My Life, My Love, My Adventure: October 2013

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Ticking time

I know it's been a while since I last did a post but honestly, not much as been happening. My mom called me out on my last post about Venice and how boring it was. Sorry, but Venice wasn't all too exciting and the rain put a damper on my mood. I liked Venice alot but there honestly wasn't much to do except alot of museums and walking around, both got old after a while.

But this past week I finished up my midterms and lucky me I get to work on my three papers due the 28th and 30th! I have one down and 2 more to go. The only thing getting me through these papers are the arrival of my roommates boyfriend who I'm stoked to meet and on the 31st I head to Amsterdam!! (Thanks mom and dad :) )

I found an app on my phone that allows me to do countdowns and these are my current countdowns (now everyone, don't get too jealous or envious or anything):

Amsterdam 11 days 31 minutes

Rome 18 days 1 hour and 31 minutes

Prague 25 days 7 hours and 46 minutes

HOME 47 days 31 minutes

Yup, all you lucky people who are actually in my life get to see me in less than 50 days, I can't believe I am more than halfway done with study abroad. It legit blows my mind how fast this time is going. I can't believe I've been gone since August 21st and have been to London, coast of Italy for 2 weeks, Amalfi Coast, Croatia, Venice and Florence and I still have 3 more trips coming up. Well 4 if you count my layovers in Germany. People say that time will fly by and some days it drags on and others I look at my watch and think where did the day go? I can't believe it.

ANDDD most likely I'm heading up to SMC the day after I get home. It seems like everyday I get more and more messages from my friends at school asking me for tips about studying abroad during the spring. Legit I can't believe how many people I didn't know are studying abroad in the spring. If I don't go up that weekend, I won't see some for over year, that's crazy to think. Sorry, nope, can't do that, gotta get to SMC. Plus I miss the nature and mountains. Florence is surrounded by mountains by they are all far away and there's no nature here like in Vermont, even at home in Massachusetts. I miss the trees and foliage. Also the clean smell, Florence has this nasty smell sometimes and I'm pretty sure it's because of the sewer system.

I haven't been doing anything too exciting recently, or have any funny stories to share. Except the times I have gone to the San Lorenzo leather market and central market. The leather market is quite terrifying and I get a kick out of imagining my mom there. She hates shopping and picturing her walking down the streets with vendors on both sides yelling at you makes me crack up. Sorry, mom. But anyways, the market is actually pretty annoying. All the men basically yell at you to come over. This past weekend I went with 3 of my friends here (all girls) and the stuff that was coming out of the men's mouth was disgusting. They think they know english and would yell stuff like spicy and some more vulgar things which I will not mention. Basically they think they know what they're saying but in reality they have no idea, so they should just shut up. As some of you know, I semi have a temper...well do but I don't like to agree to that, but mom and dad you would be proud, I didn't say anything back. I felt as if you give them the time of day or say something then it's just gonna keep on happening but if you keep walking and ignore it it's better. And that is the case, one of the times I went there with one of my other friends for my photo project we just would walk and ignore everything and it truly wasn't that bad. But when you make a big deal, that's what encourages it.

I did have a cooking class the day after I got home from Venice and we made some unreal food. We made Cannelloni, which is basically crepes which cheese, veggies and veal and chicken inside of them. They were sooo good. Oh and I mastered the crepe flip, so for all of you who thought I would never be able to cook, yup I can flip a crepe and cook a little more. For the second course we made turkey bocconcini with herbs, it was soooo good. Finally for dessert we made panna cotta, which originally creeped me out because it's a gelatin like dessert that you can legit wiggle on the plate. We had it in Marina di Pietrasanta and I hated it, but I liked the one here.

On Wednesday of this past week I did a white wine tasting, which I loved. Most of you know I'm a white drinker so it was interesting to learn all about the white and what it suppose to go with what foods, not that I'll ever follow that. I drink what I want and yes when I come back to the states I can legally drink in 21 days!
This past week I also went on a run to the Michelangelo Pizzale, which gives an unreal view of the city. Not gonna lie, it was a tough run. I've been running a pretty good decent amount around here but part of this was an uphill run and it reminded me of high school lax running up Prospect(I think that's the name) basically I could barely breathe when I got to the top but it was totally worth the run for the view.
Yesterday for part of the day I went to the Boboli Gardens in the Pitti Palace to do work. I love it there and we also get free entrance with our museum card so that's a plus. It's hard to get work done around the apartment and part of it is due to the lack of real space to do work. Plus having internet is always a downfall when trying to write a paper. So I headed to the gardens, saved whatever I needed from the internet onto my desktop and wrote away. Granted I only got about 3 pages done but I ran out of material to use. I'm also pretty far ahead of the ball considering most people I know haven't even started their papers and I have one complete and in the works of another one.

This is called motivation

You can't hate this view

Channeling a little inspiration from Eleonora di Toledo to write my Italian fashion paper on her by doing it at the place she lived. Pitti Palace.

Monday, October 7, 2013

A city afloat

Friday very early in the morning, 7:30 am I headed to the bus station right next to the train station for my next adventure: Venezia aka Venice. It was a longgg bus ride which I passed out for the entire time. I was lucky enough to have two seats on a coach bus both ways to myself so I was able to sprawl out and sleep.

