Ελλάδα

I was able to remember my second trip to Greece much better than the first, which was 19 years ago. My sister, Josie, and I visited the family of our mother's high school penpal. How obscurely awesome is that? 

I'm getting so spoiled with European generosity. Despina became our endearlingly  overprotective Greek mother for the week (except when we went out at night). We had the best care, food, and lost in translation laughs you can possibly imagine. Our first major outing was to take four different trains to get to a secluded mountain village called Kalavrita. The last train on the journey had only two cars with an engine in between. The ride up was gorgeous with lush forests and swollen rapids on either side of the train tracks. It was truly an unforgettable experience. 

 

Eleni and Despina speak English very well. Eleni's husband Simon and Simon's mother Yia Yia (Greek for grandma) are another story. Simon was our private chauffeur one day and we saw a plethora of important places such as Sounion (the Temple of Neptune) and Marathon (including the large man-made lake of Marathon). We stopped in Marathon for a snack which consisted of Ouzo (to clear our senses) and various animals with tentacles. Keep in mind that we had no idea what had been ordered. I tried everything in order to be polite, but man was that boiled octupus chewwwwy. I would recommend trying grilled octupus, however. It was actually pretty tasty (and the suckers are crunchy). 

I really wish I could understand Simon. I tried speaking in Italian hoping there was some crossover, but that was a grande fallimento. He made a joke about Obama that was later translated by Despina for us to understand. Simon said that when God made Obama he had been drinking too much Ouzo and left Obama in the oven too long... I think the Ouzo in our own systems allowed us to find that horribly racist joke hilarious.

The next few days Josie and I ventured into Athens via public transportation. We spread out the places to see so as not to get too worn out. We saw the Acropolis, the Olympion, the Archeological museum, Ermou avenue for shopping, Plaka neighborhood with lovely neoclassical houses, the changing of the Guards at the Parliament building, the National Art Gallery, and my personal favorite: the Benaki Museum. There was so much to take in! 

We went to Athens at night twice with Despina to get a feel for the Greek night life. One night we watched the sunset from the Acropolis rock and then walked around and tried Souvlaki (sooooo good).

Our last full day Eleni drove us to Delphi aka the center of the world. It was great! We hiked through the ruins (Ancient Greeks were in excellent shape) and then checked out the museum. Our lunch was a 45 min drive outside of Delphi, right next to the water. The owner of the restaurant was a painter so I showed him the watercolor paintings I had with me. 

Here's the Greek I picked up:

ευχαριστώ "eharisto'" (thank you)

παρακαλώ "parakalo'"(please/you're welcome)

μετά "meta" (after)

ναι "neh" (yes)

λίγος "ligo" (little)

καλός "kalo" (good)
πολύ καλά "palli' kalo'" (very good)

εντάξει! "daxsis" (ok)

πάμε! "pame" (let's go)

Foto reflections

We had to write an essay on how Florence has changed us and I wanted to transcribe it here for your viewing pleasure:

Living in Florence has forced me to be less passive. I am constantly active in this city. Be it visually: looking at light, shape, and form; auditorally: listening for snippets of languages coming into focus; or just in general trying to catch buses and be on time. My observation skills have improved. A lot of the time I try to mimic the people who seem to know what they are doing (language and life-wise). 

Overall, I'm learning to be more independent and at the same time fostering meaningful relationships with my peers here. It's funny to think I had never seen some of these people before in St Louis. I realize now that Florence has done wonders for my social life.

I'm starting to achieve a rewarding sense of clarity about my life up to this point and possibly how it may go in the future.

I enjoy incorporating photography into the other things I create. It's an interesting way of generating a new generation of ideas. It's really cool to experiment in the darkroom and then build on the images.

I certainly feel like I've come a long way since the first days of photography when I didn't understand filters per niente... Now I feel totally confident with approximating how much contrast would be complimentary to the composition. Burning and dodging still evade me a bit, but I try to take photos with even light.

I'm pleased to be able to take photos of my relatives and hand develop them as a thoughtful thank you. Manual photography reminds me of growing one's own vegetable garden. In the world of digital cameras and facebook, we have become disconnected from where pictures really come from. I enjoy getting "back to [the] nature" of photography. It's a specialized skill that I am pleased to understand (at least the basics). I hope to keep using photography. For utilitarian gifts as well as artistic exploration.

Taking Photo I in Florence was an incredible opportunity. I'm thrilled to have another level of documentation of my time here. It matches my endearance to snail mail. I love the hand-visibility of manual photography and hand written letters. It makes me think of having more contact with people I can't see very often. 

