Tuesday, September 29, 2009

caffiene is not my friend

last night was a great night here at the villa. there was a band that came and played. and since these people don't know me they didn't realize that letting me drink 3 mountain dews was not a good idea. so i was insane. but it was really fun. and its no use trying to hide who you are from the 40 people living with you, so its ok. i made up a lot of fun new dances. ill do them all when i return home.

yesterday afternoon we went to the uniersity of florence and ate lunch there. it was interesting. and fun. and then we went into the library. heres the deal with italian universities. they don't do the whole class thing. basically they give you a huge textbook and you memorize all of it and then take a big test on it. and thats it. and you do that for a ton of classes until you have to do a thesis. and they tell you if you pass or not. then you graduate. if i went to school in italy i would fail at life. since i am A.D.D. and cannot focus on things. so its a good thing i do not attend the university of florence.

the good news is the cafeteria had chocolate pudding.

on sunday we were forced to walk in a 5K marathon. it was called cori la vita, which in english is run for your life. so we yelled that at the top of our lungs a lot. so basically we were dead tired and were running around with all these italians and had no idea where we were going. so we just gave up eventually and laid down in boboli gardens on a statue and watched this couple make out for like 15 minutes.

then we went back to scandicci and there was a market. and i bought a very very pretty necklace. i love it. a lot.

tonight we are going to the florence vs. liverpool soccer game. it is going to be insanity. i am excited. italy is awesome. i am getting used to it now. and i am so excited about this week. i finally get to see the David and we are just doing a whole bunch of fun stuff. so. i will leave you with my favorite italian phrase. it is, De dove sei? i have no idea what it means. but i like to say it really loud with this manic look on my face.

ciao!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

i am a nerd

i am the biggest art nerd in the world. one of my favorite things has been wandering through the museums and looking at all of it. most of the time its something i have studied about and so its so awesome seeing the real thing. i just stood and looked at this one statue for forever. so nerdy. but so awesome.

yesterday was my favorite day so far. we went into the duomo (the cathedral of florence) and had an on site class. the frescoes on that dome are so beautiful. i had a crick in my neck from staring up at them so much. i took a gazillion pictures too. which is good. then today we had to go into a market and buy something. and this market was precious. and for some reason i started craving an orange. so i ate my first orange ever. and it was awesome. and i kept getting on fruit kicks all day and craving it. then after we left there we went and had a picnic which was sweet. then a few of us decided to go to the Boboli Gardens. good lord. it was amazing. i could have stayed there for days. it had amazing views of florence. and amazing statues. and amazing flowers. and it was just completely gorgeous. i was so tired but i couldnt stop walking around.

if i could i would do stuff like that every day and all the time. i am such a geek. i just love to go to museums and stuff and hear information about everything. i was just taking tons of notes.

one of my favorite nights was last night. we went into scandicci, which is the small town our villa is in. there was this square there with a cafe and a lot of people were just hanging out. so we decided to get a drink and sit down since there was a guy playing music there. so we went into a cafe and got a drink and the guy thought we were funny bc we had no idea what we were saying and so he gave us a free plate of cookies. which was sweet. and so we took our stuff to the square and sat there and listened to music and talked. it was so nice. i love nights like that. we sat there for forever then decided to come back.

i have also realized that trying to buy a leather purse is a huge ordeal. every vendor hits on you. and it just makes me mad so then i am like no i am not going to buy a 90 dollar purse bc you hit on me. one told me today i had to come back bc i left a special place in his heart and he loved my blue eyes. yeah probably not going to happen. i know he just wants me to buy a bag.

we did have a drunk guy follow us around and try to sell us drugs last night though. we were walking down a street and stopped to figure out where we were. which was not the thing to do when you are in a group of 15 people and you are american. and him and his friend came up with their wine and started creeping on us and getting right next to us and asking us to buy drugs. so we walked away swiftly. and some of us went to a book store. and when we went downstairs one of them was there. so he had totally followed us. and i was like seriously? and he spilled his wine on the floor. but it wasnt hard to get away from him bc he was trashed. and didnt know where he was. so ill just mark that one off the list. i think being followed by a drunk italian man with a pouch of wine (it looked like a big version of a juice box) is something everyone should experience.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

no more jet lag

i just want to apologize to everyone about that lost post. i was real out of it when i wrote it. plus we haven't had like any time to sleep since they like to keep us running around like maniacs all the freaking time. but its fun stuff that we are doing so its ok.

