All right, I've been back in the States for almost a week now, but this needs to be done (and Christina yelled at me to do it, so I have motivation!).

( This is it. :/ )

I still can't get on using my own laptop, so pictures will have to wait until I'm back in the States. But tonight I took a final walk around Florence, pretty much spending the entire evening just wandering to wherever my whims took me.
I started by going to the park nearby that I like, which usually has a big cool fountain (I took a picture of it once), and it was hilarious watching all these little three year old kids run around. There was one mother who was having trouble keeping her kids together, and at one point her little girl had wandered off with a little boy with whom she was chasing pigeons. I had been watching them because I saw the mother wasn't, and when she looked up and I saw the panic in her eyes, I just pointed to where the kids were and she said 'ahh, buona ragazza' (which translates to 'ahh, good girl') and smiled with relief.
My good deed for the day!

Not much in the way of cheap food is open on Sunday, so I was lazy and hit McDonald's. But what I always like doing in fast food restaurants is taking forever to finish, and just sitting there by myself, looking out the window and finishing my soda. Today was the first time I've done that since I lived in New York. It's so relaxing.

I then wandered down to Palazzo Pitti (for a Pitti Party, hoho) and retraced my steps, since the Pitti is the farthest away from Via Faenza and the route back runs through all the main landmarks. I sat on a railing on the Ponte Vecchio and talked to Mom on the phone for a bit, about tomorrow, and then just stayed for about half an hour and watched the sun go down.
Every time I turned around I was slammed with a sight of the mountains. I don't know of any other sight in the world that can bring me almost immediately to tears, but it's just something about those Appenines that gets me every time. Especially at dusk, but it doesn't really matter either way. They rip my heart out.
This whole city does. I feel sort of silly and melodramatic wording it that way, but when I just look around and everything does what it's been doing for six hundred years, I just feel rent open. Maybe you have to see it to believe it.
I don't think I'll be able to live without coming back here again.


As far as wrap ups go otherwise, I've been helping myself relax by just acknowledging the fact that I don't need or want to have any euros with me when I get back to the States. What this means is, I've actually been letting myself be comfortable! For instance, spending the money to take a taxi instead of fighting onto the bus with my luggage, buying myself gelato tonight just because. I've reminded myself it's probably the last time for quite a while that I'll be able to make little splurges, but then, the little splurges are sometimes what makes the stinginess count. Tomorrow at the airport I'm going to try and buy a cheapish book or a magazine or something, since I was stupid and finished mine yesterday.

With that being said, I'm very sad to leave. But I'm feeling sort of content at the same time, and I think I've done things right today, so I can leave without too much regret.
There'll be pictures of this last night as soon as possible... and an hour and fifteen minutes in advance, happy birthday to me! Tomorrow will be the only thirty three hour birthday in my entire life. Good thing it's my twenty first. ...too bad I'll only be in the country for it for an hour, since my flight gets in at eleven.
Oh well. n.n

This hostel is hilarious. The owner, Clara, runs everything by herself- including cooking everyone breakfast and serving it to us in our rooms- and last night she went out to party (she's in her twenties) and just left two of the more trustworthy guests in charge of locking up the common room. Not terribly responsible, but it's got a really fun college dorm atmosphere nonetheless, where she's our RA instead of a landlady.
My roomies are pretty cool. There's one British kid named Zach who I met first thing yesterday when I got here, and who I've talked to on and off. Then there are two Canadians, Scott and Connor, and three Californians, Rob, Kevin, and Jimmy, who are also super awesome. I ended up going out with them (all of them) along with this Israeli girl last night, and though it wasn't a rip-roaring great time since I didn't feel like drinking or dancing much, it was nice to just get out and have that distraction. And when I felt like leaving, Jim walked me home, even though I know the city better than anyone else in that group.

So, long story short, I'm feeling better. Today I'm going to say my last farewells to Florence and get ready to fly out tomorrow morning.

Today has been ridiculously hard. I've spent the entire day being pretty much two seconds away from bursting into tears, because I had to leave my host family this morning and it wrenched at my already fragile emotions.
Yesterday was difficult too. We had our two finals, but I think I did fine- I know I aced Bella Figura, and I'm certain I've got either an A or a B+ in that class. I would say a B for Art History, which is fine with me.
But afterwards, when everyone was leaving, it completely hit me that this microcosm I've been living in was finally disbanding. Gena and Dan said goodbye (twice), and going home on the 13 bus for the last time, and not having Gena in the room, was depressingly strange.
Dinner last night was kind of a fiasco, because I kept losing my composure. It was only Gabriella and Nino and me, and Gabriella had made a special 'birthday' dinner for me of my favorite things, because we wouldn't get to celebrate my actual birthday. Nino invited me to come for dinner on Sunday, but the offer made me cry again-- I hate, hate, hate dragging things out, especially over days. I turned him down, but explained to Gabriella that "the more I have to say goodbye, the longer I'll be sad."
I just hated that they kept offering to do things for me, and saying I could stay for lunch, etc. It's pretty much the worst thing you can ever do when I'm crying: it's the equivalent of giving someone a hug when they're sad. It's just pressing the Waterworks button.

Anyway, I've had a hard time with it all day. Gabriella was nice enough to call me a cab (I paid for it, obviously) to haul all my luggage to the hostel, which is, in spite of everything, really nice. I haven't been able to get the wireless code, though, so right now I'm back up in the Linguaviva classroom again (rather unexpectedly), hanging out with Heidi and Robert one last time. I'll get the code tonight and post some pictures, and hopefully actually talk to some of you!

...I'll need it. Being alone right now is the worst feeling ever.

