Non lo posso credere.

...it's over.
I can't even believe it.
These four months have flown!
There were some parts, of course, that took FOREVER,
and it wasn't rosy all the time (life never is),
overall I've had an incredible semester.

It's going to be so strange, going home.
I'm excited to see what's just the way I remember,
and what I've already forgotten.
I'm excited to see how fast I miss Italy, and how much.
It will be interesting to see when I come back, and for how long. Though I don't think I would ever live right in the center of Florence again, there's still so much of Italy I haven't seen, so much of Europe left to see as well, and lots of places I wouldn't mind living. We will see.

Finals ended up going really well - I feel like this may be the first semester I got a 4.0 in college! It may not happen, since there are a couple possible wildcards, but I doubt I will get any B's.

I also can't believe that we're leaving for Greece tomorrow! It just feels surreal. I'm pretty much done packing, though tonight we're probably going to have to re-pack, trying to distribute the weight more evenly and such. I can't wait to be there, lying on the beach, just relaxing. It's been a busy semester, and I need a break, for sure.

Well, I have less than 24 hours left to play in Florence, and it's a beautiful day, so I better get out there. I'll leave you with a part of my final project for my writing class, a poem called "Endings and Beginnings."



My life must fit in a suitcase. In the last week I have been fighting to choose what stays, what goes; and I cannot. It is easier than before, at least somewhat; I will try to take everything from this quarter of a bedroom, the tiny piece of Italian real estate I have boldly named my own, and shove it piece by piece, ticket stub by train ticket, leather boot by silky scarf, into my inadequately sized suitcases.

But it is an impossible task.

Not the shoving, of course – that’s more like an awkward game of three dimensional tetris. It will be difficult, but packing always is. More challenging is the delicate game of dancing through memory, reliving my struggles and triumphs in the hopes of bringing home this ball of light, this glowing sense and innate knowledge of where I fit in the puzzling mess of the world, and fitting it back in the hole I left for myself in the Rocky mountains. That, I simply cannot reconcile. I will be Columbus in his victorious return to a home that does not believe in the world he discovered; I will be the opaque olive oil floating just over the top of the crystal clear water of the life to which I return. I will be the last lingering blossom of wisteria, a hope of coming home changed to a world that is anything but peaceful. Nothing will make sense. Nothing will be Italy.

Ma a ogni uccello il suo nido è bello. Amerò la bella Italia per sempre, ma ... it’s time to go home to see not what will become of me, but what I will make of myself.

Allora...

My last weekend in Florence was pure bliss. How am I ever going to leave, now that it's getting so lovely?

Friday morning I got up early and went with nine other girls to a castle about an hour outside of Florence called Trebbio for lunch and wine tasting! They gave us a tour of the castle, one of the only inhabited castles in all of Italy, as well as the incredible cellars. The castle was especially incredible because it was the residence of a well known renaissance banking family in Florence called the Pazzi, who planned a conspiracy against the even better known Medici family for control of Florence in the 1400s. It was in this castle that they got together to plan that (ultimately, failed) conspiracy. So cool. I love history :) I just can't believe I got to play around in a castle where something so momentous happened over five hundred years ago! The weather was perfect for exploring such a mysterious castle -- dark and rainy. The thunder and lightning really added to the atmosphere!

We had the most wonderful morning, learning to properly taste wine and all about how Chianti is made. I'm so excited to bring my newfound knowledge home to my friends and family, so we can all have good wine together! Well, you know, after September. I still can't believe after four months of being legal, I will not be allowed to have wine with dinner or purchase wine in the grocery store all summer. It's a little ridiculous.

On Saturday, Rob and I once again hopped the SITA bus, this time to San Casciano, a hill town between Florence and Siena. We were picked up at the bus station by my music history professor, Anita, and her adorable little Italian husband Paolo. They gave us a tour of the city and the countryside, as well as their house, which was very recently a barn for sheep but was turned into a home eight years ago. They have the most incredible collection of music and art, as Paolo's father was a fairly prestigious artist. So much beautiful art! So, the main purpose of this visit was for me to get to meet Anita's friend Jody, a music teacher from New York that came to study abroad here in the 70s and, well, never left (bet you never thought of that possibility, eh family?). She's an incredible singer and so she was going to listen to me sing and give me some pointers. Instead, I got an hour long lesson on the basics that was really, pardon the pun, like music to my ears. This semester's voice lessons with Sharon I fear have done more harm than good, so it was really nice to just head back to the beginning and be given some things to work on that I feel I can actually accomplish. She made me excited to sing again :)

We also had a really fun, awesome lunch with Anita and Paolo complete with local wines, the most delicious pasta I've had in all of Italy (with an easy recipe I can make at home!), my first fruitcake (delicious), and a whole ton of ridiculous conversation and laughter. It was truly a wonderful day. It's a little bit sad, but I feel like the people I'll miss most from Italy are my professors. They've become real friends.

Yesterday it was horribly rainy, which was actually kind of a blessing because our trip to Cinque Terre got postponed indefinitely (the trail is still closed anyway, so it wouldn't have been that different than February), but we got a lot of studying done. I also started reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth ....oh gosh, I can't remember. Well, in any case, it's really wonderful. The first third is about her four months living in Rome, and there was so much I could relate to and so much that made me thankful for the time I've spent here. I also read through the part she spends in India getting reconnected with her faith, and I feel really inspired and centered after reading it. It's a good place to be during finals week.

Speaking of which, I just had my first final! It went alright...the test questions were, predictably, on the things I assumed wouldn't be on the test because we hadn't spent much time on them in class, but I still feel like I knew enough to do well. I have another final this afternoon (music history, which I'm only worried for because I want to do well to make Anita happy), and then one a day for the next three. I am going to do my best to study enough to do well, but not so much that I don't get to be out there enjoying my time in Italy...because on Saturday morning, it's all over. Well, at least for Italy. So that's just five days left in Italy. Wow.

It really is impossible to believe. It's been a whirlwind. I wish I had gotten a handle on things much earlier, especially my homesickness, so I could have been out there experiencing more and trying new things...but it's okay. I'm letting myself off the hook. There's only so much you can do in four months, and only so much you can grow and let yourself experience before it gets to be a little overwhelming.

It's funny...there are tons of reasons I'm glad to be headed home. I'm looking forward to having control over my life again (as in, I can cook for myself, eat when I want, study when I want, go to the gym, drive myself places, etc.) and really excited to be with my family again, but I don't know if I feel anymore like I got rid of the travel bug. Last week I was thinking I'd be content to just plop myself back in the United States and live there for the rest of my life. Today, I'm not so sure. I still feel like there's so much of Italy left to experience, and that's just one country! Still, I do have a wonderful appreciation of the United States I never had before this. I really do appreciate my freedom, especially when it comes to personal expression. I feel blessed to live in a country with relative political stability and where people are generally accepting of one another, regardless of how strange we are.

But still...
I don't know how long I'll be able to hold still once I get home. The world is an exciting place full of opportunities.

Speaking of opportunities, I feel like I best be seizing the day and making the best of it. I've got a bit of studying to do, then I'm off to enjoy the sunshine. Ciao!

Ciao a tutti!

Hey everyone,

So it's come to my attention that I've been slacking in my blogging. I hope I haven't lost everyone's interest! I do, however, have a couple pretty good excuses. I also plan to make amends by adding some sweet pictures to this post. Be prepared for a marathon! (Skimming is totally appropriate)

First off, let me state for the record that I made it through the earthquake safely. I am extremely sorry for not posting right after -- we didn't realize here in Italy how much international news the event was or even the extent of the disaster for a long time. Here in the pensione it's very difficult to get access to the news because we only have one tv and it's technically not for students to watch (though I sometimes watch X-factor, an American Idol-like show, with Marco, my friend who runs the front desk at night). In any case, we are totally safe. I'm told a couple people felt the quake, but I slept right through it (it was at 3.30am). The crazy thing though is that we were in Rome the day before it hit, where it was felt immensely but no real danger occurred. It has really been a horrible tragedy though. Several mountain towns are completely decimated, the number of homeless is somewhere near 28,000 and the death toll is over 200. So awful. We really are blessed to have not been there.