yesterday we did a scavenger hunt with a bunch of italians. well i mean there were only two italians in each group. luckily i got with one that spoke english and was studying languages in her university. so we could communicate pretty well. although one time she asked me if i liked my thongs. and i was like thats a personal question. but then i realized she was looking at my feet and meant my flip flops. so i told her i loved my thongs.

come to think of it, i should probably stop wearing flip flops around here b/c the italians keep giving me crazy looks. but i don't care. they are way more comfy than my other shoes at the moment. which really makes me mad because i broke in my walking shoes all summer and the first time i wore them i got a blister. whatever.

so the scavenger hunt was fun. and we walked around for 3 and a half hours straight with no breaks. and then we went and ate pizza at like 9:30. i mean i like italian pizza and all but we have had it like every meal. but it was still good. but i accidentally dropped my fork on the floor halfway through so i stopped eating it. oh well. these things happen.

after we finished we had to come and trek up the hill to the villa. let me tell you about this hill. it is a mountain. i am not kidding. you are just going about your business strolling along and then all of a sudden you feel like you are climbing in the alps. except its hot. but every time i get faster at it so thats something.

today we went to this welcome event in this really pretty room. the mayor of florence was there and he had on a nice sash. every american student studying abroad in florence this semester was there and they were showing pictures from our scavenger hunt on this huge screen. so everyone probably thinks we are crazies b/c we all looked like crap in the pictures. but its ok. then the people got up and started making long speeches in italian. and like all of us fell asleep. which i felt bad about but i couldn't help it. before the speeches though, these guys who looked like they belonged in a robin hood movie blew these trumpets, all midevial style. and i looked at one of their faces afterwards and he looked like the snake in robin hood after he got stuck in the wine barrell and was drunk. don't worry if you can't picture it b/c i took a picture of him. then we got set loose in florence to find dinner. we got pasta and a coke for 10 euro. the guy gave us a deal. and then afterwards he gave us a card for this pub where if you went and got a pint and got them to punch your card, and did that 8 times, you got your 9th pint free. we didn't have the heart to tell him that he was wasting the cards. so we said thanks. and went about our business.

i really really like italy. it is very pretty. and i finally took pictures that prove i am here today. because before today i had no pictures with me in them. i will do my best to post them on here soon.

i miss all of you! and i will try to be good about posting on here.

Friday, September 18, 2009

italy day 1: success

so i am officially in italy. i am still real confused about what time it is though. but i took sleeping pills last night so its ok. but then my phone reset itself so it went off at midnight here and i thought it was 7 in the morning. and i was like what the crap because i hadnt even fallen asleep yet. but it was ok. i figured it out.



the flight was fun times. not. the one to new york was really hot. and the lady next to me was trying to tell me what to do with my bags. and i was like shut up. but we made it. and the flight attendant, suzy, was very nice. thanks suzy.



then we got to jfk. and i was like oh my gosh what am i going to do for 5 hours. but it turned out ok. and i never got bored. then we finally got on the plane to italy and it was massive. and nice. and there wasnt a person sitting between me and another girl so we stretched out. but the arm rest between us started malfunctioning so every time i moved it it made the call button for the flight attendant go off like 15 times. everyone was getting real annoyed. especially the flight attendant. but they got over it. then we got here. and they made us fill out a bunch of forms. but we were all jet lagged so it took like an hour. and i forgot how to spell my name. but i figured it out. then we got on a bus to go to the Piazza de Michelangelo or something. and it was really pretty. and i took some pictures. which i am so not going to post right now.

then today we wandered around florence some more. and took a bunch of buses. but we found our way back so its ok.

ok well thats it