Pasqua!

This weekend was incredible!! I was completely and satisfactorily exhausted from each day's activities. Friday was spent in the country (campagna, not campania) house Vibeke, Carlo, and Federico are fixing up. The weather was a lovely as the view. I attempted to paint eggs after blowing out the insides. It was a nice tedious task that kept me occupied. After our grand lunch we played some Trivial Pursuit, Italian Edition (with the bambini questions). It was an interesting way to learn some new vocab, however obscure.

Saturday I went to Rome with Federico. We saw a Giotto and the Trecento show (it was funny to see things from Firenze that I hadn't seen yet), the Vatican, a Modern Art Museum, and other things in between. We made spotting tourists into a game and we spoke in English for a bit to play the role of tourists more convincingly ourselves. One of the funniest moments was when a guard at the Vatican told Federico (native Italian with blond hair and blue eyes) that he spoke Italian "molto bene." We didn't get back to Olevano until after 8 after leaving Olevano at 8 in the morning. Lonnnng day. Lots of fun. :] Later Luisa, Luisa's friend, Federico and I went out and ate pizza at a hoppin' pizzeria. It was cool to hang out. The waiters were intrigued/appalled by my inky fingernails so I tried to explain about how I'm an artist and that's how we do. 

Sunday started off with a lovely Pasqua breakfast and just kept getting better. The Carlo clan and I headed to the northeast of Rome to meet up with Danish contacts.  We first stopped in Farfa and poked around the town that dates back to the year 600. There was an abbey stuffed to the gills for Easter mass and a bunch of picturesque shops. At the house, there was a triple-ringed venn diagram of languages. Some people spoke only English or Danish. Some spoke English or Italian. Some spoke Danish, Italian, and English. It was a very unique experience. We played "pallone" aka soccer for a while. Let's just say I shocked the pants off of everyone with my soccer skills. I was the only girl playing; the rest were boys and dads. It was especially bizarre looking because I was wearing a flower cardigan, skirt, pantyhose, and boots. (Eventually I borrowed shoes.) I realized how much I miss soccer! I haven't played since last summer at Interlochen. We played in between the delicious courses of the meal and then after for a while. I was very content. It was a nice way to bridge the language barrier.

Monday I prepared American breakfast for my hosts: "Eggs in a Basket" and bacon. They found the egg incorporated into the bread rather puzzling, but it went over ok. Not only did I take an especially long time cooking, but there were also 20 minutes of taking pictures to document the event! By the time we actually ate breakfast it was practically time for lunch. Before Pasquetta lunch we drove up to the Alti Piani (through a field of rather large cows) to a mountain spring for water. The view was gorgeous. It's amazing to me how drastically altitude varies within a smallish distance in Italy. Lunch was really delicious but waaaaay too much food. I wanted to try everything, but it was simply impossible. After lunch I did a watercolor sketch of the view from Federico's terrace. It was pretty chilly up there. I can't wait to see it in full bloom in summer!

For those who don't have Facebook...

What you've been wishing for...

there's more!

there's still more!

Luckiest [and Craziest] Girls in the World

My first real vacation without parental supervision and the warm fuzzy cloak of my dad planning everything was ahhmaaaaaaaayyyyyyzing against all odds. Leah and I only picked the destination 13 days before our departure after originally scheming to make it to Carthage (which I was kindly reminded several times was destroyed about 2000 years ago...). 

Anyhoo, on Sunday we went first to Napoli and stayed in a s00perd00per sketchy hostel right near the train station, but it was the closest one and we didn't want to be wandering around at night. The next morning we headed off to the hostel we booked for that night and dropped our bags. We tried to map out the next few days since we literally had no specific plans after that point. 

Monday was the National Archeological Museum in Napoli, tasty pizza (I still have a special place in my heart for Chicago deepdish. go figure), MADRE modern art museum (free entrance!), dumpster diving (the trash was so artistic!)

Tuesday was Pompei ruins and lots of confusion with how to get to the top of Mt Vesuvius. We thought we missed the opportunity because of a rather enormous gap in communication between the tourist information office and the actual bus schedules. I'm pretty sure they just like to mess with tourists. Then we were trying to catch a bus back to Napoli but the bus stop was elusive and impossible to find. After wandering around the Orlando-ish new city of Pompei riddled with ghastly tourist traps we came back to the central train station where we were essentially pummeled into joining another party two in a taxi to the top of the Vesuvius. I was so annoyed at the lack of organization I conceded to the scheming of the overly tan and grintastically leathery taxi driver. He turned out to be a nice guy, but the whole scenario was bizarre, especially when he started giving the four young ladies in the car advice about love and relationships while obscure British 80s music was playing in the background...

