his really strange stuff, but still fantastic!
I went to meet Renee and she was a little late so I got Burger King. I had really been craving a burger... but it didn't taste like anything and wasn't very good. So we're sitting inside and the Romanian guy walks up and we end up eating with him. It turns out he's not crazy when he's sober.
We ran into people we've seen everywhere. People from Renee's Barcelona hostel were in our Amsterdam one. We ran into people in the Heineken museum. We ran into people on the Munich trains. The idea that Florence is really small has changed into, Europe is really small.

Oh my gosh, a whale couldn't fit this entry into his stomach.

When I was done eating, Renee and I went to the Anne Frank house. They kept it exactly like it was. The Nazis removed the furniture, so there's no furniture. Anne pasted these pictures all over her walls, and they're still there. It was really moving and I almost bawled. There were videos of her father and her best friend talking about what Anne was like. It was really incredible.

Bought dinner from the grocery again. This time I found HUMMUS! It was Sabra brand too! They don't have this stuff in Florence! (Which, btw, is really weird to me, since Italy occupied Greece for a while... why is there so little Greek food?) So I ate hummus with little weiners and it was the best idea I've ever had. We hopped on our night trian to Munich, which was super comfy, and when I woke up I had hummus and croissants. It was such a luxury.
I also drank like 2 cartons of Tropicana orange juice in Amsterdam. So many things that I can't have here! It was so fantastic!

We went to sleep in the Netherlands and woke up in Germany. And surprise... Freak Snow Fall! It's very unusual to have snow this time of year in Germany, according to a nice German man who looked like Robin Williams. We went to the castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and it was the castle Disney based the Cinderella castle off of. Or Sleeping Beauty's, but I think it's Cinderella's. We met five American moms and they were so nice! We stayed with them all day. It was such a comfort to be with American moms! One of them gave us crackers lol. We talked a lot and had such a good time. Neuschwanstein was pretty cool. You have to buy guided tours, and they kind of suck, but the castle made up for it.
It started snowing SO HARD as we tried to leave. I was just covered in white.

We went to the Hoffbrahaus for dinner. It's a big beer hall .Renee got these white sausages that you peel the skin off of and eat with spicy and sweet mustard. I got four frankenfurtters and egg noodles. It was pretty good. I liked her's better and she liked mine better. The sweet mustard tasted like a mild version of wasabi to me.
Sunday morning we went on another free walking tour. We learned a lot. For example, the Hoffbrahaus was the home of the Nazi movement. It's where Hitler gave his first speech to the NSDAP. It's a smaller hall on the 3rd floor. The house doesn't advertise it at all. Munich doesn't advertise it's involvement in the war at all. It didn't even want to be part of it. On November 9th, 1923 the Bavarian leaders gathered together in a beer hall (I think still the Hoffbrahaus, but the guide was a little confusing) and discussed separating from the rest of Germany and becoming it's own country. It could totally do this - it's rich, has all the culture (any typical German culture you can think of... that's Bavarian) and it has a constitution already prepared for the the day they do decided to separate. However, Hitler found out about the meeting to discuss separation and he tried to take over, because if Bavaria separated, how could he ever spread the Nazi message to the other German states? This is when he failed and was sent to prison, but think of how different it could have been if Bavaria had succeeded. We also learned a lot about biergartens and culture in general. It was really interesting, and we ran into our moms again! We wanted to go to dinner with them, but they were leaving that day for the Black Forest.
Immediately after the tour, we went to the concentration camp of Dachau. It was cold, but after a while I stopped thinking about that, because what is it to be cold in three layers of clothing when so many more were significantly colder than I? I couldn't decide if it was more inappropriate to take pictures or more inappropriate not to take pictures, so I settled on a middling amount. I didn't want to make it look like I was ignoring history or something. Right as I was leaving, there was a woman bent down on the ground. She asked two people to help her find her glasses' lens. I and three other people heard her, and we all helped her look in the snow. It made me feel nice to know that even though thousands suffered and died there, people could still be kind.

That night for dinner we went to a different bierhall - the Augustiner van Stuben, or something like that. It was less touristy and more delicious. I got a soup with beef balls and handmade swabian ravioli plus a mixed plate. It was a giant delicious potato ball, a sort of hamburger thing that was really tender, a pork chop, and a mushroom cream sauce. OH MAN it was so good. I ate every last bite.

Last night I fell asleep in Germany and woke up in Italy. I've been gone so long (at least it feels that way) and I had to struggle to remember all the Italian I know. Amsterdam and Munich were absolutely beautiful and I could have spent a much longer time there. I wish I could go back. Maybe some day.

Traveling Europe the hostel way was really fun. We met so many cool people.

Last Note: The German word for Munich is "Munchen." So... does that make them Munchkins??