My Salvaged Weekend

I think my weekend went really well after my little Vienna fiasco. The weather was really nice Friday so I went on a nice long run along the Arno. 5.8 miles to be exact (I mapped it, out of curiosity.) There were so many people jogging, biking, and walking with their dogs it was really pleasant. Rachel and I got dinner to go and some wine and just had a nice evening watching Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Saturday was a little gloomy so Rachel and I went to the Uffizi. It is a giant museum with so much artwork. We spent a long time walking through each room and looking at each artwork. It was very pleasant. We then went on a three hour walk north of our apartment, farther away from the Duomo/ tourists. We found some really cool clothing stores. I found a dress that I reallyyy like, I may go back and try it on. We'll see. We then started craving some gelato. There is this good place that all the roomies go to called Percheno. (translated means "why not") But it's all the why by the Duomo, completely opposite of where we were, but we had all the time in the world so decided to make the trek. On our way there we heard some drums so we ventured towards them. Ended up stumbling upon a little festival. In the middle of Piazza della Repubblica, there were these people all dressed up playing the drums and flag throwers..? Either way it was a really cool find. There were a bunch of people were crowded around the performers who were putting on this show. So we got our amazingg gelato and watched. Quite the success, I'd say.
Sunday a storm came in and it started to rain. But Rachel and I had to get out cause if you don't get out at least once during the day, it's kind of depressing. So we walked along the Arno, my favorite. Of course I was extra happy because I love the rain and I love the Arno. I took some really pretty pictures too.
Two of the roommates who went to Prague came back Sunday night and told us all about their adventures. And then the other roomies came back Monday morning at six with all my stuff. They had some good stories and pretty pictures to show us even though you could tell they were hesitant to say anything good at first. Haha. I'm bummed I missed out, of course, but mainly because they went on this ice skating rink in front of this castle, but this rink also had mile long trails that you could skate through and it played music throughout the whole park. Sounded soo cool. That was the one thing I was really jealous of. But I'll survive. haha
Because today is Mardi Gras, there are children dressed up in costumes everywhere. Like at the random festival there were girls in these big dresses throwing confetti everywhere. So today walking from school up this random side street I stumbled upon yet another little parade. There was a little band of drummers with their teacher playing songs. And little kids with their parents all dressed up in all sorts of costumes throwing confetti everywhere! It was really entertaining I'm so happy I stumbled upon it. They were so cute! I saw a little girl run around and eat complete shit and the mom was just cracking up it was really fun. Put quite the smile on my face.
Tonight our Italian boys are talking us to a Mardi Gras party that the Engineering School in Florence is throwing. My roomies and I just went to the Euro store and bought some masks, cookies, and laundry detergent. haha. Quite the combination. But I'm really excited. There is confetti all over the streets and people are walking around with creepy masks on. I love itt!
And then this weekend we are going to Rome with API. On a bus, and I won't be getting off no matter WHAT. So I'm really excited for that. We have all these scheduled tours and things planned so I'm very excited to go on my first trip...yet again..

One of corridors in the Uffizi, just casually lined with sculptures.

Our little flag twirlers.

Pictures from our rainy walk.

The Pontevecchio.

The random children's carnival.

This adorable child that just dumped the confetti into the street.

And Viennaaa..