When we arrived to Venice around 12:30 we had till 2 to relax, get settled and in my case get food. We had a tour starting at 2 and of course I was late for it and made it back to the hotel just in time to catch on with my group. We tour from 2 to 6, 4 hours of touring. Yes, I wanted to kill myself. I never thought that 4 hours could go so slow, don't get me wrong, I can appreciate art and churches but when your guide goes on for an extra 45 minutes, your patience is done with. Our tour ended around 6:45 unlike everyone elses. I saw a few different churches that were unreal, I wish I could show you what they looked like but photos weren't allowed, however, I managed to snag a few "selfie style". We did visit a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit which was so cool and I got to see the Vitruvian Man which is just amazing. I never knew how complex it really was, one of my papers I'm writing on is on Leonardo Da Vinci and now I have a few ideas to be able to add length onto my paper.

Ceiling arrttt

Venzia by night

Later on after we finished our tours we directly went to get food. We went to Blue's Caffe and I had an unreal bacon cheeseburger, it was the first meat like that I've had in a month, no joke. It was a English like bar and that night we had everyone who didn't go to dinner there meet up with us for the night out. I had sprtizs which are a drink known to Venice and the area, or so I was told.

On Saturday morning there was another tour but I decided to sleep in and explore the city on my own with a few of the guys. Oh and not to be forgotten it was POURING, surprise surprise for Venice. I've been sick for almost 3 weeks now and I need some quality time with my bed so I opted out on a tour. Plus I know what churches are like, I wanted to wander around the city and do some stuff that I wouldn't have been able to do. And we all know I love a good wandering.

Sunday morning we had to be checked out by 9:30 and we had a tour of the Peggy Guggenheim collection which was a 3 minute walk from our hotel thank god because it was pouring once again. It was so cool to see some contemporary artwork. I saw some Jackson Pollock which I could say may be my favorite artist because I love the abstractness of his work. I also saw some Monet and who doesn't love his water lily paintings?

Jackson Pollock

I can't even begin to describe my next few weeks as it gives me anxiety, I have my Made in Italy midterm on Wednesday and then next week I have my fashion, mafia and photo one. Then in 2 weeks I have 3 papers due and throw in 2 photo projects as well. HELL WEEKS BABY

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Firenze Vita

Well as I write this blog I'm gazing at Piazza Pitti aka the Pitti Palace where the Medici family lived while they had control in Florence. I'm out to dinner alone at what has become one of my favorite places, Ristorante Caffe Pitti. I always get the gnocchi and caprese along with white wine. The food is good, not amazing but I truly enjoy the environment and service. Another thing I love about this place is the music, they play killer throwbacks and other music from today. The throwbacks that they play make it, nelly, tlc, you name it and they've played it here. Tonight I was told that my Italian is getting a lot better and they love the effort. I love being able to sit here enjoy my surroundings and take it all in. I had no issue going out alone, I actually chose it. The thing I hate most about being here is not being able to walk around Florence by myself at night. It's not that it's not safe but it's probably not the best idea. This is when I miss my friends at home most because I know some would rather adventure around town than go get shitfaced.

A little update on my academic life: I got an 80 on my mafia test, which I will gladly take because all I need is a C to get credit for my classes. I also got an A on my presentation that I did on imitation into the Mafia, which in my opinion is so messed up. I also got about an 93 on my first Italian quiz here in Florence. I don't know how I'm doing it. I had three paper proposals due this past week. I have those three papers due within two days of each other, on the 28th and 29th. I leave for Amsterdam on the 31st, so doing those papers means I'm that much closer to my next trip.

However I head to Venice tomorrow, and surprise surprise it's suppose to rain! I had to go out today and buy some rain boots so I didn't end up ruining at least two pairs or sneakers and boots. Oh well I guess it rains in Italy later on in November. I'm excited to head to Venice and see a city built on water or under water. A story that will always stay in my head is when my grandmother fell into the canal while trying to get off of or into a gondola. The only thing that didn't go under water was her purse, so typical of her. They gave her a shot after to kill the bacteria she may have swallowed which kills me because she doesn't drink. Except for a piña colada when she gets lucky if places have them.

Last night I had another pizza making class and I still stand by what I have said before. I have made the best pizza I've had here in Italy. It had shredded mozzarella cheese, Gorgonzola, spicy sausage, basil, artichoke and oregano. Soooo bomb. I also fell in love with the pizza chef there, he was so cute. And when I say fall in love I've also fallen in love with Andres, the guy who works at Gustopanino, basically I fall in love with the food masters. Works in my advantage. He puts hearts and smileys on my napkins when I take my panino to go. Andres also hooks me up with wine and diet coke when I go in there, how can I not fall in love? You try and tell me that....

Today for my photography class we went to the Boboli gardens in the pitti palace, absolutely beautiful. It's even better because I've learned how to shoot manual and I can chose how my photos come out now, light, dark, what's in focus and what not. I have a total new appreciation for photographers. But all this photography makes me miss home and especially the tracks and mountains. I have to figure out a midterm project due in about a week and a half and I'm trying to decide if I should do it on graffiti or the leather market. Of course I'm kind of leaning towards tagging but I can't make up my mind. Gotta do that soon though.

Note: the below pictures are all shot on manual and part of my photography class...