Being in Rome, however, was really wonderful! We had a whirlwind two day mini-vacation for our one-year anniversary of when we began dating. We hopped a train early last Friday morning, found our hotel, and spent the rest of the day wandering all over everywhere. It was a gorgeous day, and I would bet we walked over five miles just seeing and enjoying the sun. We got to explore the fortress we missed out on last time and ate dinner outside in the beautiful Campo de Fiori (flower market) piazza.

That night was quite the adventure, though not our normal exciting kind. We were awoken very, very early in the morning to persistent knocking on our door. I got out of bed and finally answered, and a woman had mistaken our room for someone else's and hadn't gotten the picture that it was the wrong one after over five minutes of knocking. After that the loud noises of the breakfast room next door kept us up, so there wasn't much sleeping. Very frustrating. The next day we ended up heading back early after another six miles or so of walking across town, as we were exhausted and the weather was getting bad. All in all, it was a really great trip though. Rob and I both agree that Rome is our favorite European city so far :)

Rob enjoys videotaping Rome a little too much :)

Monument to Italian Independence. The Italians call it "The Wedding Cake." They hate anything that is 'fake,' or in older style but built in the last 100 years.

The Spanish Steps were PACKED while we were there.

Twin Smart Cars! I wish I could parallel park this way.

Statue in front of the justice department.

French couples eating on the terrace of the fortress overlooking St. Peter's.

On top of the fortress with St. Peter's behind us.

It's finally spring!

Last week was a very hectic one for school. I had to give a presentation, write a paper, and submit a video audition online for a play back home all for Monday, and then for the rest of the week I tried desperately to fight off a cold that, unfortunately, attacked me in full force anyway. This weekend Rob and I had planned to go to the Amalfi coast, but the weather forecast was bad and the travel group we'd planned to go with was all booked up, and doing it all on our own was lots of work and pretty expensive, so we ended up staying in Florence. Though at first we were both bummed, it ended up being a really good decision.

Thursday we hung out at home, watched movies, and slept (finally! much needed.) Friday we took it easy, went to have some breakfast out by the Duomo and got completely ripped off (bad food, bad service, expensive place), and then took the bus up to Fiesole. Getting out of town was a much needed break. The weather was GORGEOUS, and we found a really lovely park with views overlooking Florence. We read some Harry Potter (in Italian) and even got to see a wild lizard! Quite exciting. On our way home, the bus was a bit more crowded. Five minutes or so into our ride, a woman near me gestured that I should watch my bag and pointed at Rob. I assumed she meant he should watch his bag as well, but apparently she thought he was trying to pickpocket me! So funny. Rob definitely looks like a sketch character though, you know, since he can't grow any facial hair and seldom looks over the age of 16.

That evening we headed to Sra. Russo's (our Italian teacher) for some Italian conversation and typical light dinner. It was lovely. Over wine, cheese, meat, and bruschetta we talked about our lives and Italia and the study abroad program. Really nice. Unfortunately it started pouring just before we left, so we ran to the bus stop and waited about ten minutes, only to realize that the last bus to take us home had already passed. The other women at the stop said the next bus coming through would take us closer than walking though, so we hopped on that one. Unfortunately, it got halfway and decided it was done (yes, they can do this in Italy. GR), leaving us further from home than before. So we walked a half hour home in the pouring rain. Not great for either one of our colds, although kind of fun, since it wasn't too cold out.

Saturday...oh, gosh, what did we do Saturday? Homework and movies, I think. Saturday was both of our sickest days. Blech. I think we got out mid-day and did a little shopping at the market, but that was about it.

Sunday we attempted to go see the exploding cart (an Easter tradition in Florence), but we had the wrong time and missed it by half an hour, so instead we went on a three hour journey through new parts of Florence. It was really, really nice! We were still pretty sick, so we stopped every thirty seconds or basically every time we found a new piazza or bench. We got to play with people's dogs, hear a part of a church service sitting out on the steps, and generally just enjoy the sun. It was really wonderful :)

Monday was another homework day. I got out and did some shopping on my own, and did lots of post-grad research, since it's something I've been thinking a lot about recently. By Monday night, everyone was home from Easter break and it was time to get back to work.

Tuesday was one of the most fun days I've had since coming to Florence. I had classes in the morning, and then after lunch I headed down to a building down by the Arno, where my voice teacher's ex-husband lives on the fifth floor. He was my accompanist for this semester and we had a concert that night, so I went to his apartment to practice. We played and chatted about life for about two hours, which was very fun and very relaxing, and then I headed back to school to get ready for the concert. A bunch of students and professors came, which was really lovely, and everyone was really supportive. I sang a Handel piece, a piece from a Schubert opera that I did with my Music History professor, who was the solo clarinet player in the Teatro Comunale orchestra for twenty years, and then did two arias from La Boheme. In particular, Mi Chiamono Mimi went wonderfully, and everyone erupted in cheers after. It was the best feeling! I sure hate the anticipation before a performance, but I love the rush you get from doing it!

Anita is explaining our piece before we do it. That's the stage of La Scala, the Milanese Opera, projected in the background.

Yesterday was also quite a fun day. We had our year-end photo as well as a year-end barbeque. It was a wonderful break from Italian food, and everyone was in a great mood, so it was a really good time.

I'm doing my best to do everything this weekend I have left to do, but it's so hard to fit everything in! Tomorrow I'm going wine tasting with the girls in a Renaissance palazzo just outside of Fiesole (trivia fact: it's where the Pazzi family planned the conspiracy to overthrow the Medici, the ruling family of Florence during the 1400s!). We've got a big lunch planned as well, as we get to bring some wine home! (Oh, I can just see my bag getting heavier and heavier...) Saturday Rob and I have been invited to my music professor's house for lunch and a little bit of music. She's invited her friend over who is a music teacher here, and she's going to give me a few pointers. Then Sunday, we're headed to Cinque Terre to do the final hike between all five towns that we missed on Valentine's Day because of landslides. We'll make it home just in time for finals week, crazy packing, goodbye dinners, and our trip to Greece!

Oh wow, I can't wait. I'm at the point now though where every day is special and while I can't wait to get home, there's something awesome happening each day, so I don't want to hurry it up at all.

Speaking of awesome things, it's risotto day for lunch, so I better head out!

Un Problema Piccolo

Blech. I don't really know how to feel about this past weekend. It had its good and bad parts.

The good parts:
- I finally found a pair of great leather boots I like! And while I didn't have the money to purchase them outright, seeing as it's the end of the month and I didn't feel like calling to get more money early, they let me put them on hold and I can pick them up next week.
- I tried two restaurants I've wanted to try forever, and both of them were pretty decent. Neither was mind-blowing, but both were enjoyable.
- I did a lot of reading and relaxing.
- I found two really cute skirts at Zara for not very expensive.
- I finally washed all my clothes!

The bad parts:
- It poured for most of the weekend, which made it hard to go out.
- Someone got so angry at me practicing voice with the window open at school that they called the school and asked for me to stop. I didn't realize I was that bad :(
- I was really, really sick all day today, and it doesn't feel like the kind of sick that goes away. As in, I think I've hit my limit of acidic tomato sauces and wine and am going to have to go back to pasta in bianca (salt, pepper, butter, and cheese) and lots of water.
- I finally found a scale, which then told me that I'd put on a bit more weight than I'd hoped.
- We didn't make it to Assisi because the weather was so bad and because I was so sick.
- Rob had tons of homework, so I wasted a lot of time at home doing nothing.
- I stayed up way too late both Friday and Saturday nights, so my schedule got all off.

Blech. It's just so hard to feel like I've wasted a weekend when I have so few left.