Wednesday was getting the heck out of Napoli and heading to Sorrento. We had gotten lost on the way back to our hostel and were exhausted from Tuesday's adventures so I fell asleep in my clothes at 9 pm. Leah and I woke up and decided that we should probably look for a place to sleep tonight and there was only one available. A B&B that sounded quaint and promising. Little did we know that we were in for a surprise: a delightfully Italian host named Luigi who was our chauffeur since it was the low season, made freshly squeezed orange juice every morning, gave us the room with the best view of the Sorrento view (we were up pretty high so the panorama was gorgeous). We arrived about midday and unorthodoxly enough, we decided to walk 7 km to Positano and see what there was to see along the way. This turned out to be my favorite day. We took our time along the winding coastal road and just soaked up the beauty with glee. I tallied the cat calls targeted toward us and the total was 21. They ranged from ordinary honking, creative honking rhythms, whistling, winking, a ride invitation, even attention from an ambulance... "I've had it up to here with these horny Italians!" We made it to the beach in Positano where we touched the frigid water and beachcombed for a while. In the spirit of packing light, I gathered some rocks to take back with me. We made dinner in our room (pasta in a cream sauce with gamberetti (shrimp)) while listening to Italian MTV.

Thursday was a glorious breakfast with homemade cappuccini and then off to downtown Sorrento to rent bikes. We headed off with a map of internal roads (no names, though) and stares from people who found our Americanness painfully obvious. (I was wearing shorts in March.) We tried following the map with no names and somehow started off wrong. The road we took was a 30 degree incline (we walked the bikes for a while), but then we got on a main road and "coasted" for a while. The whole day was lots of ups and downs. The biggest downhill was to the beach where we picnic-ed, which consequently lead to the biggest uphill section... I was in lowwww geeeear. Everything was so beautiful; it was a lovely way to see the less touristy part of the peninsula. I miss biking on a regular basis so much! We barely made it back to Sorrento alive, exhausted and weary with satisfaction of a day well spent. Leah and I met up with Sylva and her parents for a Limoncello aperitivo. It was quite strong. We made dinner again in our room (linguine with onions and eggplants in a red sauce + red wine) and then passed out.

Friday was going to Amalfi and Ravello by bus ("pullman"). Since there part of the road was blocked off, we had to walk down to the beach in Praiano and then up again to meet a different bus that took us the rest of the way. Amalfi was choked with touristy things. We took a bus to Ravello and walked around. The view was amazing since it is so high up. We went to Villa Cimbrone and paid full price to see a dormant garden.... It was an exercise in using our imagination. After mistakenly thinking the bus would adhere to the schedule listed, we walked to a nearby paesino called Scala and tried to chase down the bus supposedly headed back to Amalfi. There was no need to run and there was no need to leave Ravello because the bus went to the downtown stop... It was an exercise in futility (and just plain exercise). Making the walk down to the beach in Praiano was infinitely more interesting when it was totally dark outside and we were the only ones trying to make it to the other side. We made it back to Sorrento and stayed the night in a hostel and met a non-narcoleptic Argentinian traveling around Europe.

Saturday was taking a ferry to Capri, and walking around. A lot. We decided that Luigi's hospitality was way worth the 4E difference in price from the hostel so we came crawling back. Leah called us the "prodigal daughters," which I thought was fitting. We made an eclectic dinner (hamburgers and mushroom omelettes) and settled down for the night. Luigi brought us some of his homemade limoncello, which was really tasty. Much better than the other stuff I tried. This morning we were dropped off and said goodbye to Luigi for the 2nd time. He joked that we would call to come back to his B&B tomorrow. The train connections were actually NOT stressful for once in my life and I've been back in Florence for less than two hours. I'm off to do laundry!

Destination: Dirtiest Place Ever

Yesterday I left the marvelously accomodating nest of Olevano and found myself disoriented and chased by cars (the opposite of the Snow Patrol song). Leah and I barely caught our train from Roma to Napoli due to an obnoxious delay. Somehow I am blessed with the skills to catch trains by the skin of my teeth. Today Leah and I dropped our bag at our 2nd hostel and found out that 8 other WashU students happen to be staying at the same one! Che coincidence! Anyhoo, we trapsed around the city and saw the Archeological Museum, ate pizza that puts quella di Firenze to dispicable shame, went to a contemporary art museum that was really impressive, walked around the historical center, went casual dumpster diving, ya know...

