Cami's European Escapades

Epilogue?

Fri, 30 May 2008 17:59:59 GMT

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!).

Last Friday we had our finals, and a couple of us who had bought Ciao Bella shirts decided we would all wear them and take a picture. I thought it was neat how Sarah, Christine, and I all had the same pink lettering even though the shirts themselves were different colors.

I was working on something, but I don't remember what, and Amanda (aka 'Schnookums') decided to curl up next to me.

This is another shot of our whiteboard, with people signing in their Italian textbooks. I thought it was funny. n.n (guess which graffiti is mine)

That night, I went to the Joshua Tree, an English-style pub near the station, with the Ripon kids and the Heidis. Heidi O'Connor bought me a birthday Jack-and-Coke, and overall we just had a nice time hanging out once more.

When I moved to the hostel the next morning, I was struck by the cool view I got.

And here are my pictures from the archaeological site in Fiesole, which I broke down and paid to get into because it's awesome:

Most of this is the remains of a Roman bath.

But this part is Etruscan! It was a temple.

Here's the theatre, which is actually still in use, I believe.

The Emergency Exit leads to a railing with a sheer drop. I had to commemorate this.

Here's the view from the hostel bedroom:

And the room itself (the top right bunk was mine):

On Sunday I went up to Piazzale Michelangelo, where they have a copy of the David, and the weather was threatening to be stormy again.

How weird is it that I have a picture of a TRL thing from my last trip too? I think that one was in Rome, maybe. I just keep running into them.

My mountains~

If you look past the Palazzo Vecchio tower you can still see them.

I actually don't know what this was, but it had flowers growing all over it and was beautiful so I took a picture!

At some point on my walk back through town from the hill I realized I've never actually shown you a picture of Santa Maria Novella, which is the church around which pretty much all of our locations have been based. It's what the train station is named after, and it's where the kids met in The Decameron.

I spent a good part of the early afternoon just hanging out, but then the time came to say my farewells. I walked into centro and hit Piazza della Signoria.

My statue, once more:

On a side note, it's "The Rape of Polyxena". I don't know who that is. And Lizzi, I wasn't far off on the Iliad-themed one: it's actually Menelaus and Patroclos. I just think it's funny that I got Patroclos right on a wild guess, not really knowing it was about The Iliad.

As evening furthered I went over to the Pitti Palace again.

Then I made my way back towards the Duomo and the hostel, stopping on the Ponte Vecchio to watch the sun set.

I walked beyond it, because there's a bridge further down that gives a better view of-- yes-- the mountains.

Florence at dusk.

Duke Cosimo's androne:

Goodnight, mountains~

Back to the Piazza della Signoria for my final goodbye.

There was some kind of opera recital going on in the marketplace near Piazza della Repubblica, so I stopped and watched them for a while. I'm pretty sure they were professionals, probably doing some kind of fundraiser, because they were amazing.

Piazza della Repubblica, all lit up and carrying on its festivities as per usual:

And goodbye to you, my friend.

("GOODBYE, CAMI")

Finally, many hours and some scary turbulence later, I touched down on American soil just in time to watch the sun go down in Washington D.C.

And that, as far as I can tell you, is the end of the line.

Goodnight, Florence

Sun, 25 May 2008 20:49:27 GMT

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

Albergo Paolo

Sun, 25 May 2008 08:01:39 GMT

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.

Farewells

Sat, 24 May 2008 13:10:47 GMT

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. :)

I Knew It

Thu, 22 May 2008 14:44:17 GMT

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.

Our Last Days

Wed, 21 May 2008 11:54:12 GMT

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.

But first, my host family:

This was taken on the night we had a lady from the ACM eating dinner with us, and Martia had her Parisian friend Florence (har) staying there. The conversations were hilarious, and we all had a really good time. It was probably one of the best dinners we've had since arriving.
Anyway, the woman on the far left is Gabriella, and the only man in the picture is Nino. Martia, their daughter, is sitting next to Gabriella, and Brenda is next to her, with Florence across the table, next to where I would be sitting if I weren't standing behind them.
Good times.

