Brittalia

A curtain closed, for now

2009-01-17T17:12:00.000-08:00

The trip home went smoothly, but I miss the Italian people and food already. This blog will be dormant until I return to Italy once more.

Thank you all again for taking the time to follow my adventures and feel free to keep in contact with me. Love to all.

Photographic Memories

2008-12-20T03:23:00.000-08:00

Soaking up the last few days in Firenze. Finally went into the Duomo (above). I sat staring at the ceiling with my mouth open for at least 10 minutes. Incredibly awe-inspiring. Exams are over and went well. Saying goodbye to friends slowly, one by one. Photos from around Firenze explain my thoughts more precisely:

Reflections on my second home

2008-12-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

As my Italian time draws to a close and exams loom for the next week, I've been thinking a lot about the things I will treasure, I will miss, and the things I will wish I had done. Observing the actions of my fellow students, I was at first worried that I would be selling myself short because I haven't done the same as them. Most of them have been traveling to different countries and cities every weekend, and when they're in Firenze, they all travel together and are constantly in each other's company. This was a major point of loneliness for me when I first arrived. I thought to myself, "I obviously need to get with an American friend group so I can feel included and accepted." Nationalities flock together was the easy assumption and hope.

I traveled with one or two fellow Americans at the beginning of the semester. It was great for photos and historical learning. I saw my share of Jesus and the Madonna paintings. Wow! a painting from 1230. Incredible! a timeless fresco. I'm grateful that I was able to see artworks that were painstakingly crafted by artisans of the past. But I wanted something more. I'm a people person. I wanted to connect and very much feel at home around others.

I think that's why my wisest decision during my time here was to spend most weekends here in Firenze. The roads and faces in businesses are now familiar and meaningful to me. I've made more Italian friends than American. If I had traveled too much just to see things, I'd feel like a disconnected tourist. What's the fun in just seeing things to say you've seen them? The last two months especially have been an incredible journey since I've really hit a good stride here. I've found myself smiling just to myself while riding the bus or walking around town, just for the simple fact that I feel so happy here. I have people who care about me and are always willing to share a laugh, story, or tell me about their day. People in the market, like Avi from Romania who works at a jewelry stand, or Carlos and Tweety (I don't even know what her real name is) who both work at a coffee shop across from my school. I can see and feel the warmth from them when I greet them.

Originally, it was painful for me to not be able to communicate effectively with my Italian skills. I only knew a few words before traveling here in September. Everywhere I went, I tried to summon up enough courage to ask for something in Italian, and felt completely disheartened when all I received in return was a bored answer in English. I first took this to be an insult to my Italian. Like saying, 'you're butchering the Italian language, please just speak English.' I felt extremely embarrassed also.

It all tied into my very much wanting to talk and meet people. I eventually changed my social perspective: not to put so much importance on trying to speak Italian if it so negatively effected my self-confidence when out and about in the city. I studied it at home, worked on it in class and spoke some with my home-family. I learned enough key words that I could feel comfortable. Conversational Italian is still very difficult for me.

I absorb Italian like a sponge though. I'm constantly hearing it every day. Most of my free time is spent hanging out with Italian friends. And unless they're directly speaking to me, they all speak Italian with each other. I'm finally at the point where I can understand the gist of what they're saying. That's a huge confidence boost for me in the Italian department.

I was on the city bus yesterday traveling to class, and I overheard two Italians talking right behind me. I understood that they were exclaiming about how bad the riots in Athens, Greece, were. Just a small moment, but it made me feel good that I could both understand them and that I was also aware of the crisis in Greece.

I've been following news through the Internet like crazy. It makes me feel much more connected to everything. I don't even miss TV or news shows. Google.com/News is all I need. It has feeds from all major outlets, which I think helps guard against right/left bias.

More on Florence though - last night was my last time to see the whole Taxi Drivers band in concert. Stevio, Frank Dd, Lorenzo, and GianLuca have been a cornerstone of my Florentine experience. Not only are they incredibly talented musicians, but they are the most down-to-earth people I have met here. Vocalist Stevio works in public relations for a hotel chain in Firenze. Guitarist/violinist/flutist Frank Dd works at a market in Prato, Italia. Drummer Lorenzo teaches history of religion at a school in Prato. Bassist GianLuca works at a bank here in Firenze. Everyone has their day jobs, and they never actually have time to rehearse. They just meet at the show a few hours prior to do soundcheck and then play. Very free spirited.

I had a great time rocking out with them last night. I felt very natural singing along with Stevio and also sharing the mic with Frank. It was a packed house and a good number of my American classmates finally came by to see me.

After the show, as has been custom for a few weeks, I'll just help the band pack up their gear. We'll also just hang out and talk, still enjoying the glowing excitement from the night. Lorenzo is very similar to me with weirdness and a healthy sense of humor. From last night:
Lorenzo and I having fun as very weird people

behind the drums

Lorenzo and I over-dramatique with roses again

Overall, I'm not ready to leave yet. I'm looking forward to seeing GianLuca, Frank and Lorenzo again next Saturday when they perform at Loonees. I don't need a big going-away party; I just want to be with my friends here. I'm just hooked on the essence of European people and the uniqueness of this city. I can't help but feel great when my friends here ask me when I'm coming back. I know I will. I hope it will be very soon. This city has become a home to me.

Hitting my Florentine stride

2008-12-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

Finally, a break and time to breathe. After my birthday weekend, I hit the ground running on school projects. Three papers averaging seven pages each. I felt too guilty to write on the blog when I had research papers to compose. Now though, all papers are finished! Celebrated the week by going out to see Taxi Drivers at Loonees Music Bar again last night. Like the good friends they are, of course they didn't disappoint. I just jammed along with people there, dancing in my own little way.

I was glad I was feeling better - about three days ago I came down with a bad sore throat. I lost my voice for a day and since then my voice has been pretty weak and pained. I still don't completely have it back. That didn't stop my friend Stefan, the vocalist for Taxi Drivers, to call me up on stage last night to sing with him. It was a full house and I knew I couldn't lead-sing the vocals, but I happily took part in the back-up chorus vocals and doing a little sing-dancing. Afterwards, Stefan kiddingly chided me for not dancing more. "I was sick! You were lucky I got up there at all!" Regardless, I promised to put on more of a show next week when they play at Loonees again on Friday.

When the show finished at about 2:30am, we went through the usual routine of packing up the drum kit and other instruments.

Lorenzo taking a break with his drum kit

It's a great feeling to feel so included and part of the band. I had a person at the bar ask me if I sang in another band and if I'd be willing to sing at a jazz club in Rome. I thought this was slightly ironic though since I was sick and was hardly singing. I took the compliment anyways though. Afterwards, we were hungry so set off on a quest for food. In my college city of Rome, GA, this would be a practically impossible quest except for going to McDonald's, which I refuse to eat at. What did we find instead? A hot-food vending machine. It was a miracle of technology.

Frank digging into pasta with cheese and salmon (it was actually really good) while Julia hungrily looks on

We also went to a Istanbul Kebab place that was open 24 hours. At 4am, it was packed with people just chowing down. I love finding places like this. I even got to learn a little about gender politics. Lorenzo recommended that I go ask for the bathroom key instead of him doing so. So I did, and received the key with a smile from the guy behind the counter. We both were able to use the bathroom with no problem. I returned the key afterwards. Then Julia's friend decided he wanted to use the bathroom. He went to ask for the key, and the guy just looked at him expressionless and told him it was broken. I turned to Lorenzo and looked confused. All he said was, "That's why I told you to ask for the key. He never would have given the key to me, being a guy." It seemed very unfair, but was an interesting learning experience. Hooray for being assumed the safe female. I value my femme card when it's needed. :)

My birthday last weekend went fairly well. Granted, I thought more of my American friends would show up out of the 10 that I invited, but it was raining, so only one showed up. My reliable travel-partner Nora. The rest of the crowd were my Italian friends. We met at PlusFlorence hostel like was planned and had a few good games of pool, a little dancing, and long conversations at the bar. I started talking with two American guys that were staying at the hostel and were students studying in Rome for the semester. When Issam, my party organizer, decided to go on to Be Bop Music Bar from the hostel, I invited the Americans along. It was quite a packed van that included about 8 people. My friends brought other friends of theirs too so it made for a great time.

part of the group: Rafael (the co-birthday boy), me, Rafael's friends, and Daniele (from the horseback riding tour)

At Be Bop was a Doors cover band. I remember they weren't bad, but I was so happy just to be with good conversation people that I don't remember much else about them. The owner and bartenders at Be Bop are great friends of mine also. It always feels like visiting friends when I go there.