So this weekend I had planned my first travel plans. Three of my roommates and I were going to take an over night train on Thursday to arrive in Vienna Friday morning. We were all so excited, preparing ourselves by playing the Sound of Music soundtrack on repeat all week. I was especially excited because it was my first time traveling in Europe, my first trip here, and my first time on a train, let alone an overnight one! I had so many images and scenarios running through my head as to what the experience was going to be like. I got all excited about the train and how the cabins would be. Of course I though of Harry Potter and thought it would be fitting if I had a robe on. But then we were staying in sleepers so I just had no idea.
Well the sleeper cabins were quite interesting. In this tiny room there were three tiny beds stalked on top of each other on each side of the wall. When I mean stalked I mean completely claustrophobic packed. You couldn't even sit up if you were a 10 year old.
So when Rachel and I got to our cabin, there were two unidentified humans already sleeping at the very bottom and a chinese man in the middle. It was 9:30 and the lights were already off. So using the light from our phones we made our little beds. Found a place to put our bags and jackets. And got out of there. Elaine and Eliza were next door but had cool people that were up and talking away so Rachel and I decided to wander. We were too excited and awake to lay in the dark. We ended up finding a storage room, where if you had bikes they would be hung up. It was about three cars down and the only place with room to sit down. So we sat and did our homework.
About two hours later we were at a stop in Bologna. We did the usual pause for a little and then moved on. About half an hour into this ride a man working the train came up to us asking where our cabin was and where all our stuff was. We replied casually its in our cabin and pointed to the direction. He then asked us where we were going and we replied Vienna of course. He then told us we were not going to Vienna, we were going to Munich. Rachel and I laughed for a minute, like "Haha, you are so funny.."
When he wasn't laughing and told us that in Bologna the train split and the half with our bags, jackets, tickets, beds, and friends were headed to Vienna and the half that we were on with nothing but our handbags was headed to Munich we started to panic. He grabbed the conductors for us and together they all figured our options. Either we ride the train to some place in Germany buy a ticket to some other place to Germany, ride that train, and then buy another ticket to Vienna or we ride this train to Verona (west of Venice) get off, spend three hours in the station, and get back on a train that takes us back to Florence. We chose the free rides back home.
I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. I should be in Vienna not back at my kitchen table writing this and feeling sorry for myself. But either way, here I am. At my kitchen table in Florence, writing this ridiculous story of how I got back here..
The trip getting back was odd. I was just trying to fight tears and shock and the miserableness of being cold. Usually I'm cold but with my jacket. I was cold with a sweater. It was so terrible. Rachel and I huddled together in these seats in the train station at 12 in the morning freezing our asses off. Coincidentally there was an Italian guy, probably just a little older than us, that was in the same position, heading to Munich instead of Vienna, he had a coat though. He saw us in the train station and asked how we were doing and what we were doing. He was hoppin on a bus and staying at a friends place somewhere nearby, we were freezing until 3 when we hop on a train to go right where we came from. Either way he felt bad for us and talked to the local police about our poor American situation, and they ended up taking us into their station where it was warmer.  So Rachel and I spent three hours in this police station waiting room where they brought us tea and were just really nice to us, after they checked our passports of course. Sooo lucky I had that on me.
At three they told us that our train was here and where it was stationed. He found it, got on and stood in the tiny hallways until the same conductors that helped us figure out a way back found us and put us in a room with a mom and her snoring child. This is were we spent the four hour train ride back to Florence.
So all in all, I am home and I am safe with the help of unnecessarily friendly Italians. I am still so upset that I am here and not Vienna. I know Rachel feels the same way, she just left to go on a walk/cry. I'm about to do the same.
So this is my 70 euro, possibly 150 euro, lesson and adventure. I guess the moral of the story is, NEVER leave your room. Laying in the dark in a musty room on your way to Vienna, is much better sitting comfortably on your way to Munich.

What we thought was our cool spot..

Happy cause we were in a cool spot..

Trying to be happy in the Police Station where it's kind of/not really warm.

NOT HAPPY in the hallway back to Florence before our conductor friends put us in a room.

Bonne Saint Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday. I spent my day in class for six hours. Which was a nice distraction from all the lovey dovey things happening around me.

For dinner we all decided to do the traditional American dinner and go get sushi. We had seen this one sushi restaurant in passing while walking to an appertivo. It had sushi and barbecue written on the glass window which at first created a lot of skepticism. But we passed it a couple times and each time there was a good crowd in there and it just looked really nice.
So we ventured there for our Valentine's dinner. The place was poppin'! We waited downstairs in what once upon a time was a cellar room, now converted into a chic waiting room/smoking room, for half an hour. When we finally were called up we sat down and had ourselves a very interesting dinner.
The way the place worked was that there were two sushi chefs in the middle of this conveyer belt contraption. And they made an assortment of rolls and would place them on plates on the conveyer belt. The belt wrapped around connecting all the tables and bar areas and you would just grab what you wanted. The prices were determined by what designed plate the sushi was on. It was really cool. And really expensive. The sushi was absolutely amazing but you don't eat to get full there. If you did you would be spending 100's of euros. It was a pay for the whole experience kind of ordeal. Either way it was pretty exciting.