The good news though is that the rest of the weekends are pretty much planned. Next weekend is our anniversary, and we're headed to Rome, which should be fun. We missed out on some cool stuff last time, namely the catacombs and la Bocca della Verita, and I want to find the marble McDonalds.

I am so ready for Greece. I just want to lay on the beach and relax. Actually, what I'm most ready for at this point is to go home. When I'm sick it's really hard to be away. Here especially with the weird food situation it's hard to get well...I just wish I had a way to make my own food, and I wasn't at the mercy of whatever and whenever they wanted to feed me. BAH.

Anyway, I should get some sleep. Tomorrow starts another exciting week in paradise. Ciao!

La Bella Italia.

I am SO glad I decided to spend the last month of school in good ol' Italy.

While looking back I moderately regret not visiting the British Isles, Spain, or France, I do feel like I got a really good idea of some less-frequented parts of Europe, and am getting a really great sense of Italy. The truth is that four months simply isn't enough to see all of Europe and go to school at the same time. I also feel like my original reasoning for not hitting the major cities, namely that it's a lot easier to visit London or Paris later in life than it is to visit middle-of-nowhere Germany or the Czech Republic, is still valid. It does make me a little sad though that I won't get to see some of my favorite places in the whole world before I head home again. I guess I'll just have to keep visiting (bummer!).

Anyway, there are several reasons why I'm very glad I've decided to stay in Italy. First, it's way less stressful to do all of my traveling in little chunks and by train. I have so much more control over what I do and when I do it traveling this way. I also really appreciate staying in Italy because I speak the language and feel comfortable communicating and getting around. I get lost a lot less in Italy (and while it's been really good for me to get lost somewhere I can't ask for directions and have to rely on myself to get back to my hotel, it can get a little stressful). My primary reason, however, for enjoying Italy for this last month is that for the most part, we're having gorgeous weather! It's still been unseasonably cold, but it's ten times better than it was in Germany. Most of the GIF kids are in Munich right now, and while I'm sure they're having a blast, they're probably not wearing a skirt and sitting in the sun reading a book like I was earlier today. Tough life, eh?

I'm really liking the atmosphere of Florence especially now that it's getting a little warmer. While the sudden tourist boom is slightly irritating in that I have to push my way through crowds and guard my bag like a hawk just to get around, I don't blame them for coming. Piazzas feel the way they're supposed to - full of life and energy. Today I took my book to Piazza Santa Croce to enjoy the sun, and there were a bunch of kids out playing football and cheering each other on. Couples were out walking and everyone just seemed to have slowed down so much from the winter mentality of 'I'm freezing and will knock you over if you get in the way of my heated destination." It's very relaxing. This whole afternoon I actually ended up piazza-hopping (and, of course, doing a little shopping), and each had its own distinct atmosphere, but all were fun and relaxing to sit a while. I look forward to spending a lot of the next month that way.

Something ridiculous and amusing I'm realizing about myself -- my English is getting awful. There's not a really good reason for it, since I still speak English most often in my everyday life, but I think just working on my Italian and the fact that Italian grammar is becoming more natural and taking less thought is taking a toll on my English. I get things mixed up all the time, forget words I should definitely know, conjugate Italian verbs with English endings, and generally confuse everyone I'm talking with. It'd be a mess, if it weren't so funny. It'll be even more funny when I get home and start mixing Italian words in to my everyday life...especially this summer when no one else I'll see will know any. Oh dear.

Speaking of coming home, I'm getting really excited for that. I mean, not so excited that I'm counting down the days or anything, but excited enough that I'll be ready when the time comes. It's a really great state to be in -- I'm loving where I am, but won't be sad when it's over. I'm sure I'll miss lots of things when I get home (and I'm excited to see what those things are!), but I think it's a fair trade off. There are great things everywhere in the world, and you just have to enjoy the best parts of wherever you are. I know as much as I'll be so excited to drive again, I'll really miss having so many interesting places so close by train, and I'll miss how relaxing train rides are. I'll miss walking everywhere, I'm sure, and the incredible views I get on a daily basis just getting outside. I think I'll really miss speaking Italian as well.

What I'm really excited for though is coming home and trying some Italian recipes! I went to cooking class again earlier this week, and it was really, really fun. We made melanzane caprese (caprese salad with eggplant), fresh spinaci canneloni (spinach and ricotta pasta wraps), and home made vanilla gelato. DELICIOUS! I'm going to have to ask Karin for some of her recipes too before we leave.

Well, I've been putting off laundry for five days now and I'm officially out of clothes, so I better go do that. I've also got to grab some take-out dinner before Panda explodes with the hungry, tired Friday night crowd. Tomorrow I think if all goes well Rob and I will go to Assisi, though it looks like it might rain. It should still be warm though. We're REALLY disappointed because Gonzaga plays UNC tonight, but it's 3am our time. By the time the game is over, it'll be morning. BAH. We'll see. If we lose, I'll regret staying up, but if we win, I'll kill myself if I don't. Bah, we'll see. In any case, ciao!

ho fatto le foto (finalmente)

Just wanted to let everyone know that I finally posted pictures from my travels for the last month or so!

First, the rest of the Venice pictures (also here).
Then, we went to Prague!
The weekend after was waterlogged in Vienna,
and finally, we ended up in Germany (and had too many pictures for just one album).

Hope you enjoy!

I'm hoping to get some pictures up soon as well of my life here in Florence...school, the pensione, etc...but the weather has just been too ugly before, and this week was crazy.

Today we had the most beautiful thunderstorm. I love spring :)

Ritorniamo per il tempo bello.

Ciao everyone!

We've made it home safely after a really lovely, really long weekend for Spring Break in Germany. We decided to go because we randomly found 15 euro tickets (yes, round-trip) from Pisa to Frankfurt and decided, hey, why not see Germany? I'm officially so glad we did. We left Thursday morning, taking a train to Pisa and flying out early afternoon. Unfortunately, Ryanair always hits you with all kinds of obnoxious extra charges, like the ones we got for not checking in online, which is illegal if you're not a citizen of an EU country. SO our 15 euro tickets became 40 euro tickets by the time we were done. Still a good deal though.

Speaking of Ryanair, we'd heard all sorts of horrible things about how bad the flights are, about how they try to sell you things constantly and never leave you alone, and how the pilots don't even really have their licenses...I'm not sure especially about that last one, but let me tell you, it wasn't too bad of an experience at all. Except for the hidden fees and the stringency on size and weight of your carry-on (especially tough because it costs upwards of 3o euro to check a bag!), the flight was fairly painless, which is saying something considering I HATE to fly. In Italy it was a bit more stressful than in Germany, because the Italians don't understand the concept of a line, so there was lots of shoving for seats. We were fairly early though, so it wasn't a big deal.

Anyway, we arrived in Frankfurt-Hahn with not too much trouble, surprising given the very foggy weather. We picked up our rental car, grabbed our google directions I'd printed off, and headed off. Except, the directions made NO sense. Turns out I'd printed off directions from the Frankfurt airport, not Frankfurt-Hahn, over 50 kilometers away. We didn't realize that until two hours of getting lost later though. We headed back to the airport, frustrated and dejected, to get some not very much more clear directions from the lady at the rental place. We did, however, make it mostly fine from there. What should have been a three hour trip, after the initial two hours of being lost and another hour or so being lost in both Wurzburg and Creglingen, ended up being close to seven, and we arrived in the teeny town on Crainthal at close 9pm. About half a kilometer long and only one street, we figured that #69 would be quite easy to find. WRONG. 45 minutes later, we finally found it, as it was set off the road with teeny tiny numbers, and was nowhere near any of the other numbers in the 60s or 70s. GR. Our little apartment was cute though...right on top of this nice couple's house. They didn't speak hardly any English, but were lovely anyway.