On Monday, I had a field trip with my marketing class to the Officina Profumo Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella, one of the oldest farmacies in the world created by Dominican Friars around the year 1221. We were given a tour of the factory that covered how the creams are packaged, how the candles are made, how the perfumes are made, and we even got to test some of their herbal liquors.

hand cream line

the soaps are hand-wrapped

the soap particles going through the machine to be compressed into bars (the soaps are made of milk, coconut and plant oils - no animal fat)

We were given complimentary candles at the end of the tour. Not bad for a field trip! The factory smelled wonderfully also. A majority of the herbs used there come from the hills around Florence.

So what's up for the next week? Hopefully me coming to 100% health and also studying for final exams. I'm still not ready to leave yet, but I feel that it's a good thing because I'll fully enjoy and appreciate the time I have left here.

Markets and pubs

2008-11-28T08:22:00.000-08:00

blanket/rug vendor at Cascine Market

It's been a very good and relaxing week. A nice calm before the study storm of next week. Last Sunday, I went to check out PlusFlorence hostel with my friend Issam (who I originally met through the horseback riding excursion). He'll be hosting my birthday party there tomorrow, the 29th. PlusFlorence has been voted one of the top 10 hostels in Europe. It's more of a resort than just a dorm-style hostel! It's private to hostel residents only usually, but since Issam has a friend who works there, we'll be able to invite our friends to attend the party. The lounge area is more like a discotheque:

Issam asked me how many people I was expecting to invite. I don't know all that many people here, but I told him at most there would be 10 people attending that I know. He responds: "Ok, so we should have about 50 people or so." Yep, he's a very social Italian. This should be a total hoot. There's nothing more entertaining than partying with Italians and others.

On Tuesday, I went to Cascine Park Market. I can best compare it to a vast, open-air garage sale. There were tables with new clothes and other tables with second-hand clothes where everything was priced 1 euro. People were swarming those tables like chickens eating corn. Some of the tables:

It was a very festive atmosphere where people brought out their kids, friends and pets to browse all the different stalls. I found this especially cute:

I thought it was pretty adorable and efficient at the same time.

This week an exhibit also opened near my school that features photos from my fellow students. The exhibit required each participant to have 3 related photos. I chose three photos of cats that I've taken randomly over the past few weeks. One was of an alley cat from the island of Murano and the other two were from the castle town of Monteriggioni near Siena. My photos are to the left-most side below:

Last night, I found a new little bar when I was walking around with my friends. It was called Angie's Pub and didn't look like much from the outside. I'm amazed how many places in Florence though will look tiny from the outside, but once you walk in, it's a mini labyrinth-like hang out. Some wild decorations! There was also a DJ for reggae-night.

the bartender even got into the dancing - very cute

The Christmas feel has been slowly creeping into Florence. And I'm happy that I don't have TV at my apartment because I didn't first realize this because of non-stop commercials advertising the season. No, it was because lights over the streets.

It was subtle, but made me smile and look forward to the festive season even though I'll be home for the actual Christmas day. It makes me sad that I'll be leaving Florence soon but also happy now because I'm really starting to feel more and more like a local. It doesn't matter that I can't fluently speak Italian. It's a feeling of confidence in the city and recognizing people in the street and knowing people when I walk into my favorite stores.

Model for a day

2008-11-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

getting my makeup done before the shoot - photo compliments of Sal of salrivela.blogspot.com

What a day yesterday. At the start, I wasn't expecting much from it, especially after such a long day in class. I had to present a research project for Intercultural Communication class with a few other classmates, and man am I happy that's over. I took too much work under my responsibility. I made a Powerpoint, but I wasn't expecting having to put the booklet together also and have to collect everyone's papers like a school teacher. I had to miss playing in a soccer game because a few of my group members never showed up at the library and I finished the project myself. So yeah, after all that and finally presenting the darn thing in class, I was ready to get into another state of mind and happiness.

When I got my haircut a week or so back, the owner of the academy, Sal, asked if I wouldn't mind coming back at a later date for photos. He has a small portrait studio in the school where he photographs hairstyles that his students create.

side note: he also keeps a photography blog which can be seen here:

((((---- http://salrivela.blogspot.com/ ----))))

I thought it would be fun so I agreed. After class finished on Thursday, I grabbed my friend Lauren's arm and asked her to come along with me to the photo shoot. She grinned wickedly like the impish friend of mine she is, and agreed.

Sal greeted us warmly when we arrived and directed me towards the back where I met his makeup artist friend, who came in specially for the day from her home in Rome. She worked on my makeup for 45min. Very dark eyes, a "60's" look. Lauren couldn't stop giggling and saying how different I looked. After makeup then came the hairstyling. One of Sal's students washed and styled the hair into a messy but chic look. I didn't think my hair could look so cool! I'm terribly uncreative with hairstyles, so it was a treat just to watch what he did. It was like watching an artist at work with a paintbrush. He cared so deeply and was extremely focused on how each bit of hair would lay. After another 30min of hairstyling, the "shoot" began. The setup was simple...white background with students in the room watching and Sal with his Hasselblad camera.

Sal and another model at the shoot

I wasn't nervous at all, just awkward cause I wasn't sure how to pose. My first few poses included a fist out in front, just like a superhero. I tried imagining how true models would look and act, but I finally gave up on that idea and just acted like my silly self. There was also another model there, a friend of Sal. (she's pictured in the zebra-print dress). I talked to her for a bit and she does modeling on the side for art academies and style salons. She's a very kind and funny person. She would be up for awhile, then we would switch. At one point, a student even got a hairdryer and pointed it at me while Sal photographed. Talk about dramatic! Lauren said I "looked amazingly gorgeous". Both Lauren and Sal told me I was "a natural". I just blushed and said something sarcastic.

me and Lauren looking fab together

We'll have to see what the photos look like! Sal's going to give me a CD of all the photos once they're edited. I saw a few of them on the LCD screen of the camera and honestly, I didn't recognize myself. Me and a high fashion look have never really combined. I saw a bit of my mom coming through the photos. I remember well her modeling photos. :)

At the end of the shoot, Sal invited all the students there (about 4 of them), the makeup artist, the other model, me and also Lauren to all get into a photo. It was like a curtain call for the shoot. It was so much fun! It was a creative but also family-like atmosphere. I think it was even more unique because it was a school where people really cared about their work. I don't believe I could have paid any amount of money in Florence to feel care and love like that.

When everything was done and the cameras put away, Lauren and I were discussing what we would do afterwards (it was around 11pm), and Sal invited us out to dinner with him, his co-worker, and the other model. We went to dinner at one of his favorite places that he visits 3 times a week. It was a tiny place owned by a husband and wife. Their menu changes daily and it felt more like a home than a restaurant. I would have never found this place on my own. Lauren couldn't believe our good fortune! She was having a blast, and so was I...still in my wild makeup and hairstyle. hehe

We had a full Italian dinner starting with plates of thinly sliced meats, cheeses, olives and sweet breads. The pasta was incredibly fresh and tasty with a creamy but not heavy pesto cheese sauce. Even the table wine was fantastic - not too bitter so we could sip it during the entire meal without it tasting like a "drink". After dinner, dessert. Digestivo with bread cookies and also rum cake. After that, small shots of Grappa. The best thing is, I just felt happy and satisified afterwards, not uncomfortably full.

We had multiple toasts during the meal and everyone discussed matters excitedly throughout the entire meal. We were there for two hours. Lauren was an absolute doll and talked about her vacations so far to surrounding countries. I talked with Sal about photography and his history with the school. We share very similar views about photography in general and it was a pleasure to discuss theories and shooting styles with him. He's an incredibly intelligent individual and riveting to talk with. A true gem of a person.

Lauren's going into the school on Monday for her own haircut, free of charge. I look forward to seeing Sal and his students again. Lauren's so cute...it was great to have her there with me so we could chatter away in easy English for a change!