On Monday Eliza and I went to Fiesole, which is a little town situated up on the hill that supposedly has a great view of all of Florence. After some confusion on how the bus system works, we got our tickets (only 2.50 euro roundtrip), and found the bus. Fiesole really was a small town. There were so little people out it seemed a little eerie compared to Florence. But we found the scenic walk and the view really was amazing. I tried to take pictures but it really doesn't do it justice. It was so beautiful. Eliza and I sat on this wall over an olive vineyard and just soaked up the sun and the view for about half an hour. It was really great.

Through API, I signed up for volunteering. There were three projects and I signed up and was chosen to volunteer at a Kindergarten. It actually is K through 5th grade. The school is at an old convent, there are a few nuns there but they aren't involved with the school at all. I work with 5th graders every Wednesday from 12 to 1 in their English class. I honestly have no idea what I am supposed to do. The teacher mentioned last minute if I wanted to get a book I read to them. But I have no idea what book you get for fifth graders that are still learning english. It's awkward. So I'll just ask him for advice next Wednesday. Anyways, the classroom is hilarious. There are probably 15 kids, that just talk the entire time he is teaching. They're going over present participle and present continuous.. as if I have any idea what that is.. But he's calling on some kids for answers and reading through this text with them and some are just chatting away, some come up and sit in his seat, some tap his shoulder to ask him a question, it's just an absolute zoo. But he handles it really well. At the end of class he played Proud Mary and the whole class got up and sang and did a dance to it. It was really fun. It's going to be quite the experience. haha

Well that was pretty much my week..

The roomies all dressed up for Valentine's Day.

The sushi delivering conveyor belt.

Our bill, based on the designs of the plate.

Little Fiesole

And the view. Like I said, doesn't do it justice at all. 

Allora...

As per request/demand by Dana. I have a post. I haven't been writing because I feel like I haven't done much note worthy activities. I caught the cold that was going around LdM and my poor flat. Probably because these single pane windows plus the freezing temperatures outside plus the lack of heat provided by the dear government does not foster the most comfortable environment. I have a picture that will demonstrate how I spend my sad days at home.
Like I said, I have not done anything too exciting recently. So lower your expectations. Let's see, my program took us to a ballet. We saw Swan Lake in a nice theater. Not the nicest or prettiest one I've been too but good enough. It also wasn't the typical Swan Lake either. I was very very confused and asked one of the ushers that worked there about it. Ended up, we were watching the life story of Tchaikovsky mixed with his ballet, Swan Lake. Which made way more sense. It ended up being very pretty and captivating. My roommates were very moved, one actually teared up. I didn't think it was tear worthy, but I'm also sure they just have never seen a ballet before. Thanks to Bri, I have seen a many. It was still a nice way to spend my Wednesday night.

I refuse to buy books for class. Because I'd rather spend my hard earned 200 euro on anything other than a textbook. I actually got away with only buying one book for all my classes. One was left in the apartment by past students and the others I read via the library. Having my textbooks there is really awesome cause it saves me a lot of money but it does require me to go to the library a lot, which isn't terrible, but it just means I have to walk in this snowy weather for about 10 minutes versus staying snuggled up in my princess blanket. But I think it is worth it. Especially with my library friend. The librarian is an Italian man, probably in his 60's. I assume that he gets pretty bored so when I walk in all smiley cause it's 30 degrees warmer inside the building, he gets all animated and doesn't care he works at a library and practically shouts "Samantha Riveraaaa!" So of course we chat and I learn he has been working for LdM for almost 30 years. He used to teach History through Cinema, but now he only manages the library, and is a tour guide on the side. The other day he brought out his favorite comic, Tex, that he has been reading for over 40 years. It's an Italian version of the American Old West with Kit Carson and some Indian name I forgot. He was so excited to show me. He also had me read the love letters Michelangelo wrote to his man friend. So that's one of my typical days at the library with my new pal. I guess I should learn his name..

February is the month of Carnival. Which I take to be like Mardi Gras but for all of Europe. These people weae these elaborate costumes and masks and parade around. We thought a parade was supposed to be coming through Florence so we went looking for it but couldn't find it! It was really confusing cause we knew all the places they were supposed to stop and we went there and were still unsuccessful. So instead we went to the chocolate festival. And got free testers of chocolate. And saw a mastiff puppy. Which I proceeded to stalk and try to take pictures of. And was judging how fast it's owner was/ if I stole his puppy would he be able to catch me..

Now back to classes and school. If the weather doesn't change it's going to be mid-40's this week and sunny!! Yippyyyy

My spot in the apartment, in front of the heater.