And here's the landlord's dog, Oto, who greets us when his owners let him patrol the front hall or the front step on weekdays:

He's super sweet. If you pet him once, he'll follow you around and whine until you sit down and pet him again, and he groans the whole time like it's the greatest moment in his life.
He makes me miss Malcolm, who is just as needy, and I can't wait for the day that he'll once again throw his entire body weight against me to kiss my face.

The last couple days have been rainy. When we went to the Palazzo Vecchio, I got these pictures off the balcony:

And then the next day, Janet had a dinner party at her house for half the group. I sat at a table with all the friends I've made over the past four months, and we had a great time, though it was naturally kind of bittersweet.

...yeah, okay, we got a little drunk, but it was still nice!

And oh god, there was tiramisu. REAL tiramisu.

Excellente!

On Tuesday Patricia had us over for a party at HER house, but it was everyone, all together. It got pretty rowdy there too, but it was in the middle of the day, so it was more just laughing loudly and people having a good time.

I took a few pictures of the incoming storm while standing on her balcony.

Party party~

It's really hard to believe that after Friday, I'm not going to see most of these people ever again. We've been kind of forced into cramped spaces all together whether we like it or not, for the past four months, and by now I pretty much really like everyone. It's going to be strange getting taken out of this little micro-society we've created and going back to the normal one.

Not to mention, I'm going to miss quite a few of them like crazy.

Yesterday, our second-to-last Art History class was at the Pitti Palace, which is built up on a hill across the Arno from Linguaviva.

It had been raining on and off all day, and we made an umbrella fort!

I don't have any pictures from inside the palace, which was pretty cool, but afterwards we went through to the Boboli Gardens. They're pretty much the Pitti equivalent of the gardens at Hampton Court, only more manufactured and more hilly.

Yet another storm was coming in pretty heavily.

There were random cats at this place, which always makes it worth visiting.

And here are the gardens:

There was a sweet view from the top of the hill, where I took yet more pictures of mountains and clouds (my two favorite things nowadays).

Wood nymphs!

"Everyone look at me!"

There was a big head.

More storm views:

I loved that we could actually see the raincloud moving over the city.

We actually made it through most of the garden without getting rained on, but it started pouring by the time we were done. We had to trek back through the torrent, but it was reasonably warm and we were in good moods, so it wasn't bad.

The sun came back out when we got further into town, and it reflected off the wet paving stones like a mirror.

And then the sky went back to blue over the San Lorenzo Mercato~

What a place.

A Very Serious Art Update

Sun, 18 May 2008 11:50:29 GMT

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

and then a Very Serious in-depth look at some of the artwork found in the Vatican .

":O"

"So that Christ guy, what's he about?"
"Iunno. Wanna get a beer?"

Jesus in da house.

"PROFESSOR!!!!!!!"

"whooo."

D8

...heheheh. God of Fertility.

"Knock it off!" "OMNOM"

"MOM
MOM
MOM DO YOU SEE ME"
":/"

This is Ricky and me.

LOBSTER

"GROWMF"
"WHAT THE JESUS"

You will be tested on these.

Also

Sat, 17 May 2008 14:22:20 GMT

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!

Rome: Day Two

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:09:28 GMT

Gena awakens!

All right, this is this old Roman ruin where there now lives a cat colony. Shelly and I dropped by there later and, from what I could read of the sign, volunteers actually maintain the colony and hold adoptions every day.
Verdict? Best idea ever. Because even if you don't adopt them, you don't feel bad, because I can't think of any better place for cats to live (especially with people taking care of them).

This one reminded me of Oreo. n.n

I petted these two!

The matriarch and I believe the patriarch. They seemed to own the place.

I took more pictures of cats than I took of the Colosseum. Think on that one a while.

This is the hill used for Roman government... stuff... back in the day. Honestly? I don't remember most of what we talked about, because, once again, Samuele was talking. A lot of this trip was extremely frustrating just because I actually wanted to learn things, especially about Ancient Rome, but he just can't communicate. Grah.