That night we hurried back to the next biggest town to try to find a restaurant that was still open, and hit the jackpot at a place called Block Haus. Traditional Bavarian steaks, potatoes, and pasta like our friends Rudy and Pepe made when they came to visit us in Germany. It was DELICIOUS, though I may have been biased since we hadn't eaten all day.

The next few days we spent exploring the little medieval towns of the Romantische Strasse, or the Romantic Road, of Germany. There weren't too many people out yet since tourism season starts next month, so it was perfect for us to practice driving stick in our trusty brand-new VW Golf. It was actually more like learning for me, since it was only my second time. Maybe not the best time to learn, but it was lots of fun anyway. We never really got in too much trouble, although there were a couple stoplights where we killed the engine and held up the line. German drivers are all great, since they have to go to driving school to get their licenses, so we felt a little silly, but still had fun. Sunday, we took a three hour trip down past Munich to see Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle built by the mad King Ludwig II based on the operas of Wagner. It really was beautiful, though we saw it on a pretty ugly day (it rained/snowed the whole time we were there).

Other than that, we mostly just relaxed. We did a ton of talking and getting to know each other better, which always surprises me after almost a year of being together, that we're still getting to know each other better and still surprising one another. I hope we continue to surprise one another...it's so refreshing :) Other fun, random things about the weekend: the apartment only had pots, no pans, so scrambling eggs and frying bacon became quite the adventure. We were also only provided with two hand towels and nothing else (shampoo, soap, bath towels, etc.), so that was also an adventure. Almost everyone in Germany spoke English though, and it felt a lot like home, since the countryside looks a lot like Montana, so it was kind of like a little taste of home in the middle of my study abroad experience. Very strange, but lots of fun.

One of my favorite parts of the trip, actually, was today when we got back to Pisa. First, the weather was GORGEOUS -- had to have been 65 and very sunny. Lovely. Second, for some reason my Italian got better while I was gone! I had several people ask me questions in Italian that I (a) understood, and (b) answered with no problem, and I also had to ask for directions, buy train tickets, and order food and managed it all in Italian with little or no stress. I think it's finally sinking in and becoming a bit more natural, which is great. Rob and I speak to each other in mostly Italian, which is good practice, and I speak with just about everyone else I get the chance to, so it's about time it starts kicking in.

This week, I think we're just going to hang out here. I've got papers to write and Rob's got a few projects, the weather is gorgeous, and we may as well just soak it up. I realized today driving past the Frankfurt airport that we've only got about a month and a half left. It's going to FLY. I'm really enjoying this experience and feel like I've learned so much, both about other people and about myself. I've gotten so much more relaxed about traveling, for one. I've also realized how much bigger the world is than I ever imagined, but how through all its differences, it's really just people living their lives everywhere. It's not so different as I once thought. I've also really expanded my horizons learning another language, and it constantly amazes me how much you can tell about a culture simply based on how they say things. For instance, English is the only language I know so far that makes someone the subject of a sentence when they talk about what they like (logical, considering that most English-speaking countries are very focused on the individual). However, both Italian and Spanish place themselves on the back burner in saying what they like, with a literal translation of something like "it is pleasing to me." Not surprising for cultures more based on family life, and putting others first (though sometimes it doesn't seem like it here when the Italians are being rude.)

Speaking of being rude, I've also come away with a really weird perception of the concept of rude. I always assumed that what is rude is pretty much universal, because people are people and what bugs people should be apparent. In traveling, I've realized not so much. For instance, in Italy, no one stands in lines. They push. It's so unnerving and I find it so rude, but to them, it's just the way life is. On the other hand, putting your feet up when you sit here is considered the ultimate in rude, which is strange for us Americans. There's a couch on the first floor of our school building which is clearly meant for relaxing, and many students take off their shoes and curl up to do their studies on it. Apparently, many of the professors have complained that students are disrespectful because they put their feet on the couch, even without their shoes. Strange. Rob was even asked to take his toe off of an empty seat opposite him by a perfect stranger walking by on the train. It's that big of a deal to them. Interesting, for sure. It makes it so much more important to be super observant whenever you get somewhere new...or just ask! I've gotten to know the people who work at our pensione really well, and so now I ask them whenever I have a question about ettiquite or why the Italians do something strange. It's been really helpful.

Speaking of the people who work at our pensione, Karin has offered to cook dinner for just me and Rob, since we're the only people back from spring break. She's so sweet :) Anyway, I'm off to dinner, so ciao!

Andiamo a Germania!

Hey everyone!

It's been another crazy week in Europe...no surprise there. It's been gorgeous, you don't quite need a coat weather, and I've been enjoying it SO much. I've also been playing lots of piano (I actually see myself getting better!) and hanging out with Una, our Irish librarian, doing research for a paper on how clothing in Renaissance Florence changed as the society did. It's actually been lots of fun.

In about fifteen minutes, I'm walking to the train station to hop a one and a half hour train to the Pisa Airport, where Rob and I will catch a flight to Frankfurt. We're flying Ryanair for the first time and have heard mixed reviews about them, so I'm a little nervous. It was only 30 Euro round trip though, so I can't complain too much. We are renting a car when we get there, which will most likely be manual, so that will also be quite the experience. Neither one of us have ever driven one more than once or twice :P We're staying in a tiny town called Creglingen in an apartment for six days. It's about two hours from Frankfurt and three hours from Munich. There's tons of hiking and biking right around that area, so we're excited to get outside and do some exploring! We're also quite excited to cook for the first time since we've been in Europe. It should be quite the trip. We're going to try to make it to Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle that Disney's Cinderella castle is modeled after, and maybe also to Munich. I'm most nervous for the driving, but also really, really excited.

We'll be back sometime Tuesday afternoon, if all goes well, and have two days of school before another three day weekend. We may stay here, or we may go gallavanting, depending on how exhausted we are and how the weather is. I expect we'll be ready to go again though, since this will be a really relaxing week.

I hope everyone is well. It seems like everyone is travelling at some point this week, so I wish you all safe travels (specifically Grandma and Grandpa to Yellowstone, Dad and Blaine to California, and Mom back to the blizzarding Montana). I love you all!

Super Speedy Update.

Hello everyone!

This time I really do owe you all an apology, since it's been about two weeks since I've written. I't just been such a crazy two weeks! I intend to go back and put down the details, mostly just to be able to look back and remember it myself, but for you guys as well, if you're interested. For now though, I'm just going to throw down the basics to let you know I'm alive.

After Venice was midterms week. BLECH. I survived it, but Thursday in particular was miserable: three midterms back to back with two papers due. Then that evening we left for Prague, so there was hardly any time to breathe that whole week. It ended up being successful though ... my grades came back better than I'd even hoped, so that was exciting.

Prague was a really great trip. We left Thursday night at 8pm and drove overnight on a bus (12 hour bus ride...blech again) with a tour group called Florence for Fun, which plans trips for students studying abroad here in Florence. I went with Rob and my roommate Meredith, and the three of us pretty much did our own thing separate of the group the whole weekend. We did lots of walking around since it's such a beautiful city, and lots of shopping, since the exchange rate was phenomenal and they had lots of really original stuff. It was quite a bit of fun. We also had one really interesting (and by that, I mean scary) night. Prague has a 5-story dance club with a different type of music on each floor, so Saturday night we decided to check it out. Rob and I got separated from Meredith because she left with some guy without telling us, so we spent a frantic two hours looking for her and sitting in this disgusting club panicking thinking she was dead or raped or god knows what. She ended up bumping in to us an hour and a half after we'd planned to leave, and we convinced her to come home with us, but it was horribly stressful and a great way to ruin a night that would have otherwise been really fun. Then, on the way home we were mistaken for pickpockets and grabbed by two bouncers walking by another dance club. We tried to push them off because we didn't know who they were and we hadn't done anything wrong, and almost got in a fight in the process. Prague at night is a scary place, and it just reinforced why I almost never go out in Europe. I really love the place during the day, and will spend the rest of my late night hours here sleeping and avoiding the scary crowd.

