The Little Things In Life

First of all, MY BROTHER GOT A FOHAWK AND MY FATHER HELPED HIM CUT IT LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!! Oh my GOODNESS I was freaking out when I saw the pictures.

I can't believe I only have 10 full days of the program left. I sort of don't want to travel around afterwards because it's just getting ridiculously hot, but I know I will have fun showing around my mom and my two cousins.

Last Tuesday we walked up this extremely large MOUNTAIN and the view was amazing. I could see the entire city and it was just crazy to think about how I've been living in that mess of buildings for two weeks now. The picture below doesn't do justice and the huge building is our Duomo. My apartment is somewhere between the end of the Duomo and the tall tower on the left. There was a church at the top, but my roommates and I were so tired that we didn't walk up there. I regret it a little because when will I ever have a chance to come back to Italy?


On Wednesday, I went to the Italia Wave Love Festival. It was a pretty spontaneous trip and quite an adventure I must say. None of my roommates wanted to go so I went with some other girls from the program. It took us about 2 hours to actually get to the concert ground and the bus was freaking PACKED. I was seriously smushed in between two people and since it was so hot it felt like a freaking orgy. What's funny is that nobody got off at the stop before the entrance and so when the bus overshot everybody was yelling for the bus to stop.


There were SWARMS of young Italians heading towards the entrance. Everybody was trying to get in before 9pm so that they didn't have to pay 10 euro. When we got up to the front, the guard people linked arms!! We were all ready to get pissed off since we thought we didn't make the 9pm mark, but they let a couple of us through so luckily we didn't have to pay. It seriously wasn't anything I was expecting (since I wasn't really expecting anything) but it was sweet. The place was huge and had a bunch of tents and about three stages. There were people selling all sorts of things and when Clap Your Hands Say Yeah came on we were in the very front! I didn't like them that much, but the audience was a lot more chill than people in SD are - I actually had a nice little space around me and there was no mosh pit.

One of my roommates is OBSESSED with Harry Potter so we bought some wine and went to wait for it to hit midnight. When we got there at like 11:30pm, there was nobody there so we were all confused. Unfortunately we are 1 hour ahead of London, so we had to wait until 1am to get the book, but it was fun just waiting together. We talked to the people behind us and in front of us (there were like 6 kids in front of us and they counted down - it was cute and I joined in).

Look at them all happy with their copies of Harry Potter. I didn't buy one since it's like almost 30 Euro (which equals $40). Surprisingly, my roommate has been able to control herself and not read the book until she gets on the plane. I already asked my mom to bring me our copy from home. :)


So after sleeping at like 2:30am, we got up at 5:30am to catch a train to VENICE! Our first train was the best because we got our own little compartment and the chairs pulled out on each side to make beds. I felt like I was on the train that Harry takes to Hogwarts. :)


Even though Venice is the one place I've been DREAMING to visit, it wasn't as great as I was expecting it to be. Actually, it's a pretty sweet place, but we were all just too tired, it was too hot, and my freaking ankles were turning into cankles. It was freaking expensive and I didn't get this one picture I wanted, but hopefully when I go back it will be a much better experience.


At around 6pm we got on a train to take us to Verona. All I knew about Verona was that Juliet's house is there and that it's the city of love. At this point I was pretty unhappy with the entire situation because my ankles were the size of oranges and it was hot. It took us a really long time to get to our hotel, but in the end it was all worth it. The man at the front desk was SUPER nice and they had internet for us to use as well. After taking a nice cold shower, icing my ankles, and getting a full night's sleep without any noise interruption I woke up feeling much happier. We got a nice, big, FREE breakfast and then we headed out to the city of Verona.


Verona is by far my favorite city so far. It's sort of like a suburb in comparison to Florence and I loved it. It was a little more difficult because nobody really spoke English, but on the flip side there were a lot less tourists (especially American ones). We went to the Arena (where they're playing La Boheme!!!!! I really wanted to watch) and it's freaking HUGE. Then we went to Juliet's house, a church, and we ended the day with visiting a castle. My camera died right after Juliet's house so I have to steal some pictures from the other girls.