This evening the WashU students collaborated for dinner and cooked at the hostel. Now we are watching Moulin Rouge, which I havent seen in a ''coon's age.'' Tomorrow we are headed to Pompeii. The hope of renting bikes has been transferred to Sorrento, but we havent given up yet, dagnabbit. I will be sure to post pretty pictures when I get back. Maybe I'll be able to check in at another hostel along the way. Im scheming to ride a hydrofoil this week! I remember learning about them in junior year physics class. Physics is everywhere :)

Lists

Things I miss (cose che mi mancano)

• carpet - frozen tile abounds in this country
  
• hugs - baci (kisses on the cheek) are nice and intimate, but they can't replace solid human contact
  
• rollerblading - seeing bladers in Valencia reminded me how much I miss looking super cool while sporting wrist guards
  
• peanut butter toast with honey
  
• eggs - they just simply don't exist in their natural form here
  
• cereal - every morning is simply and strictly only 2 pieces of bread and jam
  
• TEA at odd hours of the night and day

Things about me that have changed since I've been in Italy

• I actually drink coffee (ogni tanto)
• I wear scarves (my whiteness is becoming increasingly undeniable)
• These days I rarely wish I was the moon
• I'm seriously considering wearing wigs (think a slightly less eccentric version of the voice of reason in Pretty in Pink
• That last one doesn't really have anything to do with Italy now that I think about it

Carnavale!

This fine settimana was very unique. The train each way was 5 hours. Il mare (the sea) was absolutely stunning. Rita recognized me from the train window and was beaming as she swept me into her arms. I'm really getting spoiled with quasi royal treatment over here. 

The weekend took and unexpected turn when Rita's mother broke her arm on Friday, so a lot of plans changed accordingly. Rita was at the hospital a lot so we didn't get to spend a lot of time together this time. I'm excited to come back in the summer so I can put that sea to some practical use. Rita did shower me with new clothes and a purse, which was quite a surprise. Belated birthday gifts, I suppose.

Leone is something else. I can see why he likes my grandpa so much. They are kindred spirits when it comes to joking and eating. Leo wouldn't stop talking about Zia Marietta and all the great times they had together. Apparently, she only ate figs. (side note: figs and dates have each become an achilles heel for me so if I ever face off with a Dried Fruit supervillain, I won't stand a grapefruit's chance in a chuckee cheese ball pit.) Dinner on Friday night was very elaborate. Everyone ended up with 5 different bicchieri from all the different types of alcohol we tried. (one white spumante, a red one, mistra, one with dessert, one special one from under the counter) It was pretty wild. For dessert we ordered 7 dolci (for 6 people) and then shared them. My favorite was the coffee creme brulee with cream. mmmmmm

Gionata and Leone were great tourguides of Offida, Grottamare, Ascoli Piceno, and Patrignone (even if they didn't recite the cities' histories from memory like Federico). We saw 4 different Carnavale events during the course of the weekend. There were a lot of cute kiddies in costumes (bambini mascherati) running around throwing confetti everywhere. When I come back to the area I'm sure everything will look totally different, cast in another light of enchantment.

48 Hours in Spain

It started with running to beat the bus at the next stop in order to make
it to the train station where we ran through the underground tunnel,
dashed to (i can only think of the word in french...) "compost" the
ticket and sprint to the train on binario 2. Literally right after we
leapt on board the doors beeped and closed and we pulled away amazed by
how unbelievably close we came to missing the train.

At Pisa Centrale station we knew we needed to
transfer to a different train to get to the airport, but by the time we
made it to the biglietteria and back the only train that would work had
just pulled away and we were running out of time to make it to the
check in desk. We hurriedly took a cab and a ran through the airport
only to find out that our flight was delayed THREE HOURS and that there
was no need to rush.

So......we decided to see what Pisa had to offer
since there was no need to mope around the airport. We helped some non
italian speaking forlorn travelers talk to a shop owner about a nearby
hotel and then we had an aperitivo. Let's just say that it helped take
the edge off a little bit. After our adult snack we trapsed around an
obscure part of Pisa for a while, saw the river (it's still the Arno
like in Firenze!), debated whether or not to touch the water just to be
able to say that we did, saw a church downtown, walked around what
could have been an ancient city wall, and meandered back to the
airport. All the gelaterias had closed by the time we thought of
getting gelato so we chilled out with some ice cream at the airport. It
was overpriced but totally worth it. (I guess that's a contradiction.
Oh well.)