We made it back from Prague early Monday morning (about 2am) and the next week or so just flew by. Before we knew it, it was Thursday afternoon and we were leaving for our third half-day bus ride in a week period, to Vienna. We arrived there about 3am to a surprisingly nice hostel, then woke up around ten the next morning to go explore. In all honesty, I can't remember much about our trip to Vienna except for that it was FREEZING cold. It was also windy and rainy, so it made it pretty miserable to be outside. We did our best to get the best out of the city, but we ended up doing a lot of museum tours and hanging out in coffee shops. We did, however, get to see a couple really cool things, namely a performance of the Lipizzaners of the Spanish Riding School and Mozart's house in Vienna. Mozart's house actually was only cool in that he lived there -- the museum itself was awful and overpriced. It was still inspiring though to be there and see what he saw out his windows and just be in the place that inspired him.

So, Vienna wasn't a complete bust, though it wasn't my favorite weekend out of all my trips so far. This morning, we woke up early and got ready to leave, and it was the most gorgeous morning (GRRR). I realized I probably would have fallen in love with Vienna had it been sunny, and so I'd love to go back someday and try again. The drive home wasn't too painful, but I am thankful to not be going on any more bus trips for probably the rest of my time here.

This week, once again, will be short. We're leaving for Spring Break on Thursday -- six days in Bavaria! We're still working out the details, namely where to stay since our apartment fell through, but as soon as that's figured out, it should be a great week!

Alright, I've got to go make Skype calls. Ciao!

Venezia: le maschere e l'acqua fredda.

This past weekend was a beautiful one that I'm not likely to ever forget. If you ever get a chance to go to Venice for carnevale, I highly recommend it. Apparently Time magazine ranked it the number one destination in the world last weekend, and for good reason...it was a phenomenal experience.

We got off Friday morning to a rather rocky start, considering that we had to (a) get up at 6:30 and be ready to get on the buses by 8, and (b) the buses themselves didn't show up until well after nine. But after that and a fairly uneventful three and a half hour bus ride, we made it to Fusina, an industrial-looking port about twenty minutes away from Venice by ferry. We checked in to our campsite there, which was actually much less of a campsite and more like a little trailer park, and jumped straight on the ferry for a tour of Venice. The ferry itself though was freezing! We sat on top to get the view, but didn't bet on such a cold wind. I had to wrap myself up in my scarf like a bubushka to try not to freeze!


I don't think I ever got warm again all of Friday, even though the weather was gorgeous. When we got to Venice, chilled but excited, people everywhere were wearing masks and the elaborate costumes were just starting to come out. We walked and walked and took lots of pictures and got ourselves all kinds of lost. We saw St. Mark's Cathedral and another gorgeous baroque church across the grand canal, and all sorts of people in costumes in Piazza San Marco, where there was a competition going on for the best costume. Unfortunately, it got much too chilly as soon as the sun went down, so we gave up on our sightseeing and ate at a little trattoria a little off the beaten path with phenomenal pizza and bruschetta. After dinner we took the ferry back to warm up with a shower and crash early to be ready for a full day of masquerading on Saturday. Unfortunately, there was no hot water in the campsite, so I went to bed as freezing as I had been all day and hoped for warmer weather Saturday. [Here's a few pictures from the first day]

(a band of costumed musicians playing on a ponte)

(St. Mark's Cathedral -- sunset)

(the baroque church across the canal)
(crossing the canal by gondola)
(one of Friday's crazier costumes)

Saturday was perhaps one of the craziest days I've ever had, but so much fun. It started out pretty low-key, with a fairly full ferry ride to Venice full of masked and costumed people, and then another packed ferry ride to Murano, an island about twenty minutes away from Venice. We spent a few hours walking around and getting a feel for the beautiful island complete with canals just like Venice and doing some blown-glass shopping, as this is the island famous for what the rest of the world calls "Venetian Glass." Venice itself actually doesn't have any glass blowing, because the furnaces were all moved to Murano in the 1400s for fear that the wooden houses in Venice would all catch fire and burn down the whole city. I actually liked Murano itself better than I liked Venice, as it was a little more laid back and cozy feeling. It might have just been because it was away from the crowds though. There were beautiful blown glass statues all over the town, some gorgeous churches, and lots of fun blown glass shops. We intended to take a ferry back at 2pm but through a series of strange mishaps and irritating ferry drivers, we didn't get on one until almost 3. When we got back to San Marco, the piazza was literally PACKED. Like sardines. It took us near an hour to get from the ferry stop on the grand canal across Piazza San Marco to the Rialto Bridge, which if you've ever been to Venice before, you'll know is ridiculous. We finally gave up on walking after Rialto and decided to take the ferry back to Piazza San Marco to find some food. The ferry was a ridiculous idea as well, because it was just as packed as the square itself. We rode for about an hour, getting shoved around and packed in close, but everyone was in such a good mood, it was actually kind of fun. I also got some beautiful pictures from the grand canal, since luckily I was near the edge of the boat.

(Rob and me in Murano)

(Walking back to Piazza San Marco)
(View of the Grand Canal from the ferry)

When we returned to Piazza San Marco, we were so excited to try and get food at the Hard Rock Cafe, which would have been our first non-Italian food since being in Italy. Inconveniently, it was closed for the whole month, so with our hopes dashed, we went out to wander aimlessly to search for food. We happened upon a mostly empty chinese restaurant that was fairly inexpensive and stopped to warm up and rest for a while. The food ended up being delicious, and the stop was entertaining as well since some very drunk Italian men in bear costumes (not the Venetian norm) came in and asked us questions about American culture and whether we were enjoying carnevale. After our long dinner break, we went in search of masks (actually, we'd been in search of masks since Friday but hadn't found the perfect mask for fifteen euro or less, which was my budget, unless I found something impossible to pass up. I finally found one I liked for ten euro and promptly snapped it up and wore it for the rest of the night. It's amazing how wearing a mask automatically improves your level of fun. I was enjoying myself before, but somehow everything seems a little crazier and you feel a little more free to be silly while wearing a mask. After the mask escapades, we went in search of a ledgendary wine shop where the man who worked there poured your wine of choice in to 1.5 L water bottles for three euro. Sure enough, we found it, and the wine was delicious and inexpensive and it seemed by the end of the night, everyone had one and was having quite a good time. Since 1.5 L of wine is much more than I can drink, Rob and I shared, but still ended up coming home with half a bottle. We're silly enough on our own...we don't need alcohol to have fun.

(our masks!)
(explanation of how huge the wine was. Notice that (a) the bottle is full, and (b) Rob's nose is actually too long for him to take more than a drink. It was a funny attempt though)

After the wine escapade, we had a string of ridiculous experiences people watching and just wandering the streets. We stopped to look at an artist's paintings, and all he said to us in a very raspy voice was "'ello!," and then, seeing our giant water bottle full of wine, pointed to us and said "Red Wine," as though it was our name. Highly amused by this whole exchange, we spent the rest of the night calling everyone in our group and that we saw on the street by their drink name. I'm pretty sure this is one of those stories that is only funny if you were there, but to us, it was incredibly amusing. I swear, there was just something in the air that night. Everyone was in the best mood, everything was funny, and the whole city just really seemed to be alive and celebrating. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Large groups of costumed people were singing at the top of their lungs parading through the streets, and any person was free to join in and sing, whether they knew the words or not. Piazzas were full of candy vendors and there were masked musicians of every kind on every street corner. It was as if everyone was high on adrenaline and a little bit drunk, but with none of the negative aspects of anyone getting 'out of control'. Granted, we left the city at 9:30, before it got crazy, but it seemed like even the people who stayed out until 2 or 3 in the morning came back with the same impression.

