italee: November 2010

Thanksgiving = 8 days until I'm home

Happy Thanksgiving!!! It certainly does not feel like it here. Thus far my Thanksgiving has consisted of making a spectacular breakfast, reading, doing laundry, finally catching up on posting my blogs (sorry about that), soon I have to go to class, then hopefully say hi to some people back home and then our program is providing us with a Thanksgiving dinner!!! Rumor has it that there will be mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, which is all I need.

In 8 days I will be home. Wow 8 days. Lately the million dollar question has been 'are you ready to leave/come home? The answer is yes. Well sort of. When I originally left to study abroad I believed in the myth that I would have the 'time of my life here'. Some people in my program claim that that's what they have, but my friends and I all agree that they must have crappy lives back at home. Seriously.

I've had a blast here and learned a lot, yet I love my life back home and am really excited to be back. The only thing that will make leaving Italy hard is knowing that in all reality it will be a long time before I'm back again. There's no option to come quick visit for a long weekend if I want to or hop in the car and come here. That's the hard part. Also knowing I will never say 'I live in Italy' again.

The other thing that I can't quite make up my mind on or not yet is whether I wish I had done some more traveling outside of Italy. At the same time I don't. I look at all the people here who have traveled literally almost every weekend, doing trips for 3 days to another place. They spend a lot of money to catch a small glimpse of a place they know nothing about. Don't get me wrong it would be great to see those places too but I want to hold out for another trip. One were I can plan ahead so I know where I'm going and what I'm actually looking at. One where I don't feel rushed through it all just for the 'sake of traveling in Europe.' Ideally I want to come back and take the time to go to all these places having prepped for it so I can actually remember and enjoy what I'm seeing. I never went to Greece because of that reason. For so long that's been another dream place of mine to visit and I felt like I couldn't do it justice by spending $500 bucks to quick run through it in 3 days. I'd rather save my money for later and dedicate a bigger amount of time to it so I can really make that dream come true. See it gives me an excuse to come back :) Who knows maybe I can talk someone/people into coming back with me for another good chunk of time to see all of Europe at our own pace.

My goal coming to Italy, was to say that I lived here and really got to know it. I think I've accomplished that really well, better than I would have if I was gone every weekend. Our mopeding extravaganza never happened. The day we went to go, turns out the place was closed. That was my first 'sign'. Then the more we talked to people and researched it the more it seemed like a bad/stupid idea. Drivers here are crazy. I wanted to so badly but I'll admit that something about it also made me really nervous. I don't get nervous about this kind of stuff too easily (not unless it's heights or rollercoaster's) so I decided that maybe I should pay attention to that feeling. My plan is to make Jeff go with me once I'm home and we can hop on a moped in Seattle and then go wine tasting and have our own little Italian experience. Don't tell him though, he doesn’t know about this plan yet.

I'm going to miss this place and as corny as it sounds, it will always have a special place in my heart. This is where I learned that some people really are morons, some people will make a scene wherever they go, some are annoying, and there's always drama. I also learned though, that no matter where in the world you go, people are still people, people still have feelings, there are people with good hearts and good intentions, there are people to make you laugh and smile, people to create and share memories with, people to eat way too much with, people to lend a hand or an ear when it's needed. I've met people who have challenged me in ways I didn't think possible, people who have surprised me, and people who I'll always remember. Some have provided me with stories that I will remember until I die, good or bad, they'll make you laugh.

So today I am thankful. Thankful for all the people that encouraged me, supported me, shaped this experience, and have loved me. My family has been incredible and I was blessed to share this place with my parents, Jeff has put up with more than his fair share of my emotions through all this and has meant the world to me, my friends have always been there when I needed a laugh or some good stories, and I have felt the prayers from all over. I am thankful and blessed beyond belief for this opportunity. I remember numerous times last year when I was in tears because I wasn't sure this would ever happen. Look at me now, ha. Here I am celebrating Thanksgiving in Italy, only 8 days left before I leave it all beyond and embrace the craziness of life back home. I can't wait.

Oh yea, we had an art exhibition the other night, here's the pieces I put in

see the sort of resemblance? haha

My 'Forms of Florence' painting

Molly, my classmate, Frans, our Prof, and me at the show

Birthday Weekend

Yes I did have a birthday. What did I do for it you may ask. Well I was in Italy, isn't that the best way to celebrate a birthday?

The weekend was my ideal weekend. My birthday was on a Saturday and for some reason it seems people like to leave on the weekends so Thursday night a group of friends and I went to this fancy shmancy restaurant 'Golden View' which looks over the Ponte Vecchio. Afterwards we did go get a drink and then of course more importantly we went and got pastries at this place known as the 'Secret Bakery'. Let me explain this amazing place. Literally it's a secret place that does all the baking for the café's around Florence during the night (only open from midnight to 3 or so). There's no sign or anything, it's either you know about it or you don't. It's a door in a side street with a sign that says 'please be quiet' which you approach, knock and wait to see if someone wants to serve you. There's no menu/list, you simply have to ask and hope they have what you want or just get whatever they offer. That night the pastry of choice was a donut with nutella. Simply amazing. I must say that was a great kickoff for the birthday weekend.

Let me also explain that during my birthday weekend there was also a huge cultural festival going on in Florence. One of the main attractions was the copy of this guy known as 'David' who they moved around to a few locations which they think he was originally commissioned for. He stared on top, yes top, of the Duomo and then the next was moved down to in front on the side and then one more place. Also that weekend they put grass down in front of the Duomo and Baptistery for a day. It was crazy! So Friday Alyssa and I embraced it all and went to some of the special markets, saw the grass, and of course shopped.