Anyhoo, in the airport we met a native Valencian
that studies in Hamburg and was traveling back to Valencia because he
missed warm weather and he gave us some places to check out. We boarded
the flight and then were pleasantly surprised to find out that instead
of an airline, Ryanair is a wannabe game show. The flight attendants
donned in schiffo gold and navy blue outfits try to sell something new
every few minutes while the overhead announcements offer tempting ways
to "be a millionaire with ryanair." It was quite restful. Just what I
needed before what lay ahead...

By the time we arrived the metro had stopped
running so we had to take another cab to the place we were staying.
Fortunately, our host was very sympathetic and helpful. We collapsed
onto the futon and tried to recharge.

We woke up bright and early and headed to the
beach. It was wild to be so warm in February. By wild I mean extremely
wonderful. For our first meal in Spain, we picked a restaurant and
ordered the most expensive thing on the menu (it was only 10 E) having
absolutely no idea what it was. To our language barriered delight, it
was delicious! Steak and veggies. miammm. Afterwards, we walked around
the historic center, saw some lovely fountains and artfully enjoyable
graffiti. It's a very different feel of graffiti. Somewhere between
Florence and Berlin in the time space schema of city graffiti. We went
to the central market and bought some dried and non dried fruit. If you
time your entrance just right, you can snap up the mistakenly labeled
"expired" produce tossed into the aisle at closing time. Basically,
Sylva grabbed a few perfectly decent strawberries with her starving
artist ninja skills. It's a jungle out there.

Later we went up the Bell Tower and then walked
a ways in what used to be the river that runs through Valencia. It was
converted into a beautiful winding park/bike path/playground that seems
more like a futuristic spaceship wonderland than a city in Spain. At
one end there is incredibly fantastical architecture and at the other
end, a BioParc.

Dinner on Friday was quite interesting. We tried
several restaurants and eventually picked one that seemed like it would
be good. The tapas we ended up with was more like a combination of
dim-sum and hush puppies...but now we
can say we had tapas in Spain.

We rented bikes Saturday morning and spent two
hours blissfully riding around the "river" in unbeatable weather. It
was wonderful to bike for the first time in over a month. Lately I've
been following the Giorgio work out plan that includes only running
when you're trying to catch a bus.

Downtown we ate the local dish called Paella and
then found a creperie with a bus that serves as the kitchen cemented
into the restaurant. It was way cool. I think chestnuts are my favorite
sweet crepe ingredient. Afterwards we took our time walking back and
hit up a supermarket and bought some things for dinner. Then we left
for the airport. And of course we had to rush, but at least the plane
was on time.

Once back in Pisa, we had a memorable experience
waiting at the bus stop. The crew at one in the morning is the epitome
of sketch so we waited outside a clean, well-lit hotel. Once we finally
made it back to our homestay, it was immediately lights out. I think I
slept like a metamorphic rock. (Try to figure that simile
out)

All in all it was a great trip and a great
experience. I was very humbled by the fact that none of my language
skills helped very much at all. I would very much like to go back to
Spain. Che bello!

=] =] =] =] =] =]

My 20 birthday was probably my most memorable one to date. I had royal treatment with my relatives who can be called "obscure" in more than one sense. The word of the weekend was most definitely "particolaro" which means peculiar. I went to Roma and saw some tourist sights plus some other lesser known posti. It was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to going back to Roma sometime. I'm most proud of the fact that I only spoke english for less than 20 minutes the whole weekend. (I didn't talk a lot in general, but still, i tried)

I'm still not sure how I feel about photo. I've developed some decent looking photos, but it doesn't seem to fit me very well. Hopefully it will grow on me.

Gotta run to do the compiti I neglected this weekend!

Day 20something

Ok, here goes a quick game of ketchup:

Classes are essentially extended periods of time in very cold places. For example, when we draw in churches, I wear long underwear under my jeans and three shirts. Drawing is not for the faint of heart (or for the poor of circulation). At Santa Croce, I found an Antonio Baldi gravestone with a portrait near the cloisters. Some people thought that there was a familial resemblance between us....

Sales in Italy end today so I am cutting myself off from spending money on fashionable Italian goods, as addictive as they are. There is actually a shoe store named BALDI near the house where I'm staying. The bus drives by there, and it has become sort of a checkpoint for me. It seemed reasonable to browse and today I ended up with a snazzy pair of olive green leather stivali (boots) that were on sale. How could I go to Italy without buying leather boots??