Tomorrow night will be a blast too. An Italian friend of mine, GianLuca, is going to a death metal concert in Prato, Italy (only about an hour away). He commented that I probably wouldn't be interested in going, but I happily said I'd love to go. Even if I can't understand the lyrics because of the roaring, gruff vocals, I can still appreciate the skill of the musicians. There will also always be fascinating people to meet and it's a place I've never been. It's extremely fast paced and a concert is a concert!

Appreciation

2008-11-14T05:57:00.000-08:00

Taxi Drivers at Be Bop, Nov 12

It has taken awhile to appreciate the beauty of Firenze. It is something that I wouldn't be able to discover through a book or tourist guide. Some of my favorite things include having a seat on the bus just so I'm able to give it to an elderly person to make their day more comfortable and also listening to Italians sing to live American/British music, performed by the Taxi Drivers. They are parts of my own experience that make my heart sing. I've also been noticing just how much I recognize more with Europeans than the Americans I've met here. Now I'm not about to make a wide, sweeping generalization about how I love all Europeans. All people are different with unique personalities. I have felt more relaxed around the Europeans I have met here though. It's refreshing to talk avidly about cultural differences, news issues and even comment on fashion with my European friends. From band members to bartenders, pedestrians to shop owners, I'm starting to realize the warmth that I feel from them. When I first got here, I wasn't aware of it. I was too concerned with trying to not stick out like an American tourist and painfully tried to use my few Italian words in an attempt to be more accepted by the Italians I met. That mindset sent me on a roller coaster and was exhausting to say the least. Culture shock I think they call it. I've loved the past few weeks and Firenze is starting to finally feel like a second home instead of a historical location filled with museums and pizzerias. It's getting emails from my Mexican and Spanish friends about coming to play with them at a soccer game. It's being recognized and greeted by bartenders at my favorite pubs. It's meeting Lithuanians at a Scottish Pub and sharing a meal with them. It's getting a free Euro-style haircut at a hairstyling academy and being invited back for hairstyle modeling photos to promote the school. It's recognizing streets finally and not feeling out of place. It's being called up on stage to karaoke-sing Britney Spears "Oops I Did It Again" just because my Italian friends think my name is funny. It's relearning my love of American music because I close my eyes to sing my heart out and get goosebumps of happiness.

Here's a short video from the Taxi Drivers performing Wednesday night at Be Bop Music Club. Notice Lorenzo, the drummer, making faces while playing. He's my best friend in the band and feels just like a brother to me. I always sit in front where I can see him play because I admire the joy he takes in playing.

((((((----------- click here for video ----------- ))))))

Their cover songs of the Red Hot Chili Peppers are what first impressed me about them. This Saturday, I'll be singing along with them at Loonees Music Bar. I'l have to brush up on my lyrics before then, just to make sure I don't forget them. :)

This morning I went by the Mercato Centrale, or Central Market of Florence. Talk about fresh....there are a myriad of different stalls where you can find different merchants chopping up fresh meat, adding more ice around their daily fresh fish, making pasta and serving it in bulk and also personally selecting fruits for you from their mini produce stall. Mercato Centrale:

one of the meat stalls

the second-floor fruit section

Tonight I am going with my host mum Elisabetta to her father's house for dinner. I'm sure I'll have a treasure trove of stories from it afterwards.

I hope all is well with you too, my friends. Let me know how things are going!

Thursday to Monday - an extended weekend

2008-11-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

road in Florence

As I write this blog, I'm listening to a local musical group who plays nightly in the streets of Florence for spare change and to sell their CDs. One signer and one accordion player, both of who are spectacular. It makes me want to dance and gesture out the words with my hands. Bella!

Thursday was a night at Loonees for the Taxi Drivers band again. Before going to see the band, I stopped by a Scottish Pub to see my friend Marco for "6 euro beer and crepe night". While there, I met three students from Lithuania who are studying architecture here in Florence for a year. They actually found me, because they heard me speaking English and tapped me on the shoulder to talk. The relaxing hug and glue of the English language in a foreign land. Love it! Marco and I with the Lithuanian girls:

Ignas, the third Lithuanian, dancing at Loonees (far left):

Ignas and I were the only ones who eventually went to Loonees. As you can see from the photo above, it was an exciting night. The Taxi Drivers band played everything from country fiddle to funk.

my favorite drummer, Lorenzo, of the Taxi Drivers. so concentrated!

Looness live music bar...underneath an apartment complex, 14th century construction

After Loonees, we spent the night in the crowded Lithuanian apartment and then I had a wonderful breakfast made by my hosts. Hard-boiled eggs, native honey butter and a type of dark bread. It was utterly delicious.

Friday night was similar, except that the Lithuanians were busy so I met other friends at Loonees for a second night of the Taxi Drivers. Saturday night I didn't have any events planned except for a football game with Marco again (he's from Spain) and a few other friends.

Marco taking the ball

Sunday night was karaoke at Loonees. There was a large group of Italians singing loud and proud, and they covered many Italian ballads which I was happy to hum along with even though I hadn't the slightest clue what the message was.

Afterwards, I went out for a walk. There was a beautifully lit-up carousel in the middle of a piazza.

And as an end note, regardless of political opinion or representation, the excitement over Obama has been amazingly surprising over here. There were multiple parties held around the city for him and the election night. His photo is everywhere. So I'm happy that the world is excited about a new presidential term. I'm an optimist, not a Democrat or Republican.

I also have a new haircut, free to me via a local hairstyling school where semi-professionals work with a main teaching professor. They spent 2 hours on me Monday morning, but it was a very relaxing experience. It is still the same length basically, just much lighter and more feathery. I'm very happy with it. Like the stylist said, "rockstar" (Grey's Anatomy reference! woohoo!)!

Time to catch up!

2008-11-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

So many pictures, so little time! It's definitely time to bring the blog up to speed.

Today was phenomenal. I went out with a friend, Rob, to see the Florence soccer team (Fiorentina) play Bayern Munich here in Florence. My ticket was only 22euro (about $28) and it was a great seat! We sat in a section behind the goal and were able to make out the Fiorentina chants because we had singers on either side of us. Forze Viola! Forze Viola! (Purple Force! Purple Force!) was the main chant, repeated to a melody. Fiorentina colors are purple and white. I bought a Fiorentina shirt today representing player Mutu (10) and wore a scarf that was also Fiorentina. Decked out!

The crowd was immense and the stadium was packed.

the crowd behind us and the scoreboard

The game was exciting with Bayern Munich dominating the second half. They played beautifully, despite them being the "enemy". They used the width of the field to make long crosses to line players. Fiorentina seemed to piddle in the middle most often. We were a bit late to the game so we missed the first goal (Fiorentina) but the next goal, by Bayern Munich, was definitely well deserved. Bayern had shot after shot on goal, and Fiorentina wasn't able to regain definite possession of the ball and work it back up the field. The Bayern crowd was insanely devout to their team. Even though they only took up two sections, they didn't stop cheering and chanting the entire game. A short video of their section:

click for video -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQYsu-QYrac

And if you notice, there are tall metal fences around that section. Those are to protect the away team from fighting with the Fiorentina fans and vice versa. Oie vay!

After the game, which was tied 1-1, Rob and I met up with a few of his friends and we all went to a live music bar called Be Bop. The band was called the Taxi Drivers and they were playing songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other popular American bands. The great thing is Italians were really enjoying it in the club! Yay no anti-American music sentiment! Shots from Be Bop:

I talked with the band members after the show and they invited me to come to their next show tomorrow night at another nearby pub. I'm so there!

And also, my final photos from the last blog entry. Mom and I had taken a bus up to Fiesole on November, 1, and spent a good while at JJ Hill Pub, named so because it's on hill (creative I know) and James Joyce use to spend time there. We made great friends with the bartenders Francesco and Georgia. Francesco still had bits of his Halloween costume on:

Mom, Francesco and me

But honestly, contrary to the frightening first appearance via the photo, Francesco was a sweetheart. He even invited me to carve my own pumpkin, and I did!

it's a slightly evil anime pumpkin! woot!

That's all for now, and I believe I'm up to date. I look forward to your comments!! :D

End of a great break

2008-11-04T06:09:00.000-08:00

an Italian venus fly trap?