This man is the epitome of Tourist, and I love him.

Some guys pretending to be statues!

Wuins

The Roman forum, which also would have been really interesting if... yeah, I don't even need to say it anymore.

Here he goes.

Janet and Robert, leaning on the Do Not Lean railing!

I feel bad, because he really is a very nice man. :/

Flurrs~

The Arch of.. ...somebody. Not Constantine.

BADONG

Sorry, that was inappropriate.
I just hadn't said anything in a while. Look, a garden for Vestal Virgins!

THERE'S the Arch of Constantine.

And guess who!

There were gladiators. Janet warned us not to take pictures with them, because it's a ripoff. :/

Dan can make the "D:>" face really well. I tried but it didn't work. ):

Meeee

The Arch again!

For Emily:

This is our album cover.

Amanda, Heidi Benson, and Sarah Brown. All thrilled!

This is the best and worst museum I've ever been to. It was excruciatingly boring, but we were allowed to guide ourselves around it, which meant a bunch of underslept college students were running free inside.
We weren't too bad. But there was lots of laughing, a couple of minor dance-offs in the halls, and a short but very intense automated lens race in the ancient coin exhibit.

(I came in second)

I really liked this church and its little chapel, mainly because we didn't stay long, but also because it was just nice. It was made out of a Roman bath.
...I know this because Janet was the one talking.

Gemini!

I envied that guy. He looks like he is thoroughly enjoying the water.

I don't think those Baroque architects were decorative enough. I mean, seriously, you could do SOMETHING to jazz up these boring churches, y'know?

Another gladiator, who's looking a little out of shape.

The Trevi Fountain!

Here's where we got gelato both on Sunday and the next day. It was so crowded we could barely move, but we got three flavors AND whipped cream!

Piazza Navona at night, which is where Shelly and I went when we were following our hearts to find the McDonald's.

The Pantheon! (day three)

It got Baroque'd and turned into a church. ...way less interesting.

This was another one of my favorite places. It's an old Jesuit church, and was one of the bases of the Inquisition.

You can just tell. Seriously.

SPROING

Good old America, being all savage again!

Here's Piazza Navona in the daytime.

And the church thingy that it's built around.

A guy was selling bubble guns, and I twirled in the bubbles. n.n

THAT IS ALL

Rome: Day One

Sat, 17 May 2008 10:43:44 GMT

The line to get into the Vatican was long, but it went quickly.

Whoo Vatican!

Here's a scary priest relief.

Vaticanvatican

To be quite honest, the tour was terrible, because Samuele wouldn't hurry up and we were all exhausted both from getting up really early and from taking the train. It was impossible to find it interesting, because... it was Samuele, and we really just didn't want to be in class.

But here's the courtyard that leads into the area which leads into the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel.

And the Laccoon, which is one of my favorite statues!

The Belvedere Torso. ...it's really old!

Bronze Augustus, I think.

A snazzy hallway.

Philosophers!

And then we couldn't take pictures of the Sistine Chapel, but it was (for the second time) extremely croweded and somewhat overrated. But still pretty, and enjoyable enough to look at.

Cami in St. Peter's Square!

The interior of St. Peter's, which is pretty boss, if you ask me.

It's been one of my favorite churches so far, probably because we weren't forced to tour it for three hours. That actually isn't an exaggeration.

More square:

Mmm, Swiss Guards. n.n

Here's the fortress that I climbed last time I was here! We didn't do it again, but I'll always remember what it looks like at the top.

Back at the hotel, I did a little exploring and kept hearing birds singing really closeby. I went up to see where they were, and discovered a cage o' canaries:

Then I found the rooftop garden!

The Ripon kids had beaten me to it. :/

Here's our room (I roomed with Gena and Shelly):

Fri, 16 May 2008 13:53:56 GMT

*~*YAY CALIFORNIA*~*

An Observation I Made

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:28:20 GMT

Dear Lizzi and Furu:

Isn't that wacky?!

La Vita e Bella

Wed, 14 May 2008 14:32:11 GMT

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.