Photography is probably my most stimulating class at the moment. I went to Settignano again today to amble and take photos. It was very relaxing after a hectic morning of expensive (and tiny) laundry machines.

My new favorite meal surprisingly doesn't involve pasta. In fact, all you need is to buy is 30% discounted chicken and potato pellets and then eat them with an equally stingy friend without utensils. Voila! It's actually much more filling than what I eat for lunch most days in addition to being surprisingly cheap. Buying food at the supermarket is fun. I tried European ovaltine (called Ovomaltine) on a lark. My new achilles heel is dried figs from Smyrna. Who knew?

I went to another discoteca last night. One of my housemates, Anna, turned 20 so we had a night out. Our goal is to frequent all of the discotecas that don't charge a cover. Hopefully we'll see some jazz at a bar on Tuesday. There is live music that sounded cool ("ganzo").

Finally...

Photos!!

Due to my Mac incompetence, I won't be able to post pictures just yet, but I'm working on it.

The Bologna Art First! Fair on Friday was pretty interesting. It was enormous and after a few hours we decided to head out to the center of town. I brought a tour book, but it wasn't too helpful. We ended up wandering and stumbled upon a restaurant that prided itself in serving Bolongnese specialites, which was just what our tummies were asking for. The fixed price meal was just right and now I can officially claim to have eaten tortellini bolognese (aka with a ragu or meat sauce). I don't know how to say yum in Italian yet so I'll say it in French: Miammmm

We made it back to Florence just in time to enjoy yet another downpour. Mi piace molto il mio impermeabile. :) Dinner was great at our homestay, yet again. We learned how to say a "loose woman." I have no idea how that came up...but in case you wanted to know, it's "una donnita allegra."

Yesterday I bought train tickets to visit Olevano. (Dear other relatives, I'm working on visiting as many of you as soon as I can. A presto!) I went to the studio with Sylva and blasted Italian radio as I continued an exercise in "visual mining." Since dinner isn't included on the weekends, Anna, Leah, Sylva and I brought food over to an apartment kitchen and made dinner. The courses included Gnocchi with a mushroom cream and parmgian sauce, a fresh salad, and some lovely tartini (little tarts) adorned with poached pears (with a side of gelato....of course). Everything tasted great, but somehow the pears ended up looking like canadian bacon after soaking up the secret sauce.

After dinner with putzed around for a while until we left to go to a discobar. There was no cover charge, and it was a cool experience. It was sort of like a high school dance, except the would be chaperones were sort of creepy. Maybe it was more like that Jimmy Buffet song: "fins to the left, fins to the right..." Anyhoo, I would go again. The trick is to stick with at least one other person (whose name you know). Vespa means wasp in Italian and Papparazzi means Mosquitoes. I'm surprised Pirahna doesn't mean single male. Luckily on the walk home, the weather was actually kind of nice (for 2:30 in the morning). No rain (for a change).

Today I'm going running in the hills around Florence with Anna and then I'll try to figure out the photo conundrum...

Sketching in a church is serious business. Today we had our first sketchbook assignment in San Lorenzo. I was only standing in place for about an hour but 80% of my phalanges froze. For every premed who reads this: my homework is to practice drawing straight, fluid lines and arches. :P

Tomorrow we are taking a fieldtrip to an art fair in Bologna. I'm bringing both cameras in order to try to chip away at my intimidation toward manual cameras. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures this weekend.

Florentia/Fiorenza/Firenze

Allora... I've been in the land of amiable motorini drivers for over a week and all is well.

Today was the first day of classes. Since I live pretty far from Centro (the center of Florence) the bus ride takes upwards of 20-30 minutes to get to and from class. Sometimes we take random buses just to see where they go. (Not recommended late at night by oneself)

Confession: I've succumbed to the temptuous delectability peering behind the glass of Florentine boutiques. Only twice so far... January is the time for mega sales. Fear not. I've satisfied the stylish monkey on my back for now.

I'd like to coin the term PDC (public display of creepiness), and then describe a situation where on a very spacious bus, some guy rubbed my pant leg with his own. Ok, I just did. A few days ago, two men wearing pantaloni troppi stretti (toooooo tight) beckoned our group of ragazze from across Piazza San Marco. I'm on my toes and try not to draw too much attention to myself. But I guess the neon colors I wear don't contribute too effectively to reaching that goal.

My host family is INCREDIBLE. Every meal has been gustoso (very tasty) and full of Italian language enlightenment. I've been diligently noting new words and phrases. Every day I learn exponentially more Italian. wooHOO