The theater where we saw Swan Lake.

The Chocolate Festival.

Gucci shoes. 

Yummy.

My future dog. 

Some random Indian musicians. 

People swarming to the smidgeon of sunlight available.

I Live in Sweatpants

These past few days have been pretty low key. The freezing temperature outside has been discouraging to my house and practically all Italy. The streets are pretty much bare and quiet. Neither the Americans nor the Italians want to go on a stroll. Not like it's any better in our apartment though. It's stupid cold in here. We are all bundled up in our sweats, jackets, and gloves. Yesterday I wore my peacoat inside. It's quite unfortunate. But it's hard to just stay bundled up inside because we all feel like we are missing Italy. So we did end up venturing out a little over the weekend.

I'm not sure if I told you that last weekend we met a group of Italian students. They are from a small town south of Florence and have known each other since they were little. They're really nice and kind of dorky. So anyways, we befriended them and they are the perfect little Italian friends. Thursday night we met up with them at this really cool bar where they had an aperitivo, where you buy a drink for 7 euro and get all you can eat food. The place was a pretty cool modern bar with only Italians. Which is again, how you know it is good. We all then ventured to a Spanish bar and got pitchers of Sangria. It was so yummy! Better than any Sangria I've had. Which really isn't that much, now that I think about it. But it was fun. We all just sat at a big table and try to have a conversation which is always hilarious with the difficulties of english and italian. Their english is actually pretty good. One of the boys has studied English for eight years, last semester he studied in Switzerland to take more English classes. He and Eliza are the translators.

Friday we had our self defense class. It was so much fun. API hires some jujitsu/self defense guy to teach basic moves if a guy enters our "vital sphere." There were 6 steps to learn and we practiced it on the eight sad sad boys in our program. I think I mentioned before that for some reason, the boys in API are the most unathletic, goony, little things. Each of these sad little creatures were given a boxing pad thing to hold up for their line of 20 girls to practice our moves. Of course our house, being crazy, took this so seriously. And kicked the shit out of these boys. Eliza, Elaine, and myself were praised by the instructor. It was hilarious and so sad at the same time. But nonetheless, I'm fulling capable of kicking Michael's butt now.  :)

Friday night we met up with the boys again at their place. They introduced us to more of their friends from home who were all really nice. They didn't speak that great of English so it was a little awkward at first but towards the end of the night we were all amecos.. Which I think means friends.. But I can't be sure. So anyways we hung out at their place till probably midnight. And then went to an American bar that had all these University's t-shirts up on the ceiling. Eliza went to search for Michigan, I asked her if she thought Redlands would be up there. But we both know that wouldn't be true. 98% of the people here go to big schools. Scratch that 99.3%. I actually have heard a couple Chapman people go here. And I met one girl who plays volleyball for a D3 school in Tennessee and she went to the tournament Cal Lu has every year! Haha. Small world alert. She said she hates Cal Lu cause their fans are assholes. I totally agree.
Anywaysss, we were at this bar for a little, went next door and got a kabob burrito ordeal, no idea what it was other than fantastic. And then our little friends took us to a secret bakery! It's a bakery where they bake their pastries for then next day really early in the morning. You can smell it from a block away it was mouth watering, I'm actually drooling just thinking about it. But you go up to their back door and knock on it and wait until a guy cracks it open and asks what you want. We got croissants filled with nutella. I have never been part of a drug deal, but I feel like this is what it might be like, except with pastries. Which I would choose over drugs any day. And then our night ended with us running home because it was actually snowing outside.

Yesterday we went to the museum that has Michelangelo's David in it along with a bunch of other sculptures and paintings all about Jesus and Mary. But David was of course the main thing. He's really big and so amazing. How someone actually sculpts that out of a rock is completely beyond me. Again these sculptures are full of so much detail it is just incredibly impressive. Special special people.

And last night we didn't go out because one of the girls Emeri is sick and we all are freaking out and don't want to get her nasty shit so we decided to stay in and sleep. Even though the club downstairs, played their techno music until 3 am and I couldn't fall asleep until it finally stopped. So that kind of sucked. But now I do my homework and pretend that it's not 40 degrees in the apartment.

Sorry I don't have a lot of photos for you since I haven't really done much and photos inside the museum are prohibited.