On Emo Gypsies (full of spoilers for really old things)((I mean REALLY old))

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:47:29 GMT

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)

I LIED

Wed, 07 May 2008 11:35:04 GMT

LOST!
But Leo can be found in bushes and tall grass, and to catch him you can use a 'beefsteak'.

There was a hullaballoo in town yesterday. A parade and a band and the military!

Here's a crappy picture of the Palazzo Vecchio from the Uffizi side.

From behind the Neptune fountain, which we'll see again shortly.

Stairs in the Palazzo Davanzati!

They were cool.

We have a whiteboard.

The Duomo belltower: it's very tall.

More Dumbomo!

Piazza della Reppublica (where the hullaballoo was)

The Palazzo Vecchio and Loggia dei Lanzia in Piazza della Signoria, il mio preferito locazione di citta.

Here's Judith beheading ...the guy with a name that's really hard to spell. It's from our Sculpture Walk, which we took yesterday.

Here's a vaguely homoerotic sculpture starring Hercules and some guy he killed, but it looks like some other stuff might happen first. ...just sayin'.

Neptune is suspicious of the lion, who acts natural.

"Noo, Patroclos!(?)"

"What the hell do I do now?"

"I HAS A HEAD"

"Hup!"

This is my favorite in the Loggia. I still don't know what it's called, but it has four characters: a soldier who appears to be Roman, a young woman that he's stealing, an older woman grabbing for her, and a young man lying at the bottom who might be dead.
I have no idea what the story is, but I kind of like just guessing.

The Loggia!

And the view from the Loggia looking down towards the Ponte Vecchio.

Okay, NOW that's it until Rome.

Beach!

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:39:12 GMT

Yay beach!

I had an apple. ...it was delicious.

(I'm so pale ;.;)

People!

The water was very cold, and there were pebbles instead of sand, and it kept knocking me over.
BUT IT WAS AWESOME

And strikeapose! If you squint you can see my six-pack. I'm pretty sure it's less a result of being hardcore and more the fact that I just have no body fat.

...here are the bathrooms and showers. Aren't you glad I showed you? I was afraid I would forget about them.

Goodbye, Deiva :'(

Eeeeee

eeeee

We went to Pisa, aka The Most Overrated City In Tuscany.

I'd seen it before, but Shelly wanted to, so we walked from the train station (where we had a layover) to the Old part of town. It took about an hour to get there, and we stayed for about... ten minutes, if even that.

It's funny because these are probably the straightest pictures I've ever taken. As it turns out, the angle at which I usually accidentally hold the camera when I snap photos corresponds exactly with the lean of the tower, so when I took the first couple pictures it looked straight.

But yeah, it pretty much looks like it's falling over. Can't lie, I dig the Leaning Tower.

WHOO PISA

...whoo chapel in Pisa!

Annnnd here's a fountain in Florence that I like.

The next pictures you see will most likely be of Rome. Get excited!

My Deiva Marina Pictures

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:28:46 GMT

But first!

Here's the Bargello and people at it.

That's what YOU think!

Amanda carried two backpacks on her trip, and was a weirdo as usual.

Off we go to Deiva Marina! Shelly is thrilled.

Seeeeea!

Hiiiiills!

This is in the trunk of the shuttle. It was the only place they had room. :'(

Camping La Sfinge! The site reminded me of the Appalachians, kind of.

The beds were absolutely wonderful. I would have stolen one if... ...if that were feasible at all.

Shelly sets up shop.

More hiiiills!

WE SAW AN EMU. WTF (that is an emu, isn't it?)

Here's the actual town of Deiva Marina. We walked around it on Thursday evening, trying to find food, and were about to give up hope until we found foccacia for 2.50.
RIP OFF

But hey, the location made it worth it.

LIZARDS

Hills and a bridge! This is looking back towards the campground from the beach.

I honestly have no idea where I took this. I was never up this high for the entire trip, so it's a bit of a mystery.

ERG.

You can see the world through our window!

And there was a ginormous spider above where my head would eventually go!