I'm definitely planning on coming back to Verona with a boyfriend/fiance/hubby. The entrance way to Juliet's house is filled with names of couples, love letters, wishes, and dreams. It was pretty cool.

So after about a week and a half here in Italy I find out TODAY that I have been saying thank you wrong THIS ENTIRE TIME. I've been saying it like gra-zee instead of gra-zee-eh. Dang, how embarrassing since that was basically one out of the two words I knew in Italian for at least a week.

Last weekend was super fun. On Friday the roomies and I spent the entire day grocery shopping and then FINALLY eating at the Oil Shoppe (this amazing sandwich place that's so famous they have a facebook group). Then we made some dinner and took it with us to the bridge. We climbed over the bridge and onto this ledge to eat. It was beautiful just sitting there watching the ponte vecchio (old bridge) change colors due to the sunset.


Afterwards, we walked around for a bit and Kailey showed us this place where couples will put a lock on the gate and then throw the key away as a symbol of their everlasting love for each other. Freaking Florence and all it's romance.


On Saturday, we went with CEA (my program) to San Gimignano which is this medieval town on top of a mountain. It was a crazy steep hike, but the view was gorgeous. It's such a touristy town, but there are actually locals who still live there! During the medieval times they built towers like these in order to protect their families more easily. It was also a sign of power and wealth.


:) Look at that view; imagine what it looks like from the top of a tower!


Then for dinner we went to this medieval fair where people are dressed up like they were back in that time period and you have to exchange euros into the currency that was used during that time. It was pretty interesting to eat the food that they ate, but everybody was so hungry people were getting grumpy. We saw a creepy jester and then he came over! It was actually HILARIOUS because they told a story of the rope that they use to try to find their way when they are lost. However, the rope will only work if a virgin touches it. Of course, nobody is going to be like I'M A VIRGIN PICK ME PICK ME. So then he picked somebody out our group and told her to stroke the rope as he strategically placed it right where his belt buckle would be. I didn't get a good picture of that, but hopefully my roommates did.


Then after dinner we walked around the town. There wasn't much to do or look at and it was FREAKING CROWDED, but there were some amusing characters. These two "ladies" were on stilts and they were pretty funny. They would go up to a guy and stick his head in between their fake boobs and rub. I was so scared they were going to come after me, but thank goodness they were heterosexual women.

Then we saw this guy dressed up as a sheep so we wanted to take a picture with him. His friend got all jealous since he got to take a picture with all these girls - it was pretty funny too. Then some how he ended up showing us his sheep balls (not his real ones, but the ones on his costume)? Haha, these people were crazy.


The next day my roommates and I set out for Cinque Terre at 6:30am. The train ride was long and uncomfortable (the couple in front of us kept making out), but it was definitely worth it in the end. This was the first place we went to that had more Italians than tourists and it was so crowded (and expensive).

We rented a chair and umbrella for 10 euro each, but it was worth it since it got really hot. I definitely saw some naked old ladies and the middle aged man in front of us finger his wife as he was rubbing sunscreen on her butt. Oh, Italy.

I don't know if you can see, but there are some rocks off to the distance between the umbrellas. Kailey and I swam all the way out there and laid out on a rock. It was pretty sweet. Then some cute Italian boys started to talk to us which was fun too. :) The water is so calm (there are no waves really) so we just floated around and did flips like we would in a swimming pool.


Taking the train was an interesting experience. On our way back, there weren't enough seats so we had to stand for a while before getting to sit down. After this one stop, a group of four boys were leaving so we all got up to sit down in their seat. One guy started to rub Jenna's face and hit on Kailey and then this other guy came up from behind us and started to talk to the guys who were leaving. That guy then proceeded to sit down in the seats that we were just about to sit in and saved it for his three friends! It all happened so fast and since we were in a foreign country, I didn't really know what to do except to just go back to where we were standing before. This one lady got so fed up, she started lecturing the guy and then this other lady joined in. They were basically asking where his chivalry was. The second lady then turned to us and said, "I'm sorry - I am so ashamed of some of the people in this country. Please, we can share my seat."