A note about getting back: there were only two ways to get back to the campsite: taking the ferry which came every half hour until 9:30, or taking an hour-long bus ride, which ran every half an hour or so until 1am. Any time after that, a person was trapped in the city until the boats started running again at 6:30 or the buses at 4:30. I heard some pretty crazy stories about people's missing transportation and being stuck in the city, but there were two that were outstanding. First, one (I assume, fairly drunk) girl missed the last ferry and was distraught. Apparently she sat on the dock for an hour sobbing hysterically and inconsolably until, apparently, a taxi driver took pity on her and drove her the twenty minutes back to Fusina free of charge. Another girl got stuck, wandered in to a hotel, and paid 100 euro for a room for the night. Crazy. I'm glad we made it back okay.

When we got back, inconveniently, the power was out, so it was frigid in the cabins and still no hot water. We just crashed and woke up early again Sunday to wander once again. It was our intention do to church for Palm Sunday but it was hard to find which churches were open when and which lines were for tourists and which were for mass, so we wandered with Kate and Megan looking for a mask Kate had seen a few days before and fallen in love with. She couldn't find the mask, so we went wandering along the grand canal to find one comparable. Instead of finding one, we ended up going art shopping! Rob and I found a gorgeous oil painting that the guy sold to us for only twenty five euro, and then we found another artist who made etchings and then made prints using watercolor and acid. They were so original and gorgeous, and so we bought a few with the intention of giving them as gifts or keeping a few ourselves. Art is the one thing that we are trying to bring home as souveneirs, and the weekend ended up being much less expensive than expected (since we forgot to eat for most of it), so it was a good use of the extra money.

Much too soon, Sunday afternoon came, and we headed back to Florence. We got home about seven pm, grabbed some quick chinese food (not sure what was up with Chinese this weekend), and ran to a concert at Teatro della Pergola of Andras Schiff playing Mozart Rondi and Sonati. He was SO incredble. He hardly looked like he was playing, he was so composed, and I've honestly never heard Mozart so incredibly, well, Mozart-y. It was cheeky and crazy while still being brilliant, and it really felt like the man himself was coming out of the music. He's playing two more concerts the next two weekends, all of Mozart, and while I'll be gone this upcoming weekend, I plan to catch the last one, if I can.

As for this week...BAH. Midterms, midterms, midterms. I had one that I felt really great about on Monday, and then for the rest of the week I just have class as usual and crazy amounts of studying. Thursday morning I have three back to back: an Italian oral exam, a history comprehensive midterm with an essay due that same day, and then an Italian written comprehensive test. I've also got a term paper proposal due that day as well. It's a little crazy. I should be done by noon though, and then at seven, we leave for Prague! I can't wait.

Sorry again for the marathon post. Hope you're enjoying the pictures...it's something I'm trying. You probably won't hear from me until well after Prague, since I'm going to be (a) exhausted, and (b) recovering from midterms and getting back on track with school. I think if I stay on top of things and do fine this Thursday, I may actually end up with a 4.0 this semester. It'd be really great, since next year's going to be rough. I started looking at grad schools and other post-grad options today and got a bit overwhelmed, so I'm leaving that for this summer/next year and just doing my best for now to enjoy where I'm at. It's not too difficult, considering how wonderful it is to be in Europe out exploring.

Well, I'm off to fill my brain with Renaissance politics, Italian directions and prepositions, and hopefully some good ideas for papers and creative writing pieces. Ciao!

Here's to the nights we felt alive.

Yesterday I had one of the best days since I've been in Florence. It's so interesting, because nothing really 'eventful' or 'life-changing' happened, I didn't see something I'll never get to see again...it was just the feeling of the day and the people in it that made it wonderful.

First off, I woke up super sick and missed my morning classes. I was pretty sure it was going to doom the day, but I ended up just getting a few hours extra sleep and feeling much better with just a few remnants of headache. Then, lunch was a delicious pesto pasta and a really large chicken breast, so that was a delicious treat. After lunch, Rob and I walked and talked and had a really good time just running errands and getting gelato in Florence. It was a gorgeous day, which helped, but it was the company that really made it good :)

After errands, we came back to school and met for a backstage tour of the Pergola theater, a gorgeous little theater from the 1600s off the beaten path in Florence. It had incredible acoustics, and the woman leading the tour let me sing a scale on stage to test them. It really was a treat -- I'd love to get to sing there again, only maybe next time it will be for real! Mostly they just do plays there now, but they still do one opera a year to preserve tradition, so there's hope for me yet. Other cool things about the theater: there's a mechanism under the orchestra seats that literally raises the floor up to the level of the stage so the whole theater can be used as one big dance hall. Also, they have a hollow pipe embedded in a pillar on the side of the stage so that the stage manager can talk up to people on the catwalk controlling the curtain and the lights. This is incredible because apparently it was the guy who invented this who then went on to invent the telephone. Was it Alexander Graham Bell, you ask? Actually, no. Apparently ten years ago the Supreme Court of New York ruled that it was, in fact, this Italian man's intellectual property, he just hadn't paid for the patent, so Bell got all the credit. Interesting, no?

After the Pergola we ran a few more errands and came home with the intention of having a quiet night in. However, we got invited to a pizza place about ten blocks away which apparently won a world competition in 2003. We had to check it out, so away we went. The place ended up being closed when we went (6:30), so we went to play soccer in a park nearby until it opened, and I got to chat with Rob's roommate's girlfriend Emily for a half hour and finally get to know her better. It was really relaxing and great. Some Italian guys about our age even played with them for a little while!

Then we went to get the pizza. It was SO worth the wait...and I forsee myself going there quite often. It was just five euro for a giant prosciutto pizza to go, and they even sold us their house wine (which is ridiculously inexpensive but nonetheless delicious as well) for 4.50 euro per liter. They couldn't let us take the bottles outside though, so they just filled water bottles up with wine for us, which was a ridiculous but very amusing situation. We took the pizzas back to the park but realized a little too late that they hadn't cut them. Thus, everyone just had to fold theirs in half and eat it like a gargantuan calzone. It was so much fun. While we were eating, the Italian guys who played soccer came over and chatted with us for a half an hour. They were really nice and eager to practice their English, which is actually something that's really difficult to find in the city center. They were the first nice Italians who weren't either shop owners or working at our hotel. Such a treat.

After, most of the group walked to the soccer game, but we went home with Rob's roommate to play a card game called Swiss Joss (pronounced yoss). It's such a complex game, but really fun. We played with our friend Allison for a while, since you need four people, but she had to go to dinner, so we invited the guy who works at the front desk at night, Marco, to play with us. It was so fun to get to know him better. We spoke in a mix of Italian and English, and he promised to teach us some Italian card games as well. He also made us Italian coffee and told us about some places to find Italian friends (one of my goals while I'm here). He actually suggested finding a few conversation partners at the language school nearby, which is really a great idea.

Overall, I just had a really fun night getting to know some really fun people. Like I said, not super life changing, but just a really nice change. It's been difficult to find like minded people here interested in the same kinds of things I am (namely, having fun just exploring and talking and playing games, rather than bar hopping). Last night was proof that it can happen and they're out there, even if you have to catch them on the one night they aren't drinking. I'm optimistic. Hopefully there will be lots more nights like that one in the future.

As for today...I'm off to Venice for Carnevale! I can't wait. I wish I could do the whole gorgeous old-fashioned costume thing like they do, but they're horribly expensive to rent and rather impractical when travelling with a group. I just brought all black and white clothes with dark jeans though, and I intend to buy a mask as soon as I get there. It should be such a blast. We're also going to tour Murano and a few more of the islands where they make the blown glass, so I should come home with all sorts of fun things. We're also making a game out of seeing how well we can eat for how little money, especially since we want to buy so many fun things in Venice. We'll see how that goes. As for me, I'm off to grab some breakfast and meet the bus, since we leave in half an hour. Be back Sunday night, so look for really great pictures and an update on Monday!

Non capisco il tempo qui a Firenze. GR.

So far, my favorite thing about Florence (not) is that it rains EVERY TUESDAY. How do I know this, you ask? Well, Tuesday is the weekday afternoon I don't have class, and so it's been my intention to go out and explore Florence, but so far every Tuesday I've had free has poured. However, the one Tuesday I had to study, two weeks ago, it was sunny. Go figure.