We also took the opportunity to see the real 'David' at the Accademia. He's a good looking guy I won't lie. Much better looking in person too :) It's incredible really how on earth Michelangelo did it, also in a such a short time.

Saturday the 13th, the day I entered this world 21 years ago brought a relaxing morning filled with too many cupcakes/pastries from friends. I swear, some people get alcohol on their 21st, I got sweets, even better :D Once again, gift shopping and wandering (my favorite activites here) took place in the afternoon and then that evening another small group of friends and I went out to dinner. It was a place we hadn't been before and well…I ended up with a whole chicken on my plate. That should enlighten you as to how amazing that dinner was. From there we met up with a few more people at our apartment for a bit, and then hit the town again which once again the highlight was making the Secret Bakery the final stop of the night. The next morning everyone from the night before met up again to go for brunch to the 'American Diner' and had a delicious American Breakfast.

I love birthday's that cover a whole weekend. I've never really had big birthday parties, so those aren't my thing. Instead it was a perfect weekend with good food, good wine, good friends, in a wonderful setting.

birthday dinner, round 1

We found him!

and we found the secret bakery!! also round 1

Culteral Fesitval, we found chocolate! and yes I got some to celebrate my birth

told you there was grass

I was excited to stand on it

the old piano's that we saw at the Accademia too

Dinner round 2

our good friend at the Secret Bakery

Rome: pictures suck

You have no idea how frustrating it is to take a picture of a place and then look up and realize that there is nothing that can truly capture the beauty that is in front of you. That's what I felt like constantly in Rome.

Rome was breathtaking, everything about it. It was like walking through a huge city and having these ancient ruins just pop up out of nowhere, I fell in love (with the place).

The first day we got there and settled in for a little bit and then headed out for our first tour. We went a pretty much walked the whole city. We walked the famous street from the movie 'Roman Holiday,' saw the Spanish Steps, a famous café filled with lots of expensive art, had our photo opt in front of Trevi Fountain, went into the most beautiful church/coolest I've ever seen, went into another famous Café (supposedly the one they take the famous people/presidents to when they come to visit), visited the Pantheon (sadly under construction yet still breathtaking), and ended the first day with a building that can be compared to our version of the White House. Yes that was all one day. I could go on for ever about all these things but that would turn into a book. I think my favorite that day was the church known as 'Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The ceilings were beautifully painted, one of the only ones I seen where it gives a 3-Dimensional feel, AND the dome of the church wasn't really a dome! It was a flat ceiling painted in such a way, that walking in, up until a certain point, it looked like a real dome! Then once you were directly underneath it you realized that the center was no where near the actual center and that it was all an illusion. I was impressed. The first day was awesome but it was also jam-packed with everything we did. That was how most the trip went though.

The whole next day was dedicated to the Vatican. It was really intriguing to me, although not a spiritual experience like it is for some people. The fact that there were so many people and it was such a tourist thing really didn't appeal to me that much. The Sisteen Chapel was beautiful, but they kind of kept you moving through it. The architecture was astounding to me. I wish I could have been completely alone walking through there to take it all in. On the other hand, Saint Peter's Basilica was…well I don't even have a good word to describe it. It was huge first of all, and the detail was beautiful. That was probably one of my other all time favorite churches but for other reasons. Even though there were tons of people in it, contrary to the Vatican, in the Basilica you felt like it was still pretty empty. In some of the side chapels, I felt like they were the size of our church back home, and this was just along the side! HUGE! That night we went out and wandered the city, found some more ruins, saw the Colessum at night, had a great dinner by our hotel and then collapsed from exhaustion.

The next day, it was off to go explore the Colesseum, we were some of the first people in so it was great to see it mostly empty. It boggled my mind how on earth they put it all together back then! We found out that really the battle and what not were not near as gory as people think they are, they did have some sort of referee and rules. We also wandered in the gift shop where they had pictures of what it probably looked like when it was first built, the contrast was incredible.

Finally on Sunday morning we went to 2 Villas outside of Rome to the hills. This was definitely in the top 3 of my favorite things in Rome, mingled in there with the Colesseum and the optical illusion Dome. The first one was known as Tivoli and was an ancient ruin villa. We stared by looking at this small reconstruction map thing (I know there's a specific word for it but my mind can't find it right now). Then we set off to go through most of it. It was a huge area so we didn't even cover it all. Some of the 'buildings' still had parts of a roof intact or the original floor. Once again my brain could figure out how on earth the Roman's had built this incredible architecture so long ago. From Tivoli we went to a functioning villa called Villa D'Este which was like a palace and then huge gardens with beautiful fountains. The had up above the main fountain, another set that was also a water organ so we listened to the short little concert they gave. I felt like I was in a fairy tale prancing through all these old trees and fountains playing hide and seek with bunnies…or something along those lines. That's the kind of magical feeling it had.

I'll admit, Rome was my kind of place. A practical, functioning city woven between this ancient history that snuck up on you wherever you walked. As much as I love Florence, I think if I were to do it again…I might choose Rome. I can't explain it other than to say Rome has a different feel than Florence, then again each place has a different feel. Yes Rome is also a big tourist place, but it's also a big city so there's also plenty of locals. In Florence, there's a ton of tourists/students and it's easy to tell that the locals are sick of it. In Rome, I didn't feel that way. Maybe that's not true about Florence, maybe I'm crazy. Rome felt a bit like a fresh breath of air. Let me reiterate, I love Florence. I loved Rome in a different way. It took us more than a whole day to walk the whole city and even then we didn't cover quite all of it. Florence I can walk the main center plus a few laps and stops for coffee in a full day. I think the safe route on this one is to say that after visiting Rome, I love ALL of Italy even more and continued to be fascinated by it.