So many things done and seen over the past few days. I didn't have any specific plans for Halloween costume-wise, but I had heard of a comic and games convention in Lucca, Italy. I was surprised to hear it was the biggest of its kind in Italy, attracting around 100,000 visitors to the small, Medieval-walled city. For only a 5euro train ticket each, mom and I headed out there to see what all the fuss was about. We left on October 31, at about 2pm, and the train was packed with others going to same direction. Geeks, gamers, vampires, and people dressed up in fantasy costumes (referred to as 'cosplay'). What a crowd - my kind of people! I went to a similar convention type before I left Georgia called Dragon*Con and Lucca was the same except on a smaller scale. I wanted to strike up conversations with people just like I did at Dragon*Con, but the language barrier still remained. Regardless, the sights made up for it! I bought a 12euro pass that allowed me into all of the exhibition tents. There were tables and tables of Magic the Gathering card players. I was surprised how popular it is here. I was excited to see a set-up of computers to test Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion that isn't out in stores yet. I happily played with both an 80 priest and an 80 death knight for 30 minutes. The death knight, a new class for Lich King (WotLK), was hilarious. Nothing is more satisfying than carrying around a huge, glowing sword, being able to summon a gargoyle pet to assist you, calling up an army of corpses to battle with you, and then turning into a zombie yourself once you die. Once I was done, I turned around and there was a crowd of 10 Italians watching my screen and chattering away and I could make out "death knight" every so often. I love the gamer community, I truly do. Mom went off to geocache while I explored and took photos of practically everything I came across. Fantastic people watching!

(note: Blogger has changed the way photos display...so hopefully they won't be cropped awkwardly anymore)

a full-fledged LARP/steampunk warrior (LARP stands for Live Action RolePlay - people get together for battles in parks and open spaces and beat at eachother with foam weapons). This guy's armor is basically plastic-glazed foam, so it's actually squishy. Steampunk itself is hard to explain. I only recently learned about it. According to Wikipedia:

""Steampunk fashion" has no set guidelines, but tends to synthesize modern styles as filtered through the Victorian era. This may include gowns, corsets, petticoats and bustles; gentlemen's suits with vests, coats and spats; or even military-inspired garments. Often, steampunk outfits will be accented with a mixture technological and period accessories: timepieces, parasols, goggles and ray guns. Even modern accessories like cell phones or iPods can be found in steampunk outfits, after being modified to give them the appearance of Victorian-made objects. Aspects of steampunk fashion have been anticipated by mainstream high fashion, the Lolita fashion and aristocrat styles, neo-Victorianism, and the romantic goth subculture."

It's a very cool costume theme. I tried on a vendor's steampunk mask:

slightly scary, eh?

There were many costumes from animes (Japanese animation) that I couldn't recognize, but I wanted to post them anyways. Italians in anime costumes are adorable. Talk about a cultural mix.

Italian Pinocchios? I was really confused but also amused

costumes from Final Fantasy

Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka and X-Men's Storm

more to come later tonight! I'm not finished yet :)

Epic travels

2008-11-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

the Tuscan countryside...with a twist

What a busy but break break I've been having! Mom and I have gotten back to the apartment pretty late the last few days, so I've been lax on updating. At least I haven't been lax on the photo taking. I've burned a few battery sets so far. An overview of the activities of the week:

We went horseback riding on Monday near Siena, which was full of vine fields and views of the classic Tuscan countryside. We were expecting to just ride for two hours, have a small wine tasting, and then go home. We definitely got more than we paid for! Our tour guides, Issam and Daniele were amazing, humorous and creative. We went to a 13th castle called Monteriggioni for the wine tasting and Daniele (a history student from Florence who spends his weekends giving tours) gave us an overview of the area. It was a great castle town because there were hardly any tourists. The food and wine were of course, amazing also. It sounds tourist-idealistic, but it really was! The riding wasn't spectacular, but then again we were with 3 other beginner riders so we slowly walked the whole way. Both me and my mare Princess definitely wanted to run, but behaved ourselves with the occasional trot just to kill boredom time.

(((( click on photos for larger, uncropped view ))))

Mom and her "warhorse"..aka slow plug horse

I wanted to keep this guy!!!

tour guide Daniele and me

Mom and me at Monteriggioni castle

Monteriggioni castle - the terraced steps were to provide traction for horses traveling on the hill - a major trade entrance in the 13th century

Issam thought it would be funny if he picked me up for a photo on the castle wall - so he did

our great group of Australians, Americans and Britons outside the wine tasting location

After the wine tasting, Issam and Daniele took us all on a tour of San Gimignano, a nearby Italian hill town. I had already visited there with friend Nora, but I loved seeing it again! Daniele knew a special way to approach the city by means of an ancient road way, so we got to see the city in a whole new way.

We also stayed for the sunset, which was timeless and gorgeous when viewed from a hilltop city.

Our guides also bought us gelato from a pretty popular place:

On the drive back from San Gimignano with the whole group of us crammed into a mini van, we were listening to some Indian dance music when I commented that it would be fun to bellydance to. Wrong thing to say! Issam just grinned and said, "well why don't you?" And so, in a very crazy-fun-impromptu European way, we pulled over onto a side street in the middle of nowhere and made our own discotech club. (disclaimer: none of us were under the influence of alcohol...judging by the photos, I know this will seem surprising) It started with me doing a bellydance on the top of the van (again, all Issam's idea) but then everyone started dancing to techno music around the van. What a great time!!!

Issam on the van

tired from dancing

Issam and Daniele

we even got Mom into the dancing act!

Daniele...just another Italian smoker

It sounds terribly cliche, but it's true that a wonderful time was had by all. Issam even offered to host a birthday party for me at his villa in Florence and for me to bring as many friends as I wanted. I look forward to spending more time with both of them.

On Tuesday we headed to Venice. Mom had been to Venice when she was younger, so it was great for her to be able to actually lead me around. It's surreal having to take water taxis instead of buses. Canals and water everywhere! And gondolas are about $100 a ride so they are just for special occasions. There are large motor-powered boats for mass public transport and it was only about $20 each to get a 24hr pass to take the water taxis.

We hit all the major sights including San Marco Square and Cathedral. The weirdest thing about the square is that when we visited it in the daytime, it was full of people and pigeons. When we came back at night, the whole square had flooded with about 4-5inches of water. We heard that in October and November, areas will flood at night but drain off before the next day. Very, very weird. Just shows that it's definitely true that Venice is slowly sinking. We stayed at a cheap hostel where the staff wasn't very helpful and friendly, but it was in the heart of the city so we had a great base of operations. Venice is also a city famous for its carnival masks and there was a great selection of them to admire.

Around the city:

a weird mirror wall on the canal

the symbol of Venice: a winged lion that represents Saint Mark (San Marco)

stunning authentic Murano glass horses (we also got to visit Murano, a nearby island that's world-famous for it's glass making)

the original bronze horses that previously stood atop Saint Mark's Cathedral. Wiki info: "The Horses of Saint Mark were installed on the basilica in about 1254. They date to Classical Antiquity; by some accounts they once adorned the Arch of Trajan. The horses were long displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and in 1204 Doge Enrico Dandolo sent them back to Venice as part of the loot sacked from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. They were brought to Paris by Napoleon in 1797 but returned to Venice in 1815. After a long restoration, since the 1990s they have been kept in St Mark’s Museum (inside the basilica). The horses now on the facade of the cathedral are bronze replicas."

a gorgeous mosaic that adorns the inside of the cathedral

Mom taking the time to geocache between canals

the Bridge of Sighs, sandwiched between huge annoying advertisements. this saddens and angers me at the same time. this is NO place for a billboard and in my opinion, it looks bad on the car company that sponsored it

Except for raining while we were there, the Venice trip was also a great success. We only got lost a few times. The next few days we explored Venice and yesterday we went to Lucca, Italy, for a comic and games convention. I'll have to upload the photos and explain more tomorrow though because it's already 2:40am and we're getting up at 7am to explore more! Stay tuned!

Hannah Girls in Italy!