At least I know the pain of this will subside soon, it's just all very raw right now because it's still in the process of happening. I'm a trooper- I'll probably have an episode or two back in the States, but when you consider that I've been living an entirely different life for four months, and it's come to an abrupt halt, hopefully it won't seem that weird.

Anyway, I'd guess there'll be maybe two more entries before this journal is finished. I'm not going to keep posting in it when I'm back in the States, since the point of it was to be about my travels... but if you've kept up with it for all this time, thanks for reading, and here's hoping I'll see you soon. :)

100 words

Speedtest

That's only two less than I thought, and I screwed up a few times because I was thinking too hard about it.

In further news, holy crap I have only a few days left and I'm being useless and idle. I finished my second paper, which leaves only the two finals tomorrow, then two days in the hostel, then birthday/home.
Crazy.
I'm not feeling too emotional about it right now, but things are pretty much going about as usual in the computer room, and people won't be leaving until tomorrow.

This is probably the second-to-last picture post I'll be making on this trip, with the last being from my final couple of days in the hostel. These are from the parties we've been thrown by the staff, and from our trip to the Boboli Gardens.

( Pictures yay )

Concerning Rome again. It is Very Serious, so if you don't like Very Serious things you're in the wrong place!

First, we have my high-quality and well-trained photographic skills on display with sepia pictures
( sepia pictures )



and then a Very Serious in-depth look at some of the artwork found in the Vatican ( serious business )

You will be tested on these.

I got a perfect score on my Italian final.


...unfortunately I can't expect anything like that for Art History, but I'll sure try!

Dear Lizzi and Furu:



Isn't that wacky?!

We just finished up our last Italian class by watching a large portion of "Life Is Beautiful" (or "La Vita e Bella") in one of the downstairs classrooms. That is one painful movie, and though it may seem impossible, the impact was actually heightened by the fact that we were watching it where it takes place.
We'll be finishing it on Friday after our exam, and I know I'm probably going to lose it. ): Luigi stopped it right when Guido is starting to mess with the records before he plays the duet from Offenbach over the loudspeaker, which is, in my opinion, the most heart-wrenching part in the whole movie. So I get to see that first thing on Friday! Can't wait.
Really, though, it's a wonderful movie, and is one of my favorites. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should.

Last night, as I've already mentioned to some, the group went to see Carmen at the Opera Comunale. I was pretty psyched to go, despite the knowledge that it was going to be four hours long and completely unintelligible.
Anyway, I guess now I know why opera is a dying art form. It wasn't that it wasn't beautiful, but it was four hours of the same kind of beauty. And as far as this particular production went, the acting was terrible, the movement was undefined, and where there should have been choreography, there were mindless crowd scenes which were extremely distracting and accomplished nothing. The "set" was a series of screens that had colored light on them sometimes. ...they didn't even try.
I just found it very frustrating, as a theatre person, to go to something that's supposed to be so awesome and amazing and just find it not as believable as a high school production. It also made me miss playing the French horn, since I heard them warming up. ): And I miss being onstage and backstage and everywhere but just watching it.
Also, wtf, Carmen the character is a total ho. She was not the least bit sympathetic and I was not sorry that she died.

In a similar vein, yesterday I finished reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I DID enjoy. Still, hardly any of the characters are sympathetic, but they're cool and a wretched kind of way. Gringoire is amazing, with Dom Claude as a close second, and Quasimodo has his moments.
...Esmeralda can choke. Oh wait! Hahaha.
I was surprised that I wasn't annoyed with the Disney version once I thought about it. I guess it has street cred for being my favorite Disney movie in the first place, but it's also just so absurdly different that it's like an Alternate Universe starring roughly the same characters in a completely different story. The two really can't even be compared, because the only thing that relates them is the setting, the names, and one or two events that get thrown around in different orders. It was hard to imagine the book characters as the Disney characters, because they just... weren't.
And that's a good thing, because otherwise I'd have been way more critical (like with Wicked lolwtf).

I'm glad I read it. It makes me want to read Les Miserables again. Oh Hugo, I can weather your excessively descriptive and wandering prose like an eagle on the wind.

(RICKY, TALK ABOUT IT WITH ME)

This is important:

It was everything I wanted and more. I feel very refreshed and destressed, which is what I hoped this weekend would do.
Pictures tomorrow!

Some Funny Janet Quotes from the Bargello

On Donatello's David:
"This is a kinky little number!"

On the statue of a turkey:
"I think turkeys had just been introduced at this point. Why do they call them turkeys, anyway? They're not from Turkey. They should call them America."

Another memorable exhibit:
"Hang on class, I want you to look at this. This is one of the new doors they put in, isn't it awful? And that disgusting handle. Honestly, they could have tried much harder."

Other

This entire time, I've forgotten to mention one of the important things about our group: Heidi Benson, one of the Monmouth girls, is pregnant. She was before she came here, but she didn't announce it until we were all in Venice and she was sure it was going to 'stick', as it were.
Anyway, she's really awesome and this is magnified by the fact that she thinks it's funny when I make jokes about stealing her firstborn.


This weekend is long, and we have the rest of today off as well as Thursday and Friday. Shelly and I (as well as some of the other Ripon kids) are going to what I have been calling Non-Cinque Terre, an area close to the five cities by the sea... which is also by the sea. We'll be staying in a campground (vacation on a budget, yayuh) and generally relaxing it up. I've decided to brave the sea when we go to the beach, even though it's supposedly freezing at this time of year.
Whatever, man. How often am I going to get to swim in anything that isn't Lake Michigan/Superior/whatever?
Apparently we have a layover in Pisa, for half an hour or so, so Shelly and I can take in the excitement and adventure that is One Interesting Monument Which Is Really Only Good For Pictures And Which I've Already Seen Anyway.
Whoo!