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