2008-10-25T15:17:00.001-07:00

Mom arrived safely, although delayed by one hour, in Florence yesterday! She had quite a time in coming here. She got on her flight from Atlanta, GA, to Frankfurt, Germany and when she got to Frankfurt she was not shown how to get to her next flight to Florence. Being well aware of security issues, she still ended up having to go through security once again which really upset her. She accidentally exited the "secure area" and had to be practically stripped down again with security measures. On the flight from Frankfurt to Florence, she accidentally sat in the wrong seat. She was looking for a window seat in a half-full plane. All the seats were the same except for a few seats in the front of the airplane being separated from the rest by a small curtain. The stewardess came by, looked at my mom, and said according to my mom, "how dare you come into business class? you need to go back to economy class". And so my mom apologized by saying she didn't know it was first class, and she said the stewardess gave her an evil, demeaning look. So mom's trip here was slightly dramatic, but the important thing is that she made it here safe and sound! I met her at the airport and we took an airport bus from the terminal back to the main station of Florence. From there, I bought her a 3-day inner-city bus pass and we made our way back to my little home. We settled into the apartment without a hassle. From there, we went on a small shopping expedition to the 10-minute away supermarket Coop, which was a fun experience. We both salivated over the fresh prosciutto and parmesan cheese. We had a great dinner here at the apartment and saved our energy for the next day.

Today we headed out to explore Florence. I tried to show Mom as much as I knew about Florence so far. We started off from the apartment and walked most of the way into the city:

Mom along the banks of the Arno

We caved into the tourist flow and headed towards the Duomo. It's a beautiful spot to view history and also to people watch!

(click photos for larger, uncropped view)

While we were in the heart of Florence, we wandered to many different piazzi (squares) and statues so I must ask forgiveness for not knowing the identity of each photo figure. Still, I think the beauty of the art can stand for themselves regardless.

an interesting clash of the old and new

We finally made it into the part of Florence that I consider to be my "stomping grounds" - the roads around my school. We stopped for a moment outside one of my school classroom buildings:

Mom posing outside my school door!

After seeing my usual haunts around campus, we weren't sure exactly where to go. We're saving the big museums for another day, so we just wandered again. And suddenly, there was the sound of drums and chanting in the distance. Fascinated, I dragged Mom in that general direction. We came across a huge peace parade with people chanting, drumming and waving flags and banners to support Abdullah Öcalan, a founding leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which was founded in 1978. I wasn't even aware there were such strong political issues in Kurdistan! Much more information on Öcalan can be found (((----->here<------))). Very interesting history...I'm surprised I've never heard of it, considering the amount of US involvement in the matter. Photos from the peace rally:

The streets, of course, were devoid of the usual hustle-bustle traffic because of the peace march. Mom wanted to have her picture taken in the street to show off this very fact:

The crowd's chanting was extremely loud and honestly somewhat scary. When I first heard it, I thought it was a violent rally. The only thing different about this peaceful rally was that every so often, the entire parade would sit down and continue chanting. Super bizarre since I'm so accustomed to these streets being the arteries of city traffic. The police didn't seem overly concerned with the march though. There were 6 police officers in front of the parade and 6 following it. They did have riot helmets, but they held them in their hands and seemed to be casually chatting to pass the time. I have yet to see Italian police get uppity about anything here. They're certainly not worried about enforcing traffic infractions. Improperly passing? HAHAHA yeah right! I don't think that law even exists here. Motor scooters regularly execute death-defying road maneuvers all around town.

We tried to find an outdoor cafe to get an early dinner at after our walking extravaganza, but at 5:30pm it was way too early to find anything. All the dinner places were closed. People start eating dinner around 8:00pm here. So instead we made our way back, stopping occasionally for a few photos:

window of a cafe

Mom looking fabulous in a road-side park

me by another final example of Florentine graffiti

Before home, we stopped by the supermarket again to pick up a few essentials. We both had a good laugh over this:

Cat grass! How posh!

And we ended the night with great Italian gnocchi at home and with good company. I've truly missed quality time with family, especially since family is so important here. I feel very grateful to have my mom here with me. The conversations are deep, lovingly familiar and also in wonderful English. Here's to another successful day tomorrow.

Computer parts went to sleep?

2008-10-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

According to Alberto, my computer angel tech guy, my computer parts "went to sleep" aka my hard drive failed. I was almost positive it was a virus, but he didn't think so. He installed a new 160mb hard drive and is still in the process of moving my old files over to it. I'm pretty excited about it! He said they don't even make my small old hard drive type anymore, so the new one should run much better. It's like I'll have a new computer! It's going to be like waiting for Christmas morning all day tomorrow. I don't have any class, so it's just going to be study time for my Thursday exams while I wait on my computer. Woohoo!!!!

Midterms are here

2008-10-20T04:43:00.000-07:00

After a weekend of studying, I've arrived at the week of midterms. My Italian midterm that I just took was confusing with many different verbs I've never even seen before, but at least that was only a part of it. I studied all day Saturday and Sunday, so it annoys me that I didn't know everything on the exam. It's something to discuss with my professor for sure. I did get to see Mamma Mia! the movie with Elisabetta and two of her local Italian friends though. The amusing part was that is was all dubbed in Italian except for the songs. So the English words of the songs were the only parts I could understand. Regardless of not being able to comprehend a vast majority of the dialogue, I still found it to be an amazing movie and highly recommend it. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

I've also fallen in love with Nutella. I had it in the US before, but I think it tastes different here. It's like chocolate peanut butter, but SO much better. I've had it with crepes, toast, oranges, and with just a spoon. There's even Nutella gelato here. Must...have.....more! Wow, so delicious.

I'm also hoping that my computer will be okay by Tuesday. I know the tech guy promised it on that day, but I'm still worried. I really miss being able to Skype people and email. It's also usually very crowded in our school library and often hard to find a free computer to use.

Well, back to the grind of studying. I have a midterm in international marketing in an hour. At least it will be in English!

Austrian highs and lows

2008-10-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

After an 11 hour train ride from Florence, Nora and I arrived in Vienna, Austria. First stop was of course the obvious tourist attraction for the city: the Belvedere. It is a baroque palace that was built by Prince Eugene of Savoy. There are two parts: the upper and lower, separated by a garden filled with statues and fountains.

What a walk it was between the two palace parts. Nora and I definitely got our exercise! We were there at a great time. The Lower Belvedere (built in 1714) had on display the works of Gustav Klimt. I'm not an art expert by any means, but at least I knew a few of his works. It was fantastic to see "The Kiss", an artwork which I've been seeing posters of recently in the US. So many details and very powerful. From there, we traveled back up the hill through the gardens to the Upper Belvedere.

This part of the Belvedere houses the Austrian Gallery, where we got to see the famous Napoleon painting. It was huge in person and very vibrant. After a few hours of touring the grounds, we moved onto explore the city. We took the metro, which despite our not knowing German, was very simple and easy to use.

I love the names of some of the stops:

When we came back into daylight, we found a huge fountain where we immediately stopped for photos.
Luckily, Nora had researched Vienna a bit beforehand. She knew there was a main town market, and we found it fairly easily. What a fantastic market! There were fruits I haven't even seen before.

There were also several small restaurants serving heavenly-smelling Austrian food. Near one restaurant was even a barrel of sauerkraut.

We comfortably settled outside a cafe for a meal of weiner schnitzel and delicious Austrian beer.

YUM! Not surprisingly, it was the best weiner schnitzel I've ever had. Afterwards, we browsed through the market more and Nora couldn't resist the tempting dried fruit.

After the market, we jumped on the metro again and headed to see Schönbrunn Palace. Construction of the palace was ordered by Emperor Leopold I in 1696. In the 19th century, Emperor Franz Josef I lived there during his 68 year reign. According to wikipedia, 'the name Schönbrunn ("beautiful well"), has its roots in an artesian well from which water was consumed by the court: Legend has it that the emperor, when seeing it the first time, had called out "What a beautiful well!".'

What a walking experience it was! There were spacious gardens where many people were out for a walk with friends, a run or just simple time with family.

At one end of the gardens was a grand fountain.

I was amazed by all the work that went into the landscaping. Part of the gardens feature tunnel-trees while another has half-trees.