But these are our little friends; Marco, Andrea, Alessandro, Nicolo, and Jacopo. 

And this is a sneaky picture of David. 

Snow in Florence

Yes, snow is in the air in Florence. It snowed two nights ago, it's snowing this morning as I'm writing this all bundled up in my sweats and princess blanket, and it's supposed to snow tomorrow night. All I can say is ughhhh. I guess the snow isn't really the worst thing, it's the wind. People are saying it's from Siberia, I say it's enough to make it MISERABLE. I don't want to go outside at all, but I can't just stay cooped up in my blanky cause then I am missing precious time in Italia. But I have class in a couple hours so I will have to go out there anyways.

Let's see. I had two classes yesterday. History of the Mafia from 3 to 5:30 and Contemporary Italy and Italians from 6 to 8:30 both with the same teacher, Stefano. Stefano is the perfect teacher to have back to back. He is probably in his 50's, has a good sense of humor, and really laid back. Yesterday he just left the first class for twenty minutes, no idea where he went. I did see him pick some sort of wedgie as he was leaving though, full on hands in bis butt crack. So funny. I'm pretty excited for both the classes. I think I told you earlier I was a little bummed I'm not taking any wine tasting, or food classes. Welllll according to Stefano, you can't learn about Italy without talking about it's food, wine, or fashion. So we are going to Perugia to a chocolate factory, San Gimignano to go wine tasting, and the Gucci Museum. So I get to go on the trips after all! In the Mafia class, we are actually going to be let into the Anti Mafia Investigation Office in Florence. He's super excited because this is the first time the office has been opened to a school or the public at all. It sounds pretty intense, we have to send in our documents and not bring any bags or anything with us.

Last night the girls and I went to a talk by Andy Steves', Rick Steves' son. The girls were all pretty excited, I had no idea who Rick Steves was until I saw the traveling book Eliza had. Anyways it was pretty cool. I don't think I learned anything too crazy, but he does offer some really awesome trips that the girls really wanted to go on.

Yesterday I had some free time until my class at 3 so I went out walking. I found some pretty good discount stores and tried on some clothes. This is where my idea that Italians cannot be fat was assured. I first noticed pretty early on that there are no fat Italians. Literally, I have only seen one fat person and she was American. Then as we were walking around the city, I noticed that majority of the sidewalks are tiny. And a lot of the time if you walk on the street or next to the sidewalk you will get hit by a bus, car, or vespa. Literally, these busses get so close to the sidewalk it's nuts. So maybe all the fat people are hit by busses and therefore eliminated... Yesterday as I went to a dressing room I was sure, fat people simply cannot survive in Italy. The dressing room was microscopic! I felt like Alice in Wonderland when she's too big for the house and her hands and legs come out of the windows. My arms were outside the room when I tried to take my jacket off. It was actually comical.

So yesterday I asked this little secretary at the front desk at my school about soccer. He was probably around my age so I thought he would be a good person to ask. LdM has a club for people to play soccer so I asked him his thoughts. Sounded like they play once a week for fun and people usually aren't very good. So I asked him for a more competitive atmosphere and he told me that there were a few girl clubs I could look up on the internet and call and ask if I could play. I then asked if there were any recreational spots where guys play and I could join. I think he was offended that I asked if I could play with guys. He felt the need to tell me that soccer is their sport and girls don't usually play with guys. So he ended up being useless. But I emailed coach again and am going to see what google can tell me. Either way, there is no way I'm playing until the weather changes. I play in 100 degree weather not 30 and snowing.

Well I have to get ready for class aka get out of my pj's. The girls wanted to go out tonight, although it is miserable outside. But I guess we will see.

Oh and really quickly I wanted to tell you about the LdM welcome dinner we had on Monday. It was held in a palace. So freaking amazing. I felt like I was in the Beauty and the Beast. Here's the link if you're bored and want to check it out, my pictures don't do it justice.

http://www.palazzoborghese.it/en/english.html

The rooms were all pretty similar to this. There were beautiful chandeliers everywhere and giant mirrors. It was surreal. 

If all these cronies weren't there, you would see that this room was like the ballroom in Beauty and the Beast. It was stunning.

Snow outside my window!

One of my favorite things is to walk through the Historical Center at night when all the hustle and bustle is gone and all the Asian tourists are taking over some hotel or something. It just seems surreal.