I felt really bad that she gave up her seat, but she INSISTED like no other so Meg and I each took a turn. Eventually those four seats opened up again so we thanked her and she got her seat back. This situation had so many different things going on - gender issues, tourists vs. Italians (honestly if we were in California I would have definitely said something and not taken that from anybody!). Though at the time, all I could think about was how my friends and I probably would have done the same thing in high school or something.


This week I've been going to museums and churches during my free time as well as going to extra tutoring sessions for my class. I think I'm also going to this music festival later this afternoon (Italia Wave Love Festival) and I'm pretty excited.

The more you learn about Florence, the more you realize how much more there is to learn.

Ciao bella means hi beautiful and that's what all the Italian men say when they want to hit on a girl. So basically, I hear that A LOT. Just kidding.

Anyways, I don't want this post to take up too much time because we are going out to dinner soon so I will just make it short and sweet so that at least you guys have some pictures to look at!


This is the living room of my apt. This picture does not do justice because our place is HUGE. We have high rise ceilings and a lot of space. The only problem is that the shower is tiny - oh well.


These are my lovely roommates. I've only been here for a week, but I love them already! We basically do everything together and we are all so different (blond, brunette, redhead, and the ASIAN) but so similar too. It goes Jenna (the girl from Philly - I love her accent and her late night goofiness), Me (nothing I am wearing is mine since at that point in time I still hadn't received my luggage), Meg (she has a southern drawl and I share a room with her), and Kailey (she goes to school in North Carolina where OTH is filmed and has discussed poetry with the actor who plays Dan Scott! We are from parallel worlds because we are completely the same in certain things and then completely opposite). This picture was taken at the vineyard. Isn't it gorgeous?


Then they served us a 5 course traditional Italian meal accompanied with white and red wine! It was delish, but I didn't finish my wine since I'm not that big of a wine drinker. It was pretty sweet.


I don't know why these are so blurry, but I'm too lazy to fix it. This is the Duomo and it's HUGE. We live about 2 min. away from it so it's pretty sweet. There's always a ton of tourists around which gets kind of annoying.


What's cool is that my program includes a lot of things like trips and little tours and dinners and stuff so my roommates and I went on this walking tour of Florence. It was sweet; I learned so much that I would have never thought about since the tour guide was an art history major. I have a lot to say about stuff like that, but I will probably elaborate some other time. This is a church right here and the ground in front of it is a burial site for infants who don't make it. It was kind of creepy.


I love this picture. Basically in Florence, it's very hard to see open sky since all the apartments and buildings are so high and the streets are so narrow. I haven't been able to find Orion yet so that sucks, but it's a pretty cool city. We're always walking around during dusk which I LOVE and even though it's hard for me to sleep at night (there are ALWAYS cars or motorcycles or loud drunk people walking around and we don't close our windows since it's way too hot for that) I'm getting used to this place. It's hard to walk around sometimes since the streets are not paved and all made out of stone.


This is another one of my favorite pictures. My roommates and I were just walking around and we heard this flautist playing to U2 so we sat down to watch. It ended up being a full 2 hour show with him and another artist on the guitar. People were all gathered around this little corner in the Piazza de Signoria listening and appreciating the music. I loved it - the acoustics were awesome since the space was surrounded by tall building and the flautist was amazing. I basically fell in love with Florence right then and there.

On Tuesday night we went to watch an Italian Opera in an open air theater. It was in a park so there were huge trees in a semi circle behind the audience - it was gorgeous. It was a good opera (the lady dies at the end because of heartbreak), but it was freezing cold.


We all dressed up, but since I didn't have my luggage yet I borrowed something from Kailey (we are the same height, shoe size, and bra size). It was fun, but a little scary when we had to walk back by ourselves at 1am in the dark alleys and freezing cold and in shoes that gave me blisters.


Wednesday night, we went to watch the late night showing of Harry Potter - we were super excited and so was the entire movie theater. It was a lot of fun because everybody was so into it and cheering and stuff. HE IS HOT and it was such a good movie. I cried through the entire thing and it was embarrassing because they had no idea before that night that I'm such a sap. Oh well, now they know! They just laughed at my puffy eyes.


Gah, my words and pictures do not do justice to what I'm experiencing here in Florence. I wish you all could be here with me because it's just amazing. Anyways, for more pictures go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/xCONSx.

Ciao!