So after our long walking and touristy day, we made it to our reserved hostel. We were planning on going to Salzburg the next day, but the train tickets were around $100. Nora came up with the idea to go to Bratislava, Slovakia. The tickets were only about $20....much better. We started off early the next day and took the hour-long train to Bratislava. From the station, we got onto a random bus, thinking we would easily be able to find the historical city center. The city is so spread out though, we missed the center altogether and were dismayed when we found ourselves exiting the city altogether on the bus. We got off, obviously carrying confused looks, and we were followed by 4 other travelers who were also lost. Turns out the group was from Vienna, studying there as international students. They hailed from California, Texas, Holland and the Montenegro. Seeing as though we all had no idea where to go first in Bratislava, we decided to travel together. We first went to the largest landmark we could see: a castle on a hill. Unfortunately, the castle was closed for rennovations, but it did offer a great view at the top.

Unlike Florence, the city didn't seem to have any cohesive look from above. To me, it looked like a collection of Victorian churches, Italian villas, random skyscrapers and a few Russian domes put together. We even found an unnamed statue of a raven lady.

After another long walk back down the hill, we finally found "Old Town" which was the main tourist district. One of my favorite images was from a cafe in the area:

We all stopped together to grab some lunch which included very confusing prices. Slovakia isn't on the Euro yet like its neighboring countries. Their currency is the Slovak koruna (Sk), which averages 30 Sk to 1 Euro. So of course it was slightly difficult to figure out how much really was a 500 Sk lunch. I enjoyed my lunch heartily though. I had the "famous" Slovakian onion soup in a bread bowl and I'll have to admit it lived up to its name....although I didn't get the point of the whipped cream on the side.

Bratislava is also full of great tourist statues, like this one lively illustrated by Jeff, our Californian friend.

I especially liked the half-statue:
As evening set in, we all relaxed by the river and watched the boats go by. From left to right: Nora, Erik, Christine, Jeff and Milena.

I wish I could say the day ended from there. Unfortunately this was not the case, hence the "lows" in the title of this post. Like a herd, we all rushed back together to the train station to catch a ride back to Vienna. Well, we successfully caught the train, but I didn't flawlessly jump onto the train. I missed a step onto the train from the platform and my right leg went between the steps. I thought I had just scraped my shin and wasn't worried about it since I was wearing long jeans. When we finally found seats, I swallowed hard and finally looked at what I had done to myself. Somehow, I had hit the metal so that a small hole was right near my shin bone. I'm not one to get nauseous at the sight of blood (it wasn't even bleeding, which surprised me) but I can always expect nausea with even slightly deep wounds. My friends all asked if I was okay, and I thought I was. I just wanted to close my eyes and allow for the nausea to pass. I felt like I drifted into a deep sleep, but soon I was awoken by the faraway voices of people calling my name and questions of "is she epileptic". And why, I wondered, were people shaking me awake? According to Nora, right after I talked to her about wanting to sleep, I slumped over in my seat, turned a shade of yellow, my eyes rolled back into my head and I started convulsing. After my hearing slowly came back and could respond, I assured people that I was fine. There was a crowd of people around me, they had stopped the train and there was a doctor waiting at the next stop at the Austrian-Slovakian border. Wow. Talk about making an exit. One kind man spoke a fair amount of English and helped to clean my leg and bandage it with gauze. I didn't want to take my chances with any doctor from a small border town though, so I assured everyone I could make the last 45 minutes back to Vienna. And I did, without further episode. Being the great people they are, our new found friends stayed with us and helped us find the emergency room in Vienna. Christine, from Texas, is into international studies and is completely fluent in French and knows a lot of German. She was instrumental in talking to our German-speaking taxi driver to get from the train station to the hospital. After arriving and seeing all of the people that were ahead of us, we opted to send out a "hunting party" for food. Erik and Jeff returned in no time with two pizzas and we ate and talked for 2 hours until the doctors finally called me. After the collective gasp of 3 doctors at my shin, I had to get an x-ray to make sure I hadn't chipped the bone. Luckily I hadn't. So using the little English they knew, they told me they'd have to clean the wound and asked if I wanted a stitch. The only bad thing though is that they roughly cleaned my wound and it disturbed me that two doctors held down my jerking leg while the other rubbed cleaning solution onto the wound. When they asked about the stitch, I had a nagging feeling that they weren't going to use pain medication beforehand. I was undecided, so still in the rushing order that they were in, they simply concluded that I didn't need a stitch, put some cream on my leg and rebandaged it. I was in and out in the span of 5 minutes. I did get a pair of crutches though, which helped me immensely since my leg was swollen and not wanting pressure applied to it.

It was finally at about 11pm that we were able to head back to our hostel. Christine and Milena took a train back to their dorms while Jeff and Erik escorted Nora and I back to our edge-of-town living quarters.

The next day Nora and I explored other parts of Vienna. We checked the internet in the morning and I was surprised to see that there was a scheduled performance at the Spanische Hofreitschule, aka the Spanish Riding School, in only a few hours. Using the metro again, we made it there easily and I was able to buy a standing room ticket for only 22 Euros! I was delightfully surprised with the spot I got on the second level balcony area. And the school arena itself - WOW! It brought tears to my eyes. It had such a quiet and old beauty. The arena being about 450 years of age, I could easily imagine that the hall being filled with royal court instead of tourists. I would have taken many more photos, but they were very strict on not allowing photos or video. But me being me, I was able to grab a few (for the blog of course!).

_______________________________________________________________

note: The rest of this post is still on my computer because as I was working on the rest of it, my connection went dead. Some virus has struck my computer again. I can access internet connection through Skype and chat channels, but my browsers are blocked. So I'm dropping my computer off at the shop today. I have my blog saved in a Word document, but no way to get it off my computer until I have internet. Let's hope it will be in the "hospital" only briefly. (I'm posting this "saved" copy of the blog from a school computer).

Overall, things have been well. Midterms are next week so this weekend is my studying time. Busy, busy, busy.

San Gimignano and Austria!

2008-10-09T11:22:00.001-07:00

I'll have to make this short and sweet for the moment, because I have a train to catch to Vienna, Austria in an hour. Last weekend's trip to San Gimignano was incredible!!! The above photo is moi on the highest tower in the small Italian hill town. What a view!! I'd write more, but I'll let the photos speak for themselves until I have time to write more. I return from Austria on Sunday. Ciao!!

photos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/42077052@N00/sets/72157607881786004

Love,
Britt

Museo Nationale del Bargello tourist day

2008-10-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

Through Daniel, I met a new friend a few days ago. Nora also goes to my school and we share the fact that neither of us have traveled much since arriving in Florence. So today, we both got together to do some tourist stuff. We stopped by a few fountains for photos outside the Uffizi Gallery.

golden "statue" man and me

stone "statue" man and Nora - she was amused and scared at the same time

right outside the Uffizi Gallery

the false David under restoration

Mr. Leonardo outside the Uffizi Gallery

We considered going to the Uffizi Gallery, but the long line dissuaded us. Perhaps another day when we can get reservations! We ended up going to the Museo Nationale del Bargello to see sculptures of Vincenzo Danti, who studied under Michelangelo:

(not by Danti, but impressive nonetheless)

Florentine coats of arms from time that building was built, I cannot recall the exact date

Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1570) - Danti's "absolute masterpiece"

the courtyard of the museum - it made me really feel as if I was in another time

After spending a few hours in the museum, we found a great pizzeria nearby and went for gelato afterwards. I thoroughly enjoyed mine, especially since they put a mini cone on top!

We also walked by a fantasy/game store. We went in and found a large room in the back where a group of Italians were playing a card game of World of Warcraft. I have no idea how to play the card game, but it made me smile regardless. At least I'm familiar with it through the video game version!

I returned home to find host mum Elisabetta cooking squash in traditional Japanese garb. Now *that's* culture for you. She most likely uses it in her Tai Chi classes but she looks fabulous while cooking in it too!

Tomorrow, Nora and I are headed to San Gimignano. It's only an hour and 1/2 train ride. Our train leaves at 8:10am so we're planning on making an entire day of it.