(they gave us some bug spray stuff at the front cabin thing and I emptied half of it on this sucker)

Since the sun went down at around nine, we ended up just going to sleep then and waking up pretty early to go hiking.

The trails were pretty disappointing, but they were also pretty.. ..pretty. I mean, they just didn't really go anywhere.

If we had gone to Actual Cinque Terre there would've been more hiking territory, but we decided to just take it easy this weekend.

And that's an awful lot of pictures to make you load, so I'll post a second installment.

However

Sat, 03 May 2008 14:57:48 GMT

This is important:

Back from Deiva Marina!

Sat, 03 May 2008 13:21:02 GMT

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

Miscellaneous

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:10:38 GMT

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!

The Fishcapades

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:15:05 GMT

I wrote this last night:

What got me out of a frustration-induced funk tonight was when Gabriella brought dinner out from the kitchen (or, well, Nino and Martia did because she’s on crutches, but the idea is the same). What was lain before Gena’s and mine eyes was a platter of three fish: whole ones. With their heads. …looking at us.
After staring impolitely at the fish for several minutes, we finally took a moment to exchange the classic cinematic Meaningful Look between us, which almost resulted in both of us losing our composure and bursting out laughing. It was a mutual exchange of “am I crazy, or is this disturbing?” which can only come from two American students eating a traditional Italian seafood dinner. (The fish was fresh, by the way, and delicious.)
What Gena told me later was that if she had been sitting where I was, i.e. right next to the action of Martia carving up the poor suckers, she probably would have lost it. I ended up watching with a sort of morbid curiosity as she stripped the skin off and lifted the meat from the bones. Gabriella ate the heads, and we tried not to look at her.
So, another lesson learned: food can be good even when it looks at you first. The worst that came of my experience was accidentally chewing on a couple of tiny bones, but I managed to discreetly pull them out of my mouth when Nino wasn’t looking.

Lucca!

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:29:08 GMT

We went to Lucca this weekend, and it was gorgeous.

First, here are Emily and Amanda being weird at the Uffizi. Amanda was holding her ticket in her mouth and hitting Emily with it.

Here's one of the palaces we looked at on Thursday.

There's a whole series of streets called things like "Via dell Inferno" and ...well, like this.

It's funny.

The cloister at Santa Maria Novella!

And here's something that somebody wrote on the bus window, advertising lots of sex with two girls.

Now for Lucca!

Oh god, this weekend they were having a Comic Convention AND an Animation Festival there. Here's the tent for the animation festival. Cry. :'(

If I had just known about it a little while before, I could have gone to a presentation or two!

Nothing else matters! I lament for you, animation.

(actually I had a great time)

This is the remains of the old amphitheatre, which had a flower market in it on Saturday.

After we'd walked around a bit and eaten some extremely salty pizza for lunch, we rented bikes to ride around the wall.

Gena hadn't ridden one in eight years!

She and Dan ate our dust.

This is my bike. I was Team Leader and was the only one man enough to choose pink.

Char Of The Ruins

Shelly joins her and they posture for dominance.

I just sat there like a badass.

Yay, kids playing soccer by an old thingy!

:'(

YAY LUCCA

Content post!

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:39:45 GMT

I wrote this last night and saved it in a Word document, so here it is:

Here are some things I’ve been thinking about.
The first came up at dinner tonight, and made me realize just how much about Italian culture we don’t understand unless it’s thrown in our faces. Gabriella, my host mom, was talking about the Pennsylvania Primary, and since she knows I like Obama, she wanted to know my reaction. Martia, her daughter, chimed into ask me what I liked about him. I told her, and she asked me this:
What if it turned out… if you found out… he was Islamic?
I kind of stared at her for a moment, then both Gena and I shrugged and answered, “it wouldn’t matter”. It would obviously matter to some people, but as far as we’re concerned (and I explained this), it depends on the person and not on the religion they follow. It was a little stunning to see the skepticism on their faces when I said I know plenty of Muslims who are wonderful people.
After a quick and animated discussion between the family, completely in Italian, Martia turned to me again and patiently explained, in English, that they don’t like Muslims because of all the illegal immigration. She told me about a market near San Lorenzo that is very nice and in a nice neighborhood, but it’s becoming overrun by Muslims, and has become, in her words, “full of them.”
It just struck me as interesting, since so many people in the States consider Western Europeans to be the ultimate in lenience and tolerance. Obviously this has not always been the case (ahemhemGermany), and obviously there’s still some rivalry between countries, but I guess I wasn’t expecting the same mostly-groundless bias that we find in a lot of American Conservatives. Conservative Italians hating Muslims seems to be the equivalent of some Americans hating Mexicans, yet if there were a Mexican running for President of some other country, I don’t see why it would pertain to us at all.
Or why his or her cultural or religious affiliations would affect them at all. But I’ve gone past my point.

Another thing that’s been on my mind has simply been how much I’ve grown as a person on this trip. It really hit me just when I was getting ready to take a shower, for no particular reason. Maybe it’s that we’re nearing the end of our fourth week, which means Florence is half over already. London seemed to take forever, but now time is zipping by, and in a month I’ll be back in the States again. It doesn’t seem real.
I haven’t felt like I’ve learned much in terms of street smarts, since New York taught me a lot of that already. Navigating the London Tube was uneventful and easy, and finding my way around the city was never the problem the handbook told me it would be. Florence has been a little more difficult, but only because it’s less metropolitan, with a more difficult and unreliable transportation system and crazy, winding streets.
I did learn how to book and find hostels. I already knew how to take trains and planes by myself, so thanks to AnthroCon for preparing me for Spring Break. I knew how to get lost and found again, and how to sneak shortcuts. Being in different cities in Europe was like being in different cities in America, with less skyscrapers; you learn to navigate one, you’ve got the key to pretty much all the major ones.
So what I’m saying is, I didn’t grow much in the exploration department. I saw some amazing things, but no part of me was awakened by being forced to deal with travel stress, because I’d been there and done that.

I’m almost ashamed to admit that what awakened in me was something that a lot of people find even before high school. I discovered that I’m an affectionate person, and that I’m affected by the same weaknesses as people that I often make fun of. I’m a flirt, and instead of just sort of drifting along uncomfortably, I learned how to use it to my advantage.
Most importantly (and this is where it gets really silly), I finally kissed someone and liked it. This was the foremost thing on my mind when I was going over what has affected me the most on this trip, and frankly, it’s a relief to know that I’m not immune to this form of expression. I feel a little fluttery when I think of the elusive Jackjohngary. Though I’ve kissed people before, I never let them ‘count’, because my memories of them weren’t particularly happy or exciting. This, with those criteria, was my First Kiss. I feel mushy towards him because he opened up a new Me in me, and I sincerely regret that I didn’t get to see him more. He’ll be coming to the States in a few years, and maybe we’ll be able to visit each other. Maybe not, but I won’t worry about it too much. We’re obviously not exactly destined to be together, but I’ll always remember him.

It’s funny that something as simple as that can be the most important thing I’ve learned in what has been, so far, three months of study in Europe. I learned how to kiss someone and keep caring about them afterwards.
What can I say? I’m relieved.

Teh Dramz

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:42:58 GMT

There've been some roommate issues which I won't go into now, partially because I've whined about them elsewhere already and partially because they might be getting better. But it's stressful.

In further news, my jaw has decided to go into full-blown TMJ syndrome, and I can barely open it wide enough to eat anything bigger than a cookie. LAME
I'm guessing it'll go away if I believe in it with all my heart, which is how I usually deal with minor medical issues. In the meantime, I won't eat any apples without cutting them up first.

Mm... otherwise, uh, the weather's nice and all that. There isn't much else to say about today.

Another show-and-tell

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:05:46 GMT

Oh man.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040303083.html

It's an interview with Jim Davis about the recently created "Garfield Minus Garfield", which has rapidly become my favorite comic online:

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/archive

Apparently he likes it! I would probably go on a hunger strike if he made Walsh take the site down.