In any case, I'll quit my complaining, because it's a gorgeous day now, and I have exciting news! I've received an email back from Luke, the executive director at the Alpine Theater Project, and he's asked for references who can speak to my costume construction abilities and my work ethic. Conveniently, I have two such people who I'm 99% certain will give raving reviews (Patty, my boss from the Bookstore, and Summer, my costume professor). In any case, I'd love for everyone to keep their fingers crossed for me - I really think this would be a great opportunity for the summer, to be close to the largest concentration of my family and to be making connections in the theater business.

Other than that, I've had a pretty decent week as weeks go. Monday I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the Odeon Theater in English with Italian subtitles, and I can honestly say it was the best made move I have seen in years. It's an incredibly beautiful movie, and I'm putting it on the top of my list of favorites. I swear almost every shot in that movie could be a gorgeous photograph, which is, I think, how a movie should be shot. My only complaint: it didn't start until 9pm on a Monday night, which made Tuesday morning's 8:30 am Italian class pretty painful. Then it kind of happened again last night - I went to a piano recital of Russian woman oltrarno at the Accademia Bartolomeo Cristoforo, a museum for fortepiano and pianoforte, and after three encores, we didn't make it home until almost midnight. Luckily, tonight's free, so I'll get all caught up on homework and sleep. Tomorrow night I'm going to try to get last minute tickets to the opera, since it's sold out, and if I fail, I'll go sing karaoke at a bar near the Piazza della Signoria.

I'm a little skeptical/tentative about going to Venice this weekend for carnevale. I'm really excited for Venice itself and for carnevale, but I'm not as excited for going with all of GIF. Both my roommates are really nice girls that I don't know very well, so I'm sure that will be fun to get to know them, but I'm worried about the alcohol thing. Everyone here seems to drink like it's going out of style, and I don't ever drink more than wine with dinner because (a) I like keeping control of myself and knowing my surroundings, (b) I don't think you need alcohol to have a good time, and (c) it makes me horribly sick after more than a glass or so. I just hope I can find a group of people who want to have fun sober. There's so much to do and see in Venice, I think it's such a shame to only come home with stories of how much you drank.

Oh! one more thing before I get back to work. I forgot to mention that last week I got hit by a car! It's okay, I didn't really get hurt, since he really just clobbered me with his mirror and I bounced off the side of his car, but it's kind of a crazy story nonetheless. Luckily I only came out with some bruises and some frustration at the driver, who didn't even stop to see if I was okay. I'm currently writing on it for my creative writing class, so I'll post that when I finish it in the next week or so and you can get the whole story there. Suffice to say, the roads in Italy are not very wide and the drivers not very cautious and if you ever step off the sidewalk, even for a minute, you should watch your back if you value your life.

Hope all is well in the states, and that your day will be as gorgeous as mine is. Here's hoping sping comes early for us all this year!

Buon San Valentino (abbastanza tarde)

I tried to write a quick post before I left on Friday morning, but apparently it didn't make it through. Cursed pensione internet connection. Thus, today I'll be playing catch-up for last Sunday's trip to Viareggio, all of last week, and this glorious past weekend.

Viareggio was a really, really fun day trip. We took the train on Sunday morning for about two hours to the coast with twenty or so people from school. Rob and I sat across from a really nice middle aged woman who was reading the bible, and Rob tried to start up a conversation in Italian with her that turned in to about an hour of chatting back and forth. She was Romanian and had just moved to Florence a few months ago but had granddaughters in Viareggio. It was difficult to communicate but she was really patient with us, and it helped that she didn't speak any English, so it was Italian or nothing. We got some really good practice and met someone really nice, so it worked out well. Once we arrived in Viareggio, we walked around and got the feel for the town, grabbed lunch at a stand on the corner with a really nice guy at the grill who discussed the differences (in Italian) between American and Italian hot dogs. They also let us sample porchetta, a tuscan tradition for carnevale, which is pork that is seasoned and roasted on a spit for a whole day and a whole night before it's sliced and placed on a bun and fed to happy people like me.


That afternoon the Carnival itself started. Almost everyone was dressed up, from ages one to ninety-nine, most in these strange fur suits meant to look like varying animals. Most families matched, it was cute but very strange. The women wore the same fur suits as the men, but theirs were cut off in to very short shorts, then they wore matching tights and fur legwarmers. Very interesting look. Also popular for teenagers was the soccer player look or girls in tutus. The real point of the carnival, however, is the floats. They make these gigantic floats, hundreds of feet high with hundreds of people riding on them, made entirely out of paper-mache. Complete with sound systems, moving parts, and wheels, they parade them for hours down the main street near the ocean. Most of them are politically satirical, so many were difficult for us to understand, but we did our best to guess. You can see all my pictures from Viareggio here, though I'll throw up the craziest of the floats, just so you get the idea. Notice that there are communist hammer and sickles in his eyes. So creepy. Also notice how huge it is in comparison to all the little people on it.


After Viareggio, the week was rather uneventful. Classes went fairly well...Italian is sometimes really great and sometimes really frustrating, as some days we can hardly write fast enough for all we're learning and other days we do the same thing in both classes and learn nothing new. I'm still loving my music history class, mostly because the professor is so passionate about music and about really getting to know composers for who they were and associating that with their music. It's been really inspirational, and I'm falling in love all over again with classical (well, actually late-Romantic) music. I finally had a successful voice lesson this past week, and I'm starting to see the merits of having a different approach. Even if I'm not learning a ton in the way of theory, I am learning to emote and to really put myself in the music, which is starting to pay off, though it took a few awkward weeks to get used to. I'm also getting comfortable with a huge amount of new repertoire, which makes me confident that I may, in fact, be ready for my senior recital. We'll see! My other class is the Writing Traveler, which hasn't turned out at all how I expected, but is actually pretty great. I had writer's block for about a month, which made it miserable, but last week I finally wrote three pieces I was pretty happy with, which was a great way to end a week.

This weekend started Thursday night, when Rob and I walked around town, did a little shopping, went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, il Gatto e la Volpe, and then caught Frost/Nixon in English at the Odeon (which I liked, for the most part, but had some issues with the construction and character development). After, we came home and packed our backpacks and turned in early, as our train left Friday morning at ten to nine. Friday morning we woke up early, grabbed a bit of breakfast, and had a pretty relaxing three hour train ride through the countryside with a short transfer in Pisa to Riomaggiore, the first of the five Cinque Terre. If you haven't heard of it, Cinque Terre is a small section of the Ligurian coastline up in the North of Italy where it touches the mainland of Europe (on the American, not the Asian side). It's a series of five tiny coastal towns built on cliffs, and they're incredibly beautiful and full of charm. It's the off-season right now, so there was hardly anything open, but I actually think it was better that way. We got to see the natural beauty of the place without any of the crowds, though I'd love to go back and get a feel for each of the cities when they're full of life.


After getting off the train, we hiked up the hill and found our hotel, a little locanda right next to a church. It was all locked up, but there was a sign right next to the door listing phone numbers and saying you could call to be let in. That would have worked great, had either Rob or I had a phone (which, by the way, has been 95% relaxing, but 5% irritating, mostly because of situations like this). We waited about fifteen minutes, then decided to go to lunch just down the hill and come back later. One prosciutto pizza and an hour later, there was still noone there. We went back to the restaurant and tried to ask if we could use the phone, which was met with very little success. I did manage to convince him to call the number himself though and he let them know that we wanted in. Ten minutes later, a harried woman ran in, unlocked the door, gave us the key and indicated that it also opened the front door, and left as quickly as she'd came. Despite the very strange checking-in experience, the hotel was very clean and comfortable and worked out quite well for our stay. After getting unpacked, we decided to go wandering. We got a feel for Riomaggiore, then went down to the beginning of the #2 trail, which connects all five of the cities and walks right along the ocean. Unfortunately, only the path between Riomaggiore and Manarola, the next town over, was open...the rest was closed due to landslides. We bought a three-day park and train pass anyway and hiked our way over to Manarola to see what we could see. It was a gorgeous day, so we just did lots of hiking and sitting in the sun. We walked back from Manarola to Riomaggiore right around sunset on what's aptly named Via Dell'Amore, or Lover's Lane. I swear it was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. The colors couldn't have been more perfect, and the setting was incredibly beautiful. We were the only ones out as well, which made it all the more peaceful.