Coldplay, Italia Style

2008-10-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

an overly excited Daniel and I during Coldplay's "Yellow"

The concert was even more that I expected - Chris, Jonny, Will and Guy (collectively Coldplay) were flawless and delivered such a high-energy performance that it didn't matter if every one of the Italians in the 10,000+ crowd could understand their lyrics. There were lasers, translucent curtains, backdrops of famous paintings, video spheres, light spheres, smoke machines and confetti in the shape of butterflies. My friend Daniel danced and sang along with me. We ended up getting a great general seat location. I say "general" because we didn't actually sit in our assigned seats. If the stage was at 12 on a clock in a fairly round stadium, our seats were assigned at 7 in the second level. After hanging out on the railing though to take photos of the pre-concert crowd, we were able to slip into seats that were at about 10. We were looking right down on the stage! And judging from the shoving mass of the crowd on the ground, I'm glad we had a safe and comfortable perch. It definitely made for better photos! I took a ton of both photos and videos, but the videos are proving to take much longer to upload than I thought. More of my favorite shots:

And the rest of the concert photos are at http://flickr.com/photos/42077052@N00/sets/72157607610338093/

Futurshow Station was about a 15min drive from the heart of Bologna. We paid 2.90euro for a special bus pass for it. It was hard to get on the first bus because of the sheer amount of people waiting. But coming back? Now THAT was an experience. It has been said that Italians don't know how to properly "queue". I can believe it now. With many people coming out of the stadium and eager to return into town, the bus line simply wasn't supplying frequent enough buses. The result? After missing a VERY packed bus, Dan and I waited about 30min for another bus. Still pumped with concert energy, I assured Dan we WERE going to get on this bus, despite the crowd of 70-80 people around us also waiting for the bus. Even as the bus was crawling up the curb, the swarm of people starting pulsing forward to it. So I grabbed Dan's hand and rushed towards the bus. People getting onto the bus were not simply "getting on". It was more like compressed air pouring into a vacuum. I was squished tightly for a few seconds, but I was able to tug my way onto the bus. I was very surprised I didn't crush the rolled up Coldplay poster I had purchased! Poor Dan had a slight problem with the people being packed closer than sardines in a can, but he made it ok. I didn't mind at all because everyone was still smiling from the concert and I could hear bits of Coldplay songs being sung in Italian accents all around the bus.

We had arrived by train in Bologna around 2pm. Since the concert started at 8pm, we had some time to explore the city.

I wasn't sure just what to think of the fountain's feminine figure underneath Neptune

statue of Garibaldi

We stayed in Bologna overnight at a youth hostel. Only 17 euros each! I shared a 4-bed room with one other visitor from Canada. It was very similar to a standard college dorm room:

The next day, I was VERY proud to show off my concert shirt. I love the design of it!

Since returning from that successful outing, school has been going fine and the homework load has been light. I'm not sure of my plans this weekend, but I'm tossing around a few ideas between friends. Off to dinner now with my host mum - she has been brewing vegetable soup for an entire day now. Yum!!

Coldplay on the horizon

2008-09-26T04:43:00.000-07:00

Nothing new to report this week - just a usual week of classes. Or perhaps, if I wasn't so excited about next Monday, maybe I would have something cutely observational to report, but I'm speechless (or rather, typeless). On Monday the 29th, I make my way to Bologna, Italia, to see my favorite band Coldplay in concert at Futurshow Station. I purchased the tickets about three months ago and have been eagerly anticipating this since. My adventure partner for the day is school-friend Daniel, who hails from the University of Hawaii. There was no way I wanted to miss their 2008 tour, and since I was obviously going to miss them in North America, an Italian tour stop just seemed a natural pick. I'll be missing a club soccer game Monday night, but I'm sure the concert will make up for it.

I just got back in from a run along the Arno. It's quite cool out today at 64*F and very windy, but I find it refreshing. I'm still sore from my last soccer game on Wednesday (we won with quite a few goals!) so a run was the best thing for me today. Tomorrow, there's a Florence soccer game that I have a ticket for, so I'll be checking it out with a few friends.

So all in all, much more exciting things to come!

Italian rugby? oh yeah!

2008-09-20T17:04:00.000-07:00

So I did something very different today - I attended a rugby festival today put on by the Old Rugby Club/Ribolliti Firenze. All the players were aged 50yrs+ and it was both exciting and amusing to boot! Mind you, these men were not galloping slowly after the ball in arthritic states....ooooh no. This was full contact take-out rugby! It was my first rugby game I've seen played and it made my day. I brought along my camera and documented the events both in video and photo.

The video may be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KKYmJ1uUuo

And more of the photos here:

After the game was over, I explored more of the surrounding area since I had not yet trekked the stadium area of Florence. There was a fantastic metal bridge that crossed over the railway tracks and I paused there for a few more photos.

And my own little study of a home's doorway along the way.

I also came across a park surrounded by apartments where kids were having fun on playground equipment and there was a fenced-in area for football (soccer) play. After watching from behind the fence for awhile, I was invited to join in and had a great time taking part in the 6 vs. 6 game. I was invited back for another game tomorrow, which I look forward to immensely. Of course they're all local residents and speak mainly Italian so my communication skills are extremely limited, but with the few words that I know and the shared love of the game, it went fairly smoothly. Here's for sports crossing cultural boundaries!

Fiesole, Florence from above

2008-09-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I had a mini adventure with two friends from school. They were in a photo class that required them to take photos of landscapes, and since there were none to be had in the city of Florence, we took a 30min bus ride up to Fiesole.

A short history of the town taken from fiesole.com:

" Fiesole is of Etruscan origin, as may be seen from the remains of its ancient walls, and was probably founded in the 9 C BC. One possible reason for the prosperity of Etruscan and Roman Fiesole could be its location near a ford over the Arno close to where Roman Florence (Florentia) would rise. Fiesole's location also made it strategic for travellers on all the main roads between southern and central Etruria to the south (covering large parts of present day Tuscany, Umbria and Latium) and the Etruscans in the area around the Po valley to the north.

The Romans conquered Faesulae, as Fiesole was then known, in 283 BC. Under Roman rule, it became the seat of a famous school of augurs, and every year twelve young men were sent here from Rome to study the art of divination. Rome typically drew heavily on the Etruscans for priests and augurs. Sulla colonised it with veterans, who afterwards, under the leadership of Manlius, supported the cause of Catiline. Near Fiesole, the Vandals and Suevi under Radagaisus were defeated (405) by hunger rather than by the troops of Stilicho. A considerable number of interesting finds from the Etruscan period - urns, bucchero, clay and bronze statues - together with other objects from Roman times are to be found in the Museum near the archaeological zone.

During the Gothic War (536-53) Fiesole was besieged several times and in 539 Justinus, the Byzantine general, captured it and razed its fortifications. In the early Middle Ages, Fiesole was more powerful than Florence in the valley below, and many wars arose between them. In 1010 and 1025 Fiesole was sacked by the Florentines, and its leading families obliged to take up their residence in Florence."

What a view of the countryside from the city!!!

I love the sign there

We even came across a few quirky things in English, which always entertain me to no end.

Italian "puppies"

a pub sign (don't ask, I don't know!)

More historically though, we came across an ancient Etruscan tomb. It wasn't closed off, which surprised me. Text from a sign near the site:

" This important archaeological site dates back to the Hellenistic age (III II B.C.), and was in use up until the Late Imperial age, although some finds from high levels of the diggings that had subsequently accumulated inside the tombs indicate that it was also used in a later period. These tombs are the only surviving testimonials of the necropolis that, in Etruscan and Roman times, was situated immediately outside the walls and at the sides of the roads leading into the town. The tombs at Fiesole are composed of two rectangular shaped chambers, built by placing huge, very thick, squared up blocks of "pietra serena" or local; grey stone one on top of the other without mortar. The smaller chamber appears to be underground, as it is carved of of the difference in the level of the rock, which the other is completely open to the eye. The urns of parellelepipedal shaped coffins in stone were stopped by covers with an inclined surface on either side and placed on stone benches inside the tombs. The Romans instead used terracotta cinerary urns with a concave handled cover. The relative finds can be dated as from around I A.D."

It was fascinating to be able to walk around and actually touch the stones of this tomb. Luckily the youth had not chosen to graffiti the stone like they do on so many buildings in Florence.

being right in the tomb!

my friend Becky in the tomb

area of tomb

And a few other snapshots from around the city:

(luckily it didn't rain!)

blooms outside residence

statue in wall of a residence

statue in the square of town...of course I'd focus on the horse!