After sunset we hiked back to the hotel, changed, and went to the only other restaurant open in town, Il Grottino (because after that afternoon's telephone debaucle, there was no way I was going back to the first restaurant). It was a seafood restaurant and considering Cinque Terre is famous for its seafood and pesto, we decided to be adventurous and order the equivalent of Prawn Soup. Now, neither one of us has ever eaten prawns, but we figured it wouldn't be that hard. Boy were we wrong! Out came a clay pot full of broth and six whole prawns. We were completely stumped, but decided to put them on our plates, at least cut off the heads, and go scavenging for any meat we could find in the middle. It was definitely comical. The best part is that we have NO idea whether people were looking at us like we were crazy or not, but what can you do? Luckily, we also ordered a chestnut-flour pasta with pesto which was delicious, and neither of us was too terribly hungry, so it was more of an adventure than anything.


The next day we did lots more hiking and exploring. In the morning we headed up the mountain above Riomaggiore to a little church on the crest of the hill. At the top there was a visitor's center which was inconveniently closed but which during the tourist season rents out horses or mountain bikes to use on the upper trails. I think we may try to come back and do this, because it sounds really fun! Then, on the way down, we decided to try to take a different trail. In Cinque Terre, the trails are supposed to be marked with a red and white stripe and a number to indicate where to go, but the Italians are phenomenal at making this little white red and white stripe almost impossible to find. We had quite an expedition trying to get down the mountain this way, but it was great fun.


After the hike we took the afternoon to town-hop and get the feel for each individual "terra". We walked again to Manarola and decided it felt much like an extension of Riomaggiore with a few more boats. We then took a train to Vernazza, which my lovely friend Sarah had told me was her favorite, and I quickly saw why. The town has a main road with cute little shops that opens up on a really beautiful marina with a little church. The waves were crashing up over the dock and the sun was out, so we sat for a while and I wrote a while in my journal. On our way back to the train station, we were waylaid in a little shop selling gorgeous hand-painted pottery. We were tempted to buy the whole store, but instead came out with a few key pieces for ourselves and as gifts. When it came time to pay, I asked in Italian and the guy gave me a blank stare. For a moment I thought I'd said something totally wrong, but then he answered in a thick, Irish accent "I don't speak Italian yet, sorry." Turned out he had fallen in love with Eva, the woman who ran the shop, and had moved to Vernazza to be with her. Pretty cute story for Valentine's day. He wrapped up all our stuff and we headed out to catch the train. We were about ten minutes too late though, so we had an hour to kill before the next train. We decided to wander the city, which was actually a really great decision. The coolest thing about Vernazza is that it's built entirely on a hill, so it seems much smaller than it actually is. Once you walk up what seems to be a tiny footpath, you find a whole network of 'streets' just wide enough for one person to walk on. At the top is a castle and a gorgeous little piazza on a cliff with a bench overlooking the ocean. It was gorgeous.


After Vernazza we took the train to Corniglia, the only one of the towns that's actually on the hill above the train station. We hiked up, got a delicious panino in a bar, and then climbed a tower and sat for an hour. Rob sketched the coastline, and I read Harry Potter. We hiked back down to the train station with just enough time to catch the train back to Riomaggiore. We left Monterrosso for last, because we had plans to go to a restaurant Peter reccommended for Valentine's Day dinner there. After getting cleaned up and hopping the train back to Monterrosso, we hiked over to the restaurant and settled in for a delicious meal. We had tons more pesto - pesto linguini and a pesto minestrone soup, and then shared house wine and a steak. It was delicious!

The next morning we got up early and headed home, since we wanted to be back in time to do some homework and get lots of sleep before starting the week. We took the train to Pisa and intended to switch trains and get back to Florence, but at the last minute, we decided to get out and go see the leaning tower, since it was such a beautiful day. After about a thirty minute walk across the city (which I really enjoyed!), we ended up at the tower. First of all, let me tell you that all sorts of people have told me that (a) there is nothing good in Pisa but the tower, and (b) it's not even really worth seeing, but I feel that neither one is true. Maybe it's because it was such a beautiful day, maybe it's because it was Sunday morning and everyone was out strolling, but I really liked Pisa, maybe even more so than Florence. First of all, it was quite a bit warmer than Florence. The streets were a little wider, it was a little bit smaller, and the entire center of the city is all for foot traffic, just like Florence. It was basically a more laid-back, smaller version of Florence, with a little bit less to see in terms of culture. For living though, it would have been nice. I think I'm realizing that I just like a little bit slower pace of life, and I'm not much of a city girl. It doesn't make me any less happy to be in Florence, and it doesn't mean I'll never live right in the middle of a city again, but I do think it's an interesting thing to learn about myself.

As for the tower, it was everything we expected. Actually, more than I had expected. It really is crazy how far it leans! They also still let people climb it, which seems totally crazy to me. Must be more solid than it looks. I can't imagine how sad it would be and how much of a mess it would be if it fell. It'd be an epic story though. It's funny to see how many people were there, especially considering how cozy and free of tourists the rest of the city felt. Walking in to that piazza was like stumbling on a sea of tourists...very surreal. It's also funny because everyone is taking the traditional 'look, I'm holding up the tower!' picture. I thought we were going to look goofy, and of course we did, but so did everyone else. We took a lot of really fun pictures, especially Rob, since I wasn't wearing great shoes for being up on the pillars. Here are my favorites of the bunch:



I also took a picture in front of the least visited museum in Italy, the national museum right next to the tower. Rob's mom sent me a news article on the musem, and so I meant to go in and visit it just to say I'd been there, but we didn't have time, so it still remains the least visited museum in Italy, no thanks to me.

After that I looked at my watch and realized we had about twenty minutes to get back to catch the train or we'd have to wait another hour. Though it'd taken a half hour to get there, I thought if we hurried we could make it. This was not the most brilliant of decisions considering I was (a) wearing knee-high leather boots with heels, (b) still sore from the weekend's gallavanting in Cinque Terre, and (c) we were still carrying everything we brought with us, but we did it anyway. We made it back to the train station limping but with two minutes to spare and ran to our platform. When we got there, there was no train. Thinking we'd missed it, we checked the board and realized it'd been cancelled. Thus, we got a really great workout, but we had to wait an hour anyway for the train. Ridiculous, but it made for a really good story.

So, you're pretty much caught up on life as I know it in Florence. Last night was positively frigid, so it's a little chilly still in the pensione. Everyone is complaining about the food and not getting enough, but I'm fairly content. I haven't had much of an appetite lately though, so I'm not sure if I'm really a fair judge. It's not fabulous food by any stretch, but it's much better than the COG, so I'm not complaining.

Next week is midterms, so I'm trying to get as much studying done this week as I can, since we'll be in Venice for carnevale this weekend. I'm excited! The weekend after midterms Rob and I are going with a tour group based out of Florence to Prague, which I am so excited to see as well. My roommate Meredith and our friend Leanna may come as well, we'll see. Then the next weekend, I'm going to Vienna! It will be a musical pilgrimage, I can't wait. I'm going to see the Marriage of Figaro (one of Mozart's most famous operas) in the first theater it ever played in! Then the next week is spring break, which Rob and I are spending in Germany. It's going to be a very busy month, but I can't wait!

P.S. If you'd like to see the rest of the pictures from Cinque Terre, you can catch the whole album here.