Once I returned to Florence and parted ways with my friends, I decided to explore a little more. I came upon the cutest toy store! It was so much more charming than huge, imposing Toys R Us stores in the US:

And that was only the Lego section! There were similar little enclaves for model cars, Barbies, anime models, etc etc. The store seemed more of a set of toy-filled caverns. And I found an Italian way of teaching boys at young age to live up to the "Italian stallion" mentality that is SO common here:

I had a good laugh from that. And just for my good internet friend Alphess, a lover of fine European cars, I photographed some models of Lambos. (Sorry I didn't see any real ones yet! I'm still keeping my eyes open for them - promise!)

I also wandered into a video game/movie store and couldn't help but take a snapshot of this too:

Well hey, it made me smile. :) Other things that are purely European:

I wanted to buy everything! *yum*

And finally, the return home from this wonderful day was equally nice because I went walking by the Duomo at about 7pm, just when the setting sun lit up the buildings in a glorious golden light:

Yesterday, my host "mom" Elisabetta made whole roasted apples that were stuffed with raisins and sweet goodness. It was a great end to a party with her, her two friends, her daughter and me. Don't be fooled by the slight blackness on top - they were absolutely heavenly!!!

Not much went on today except classes. But I did walk by a protest of sorts going on outside a gallery. Not sure if they were trying to include the gallery in their protests, but their signs indicated they were protesting against the rising costs of bread and pasta, among other daily foodstuffs of Italians. It was a peaceful rally, with about 10 flag holders, a few sign holders and one man speaking over a loudspeaker. The police were standing near, but they seemed relaxed and even slightly bored. It was interesting though. There were three or four photographers standing around and even a few video cameras.

And I will leave you for now with an image of dozing pigeons, just because, and also it's a 'thanks for reading my long post'!

No translation needed

2008-09-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

Except for meeting and conversing with a few tourists at small night clubs this weekend, I haven't done anything exotic. All of my recently-made school friends were on trips to Pompeii, hiking the Alps, among other things. I thought I would be sick, so I stayed put. It makes for a lonely weekend though. My host family has had their share of busy duties also, so I've been mainly just sticking by myself. I have noticed though that it's harder to find people to do things with because I live without peer roommates, unlike many of my fellow roommates. I do get a good sense of what being a foreigner is with living here, but at the same time I crave some meaningful conversation with other people. It's difficult to do so at home, with me knowing hardly any Italian but again, I know I'm here to work on it. It's a process, that's for sure.

So I went out for a walk today and came across a new "friend". Oh how I've missed animals. I came across an Italian cat today near a car, and I leaned down to say hello. He immediately trotted over to me, and we spent the next 15 minutes just hanging out. I sat on a bench corner, and he plopped into my lap and we just sat together for a few minutes like old friends. An elderly Italian man came over and said a few words to me, but the cat and I just looked up at him and couldn't understand a word. I smiled though, just like a foreigner does. At least I know "ciao". Photos to come later.

Salamanca and the rain

2008-09-12T10:14:00.001-07:00

Woke up this morning with a cruddy and sore throat, so I spent the day mostly lounging in bed except for making a bus trip to school to check on a class schedule and then stopping by Coop, the local supermarket. I love the aisle signs - some roughly translated in English for foreigners:

need a chiropractor? see backery, aisle 19

yest: part of a balanced diet

umm, does that mean bandages? I have no idea

What's also interesting about Coop is when the checkout person starts charging your items, they look at you blankly. I've learned this means, "Do you need a bag?" Many people bring their own bags and so do not need plastic ones to be supplied. Usually I have my backpack with me, but I didn't today, so I smiled meekly and simply said, "Yes, bag." So for all my items, 20 euros worth, I got one bag. I awkwardly filled it to the max and was dismayed to see a tear in the bag. I gestured and it and look pitiful, and the lady was kind enough to give me another bag. With both arms supporting the load, I made my way outside to the bus stop, and it was pouring rain. A huge lightning bolt on the horizon greeted me when I walked outside. Luckily, I just happened to be wearing my floppy sun hat, so it acted as a bit of an umbrella. Walking the last few yards from bus stop to apartment, two older Italian men spotted me, grinned, pointed to their heads, and said "Yes, umbrella hat nice!" It made me grin also.

After drying off a bit, I scarfed down some multivitamin juice, salmon deli-slices and oranges and felt immensely better. That was the extent of the day so far, but last night, well that was much fun also!

Upon being invited out by my classmate Dylan, who has been here in Florence for a year so far, I found a small Spanish/Brazilian club called Salamanca. And when I mean small, I mean the bar took up most of the space in a room that could have imaginably been an apartment's living room. There was one small side room also where people could sit and actually hear one another talk. It was amusing to hear the Macarana being played loudly and no one giggling or attempting to make fun of the dance. Lots of 90s American radio music being played, but there was also some Spanish reggaeton, which I was surprised to recognize. What impressed me most was the tiny area that was the "dance floor." Two things made it very European: a fog machine and green lazer-line projection machine. Oh, and also a strobe light but that's a default. Walking through that small area was surprisingly intense. I don't even see why people are interested in taking drugs to enhance effects like that. I had a hard enough time walking a straight line, and I hadn't even ingested a drop of alcohol. Whoa. Fun though. See for yourself:

Looking to conserve my euros once again, I decided to try just one specialty drink, a Mojito, thinking that a little Spanish bar might make an awesome one. But of course, as with many places looking for profit, I was dismayed to see the bartender fill the glass to the brim with ice. So for the little Mojito I actually had, it was great! As I ordered it, I had a glance at the bartender then also at his coworker who was serving people at the opposite side of the bar. I had a double-take. "Oh wait, are you guys...twins?" He flashed a grin, handed me my drink then winked with a nod. I thought it was pretty neat to have a twin pair of very laid back and personable bartenders (Marco and Paolo) at a little dance club, and at the end of the night, they were kind enough to pose for a quick photo behind the bar.

I really enjoyed the bar also because it had no cover-charge and was not on the drink-card system that I've read is common to many Florence nightclubs. With that system, you are assigned a small card when you enter, and each time you order a drink, they stamp it. When you leave, the stamps are tallied up and you pay then. The catch is though that if you lose this little unassuming card, it takes about 50 euros to make up for it. More on that once I finally run into that situation.

So for tonight, I'll keep sipping my vitamin C juices and take it easy. Perhaps if I feel better in a few hours, I'll explore again.

And I'm not sure just how many of my friends are actually following these daily musings of mine, so please, if you stop by here, leave a note! I'd love to hear your thoughts. :) Click "comments" right below.

<3 Britt

Thursday is the new Friday

2008-09-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

Last classes of week were today, so it's a three day weekend for me! Now...what to do with myself? I don't feel like shipping off to some remote location by train yet. I still feel like there's much to do in this city - I just need to find things. I definitely should do more of what I did after class this afternoon: window-people watch. It's quite hilarious! Where else but Italy would a male go to a very chic salon to get his nails done?

When I got out of class at 5:30pm, I was absolutely famished but wanted to conserve my euros, so I found a little Chinese takeout place. It's disheartening when even a Chinese man can speak Italian, and I can't. After much gesturing and pointing, I settled with some lo mein and rice. The man didn't understand me saying "lo mein". How can he not know lo mein? I thought that was Chinese. :( I decided to not go with the literal "fried fish"....

The little fishies were smiling at me. Slightly disturbing.

I did meet some new people today in my Intercultural Communication class today, which I most likely will be spending time with tonight. I haven't really gone anything at night yet. But I did hear of another student at my school that went to a club, and foolishly took an inhale of a "cigar" that was being passed by friends of the performing musical artist. Ends up this seemingly normal cigar held something other than tobacco because the guy ended up wandering mindlessly for 6 hours and his friends found him 4 miles away from his apartment in the wee hours of the morning. What a way to start the semester. Hopefully it was a learning experience for him. Scary.

Other than class, the days have been uneventful for me. Although I've been doing the 20min bike ride to and from campus for the last 4 days, I wanted to change things up a bit today so I took the bus. Here's a shot off the bus windows as it was pulling up to the stop:

Last night, my school held a free dinner for students that consisted of little pastries, little bread pieces, and deli meats. Pretty adorable and very Italian. Oh, and there was cheap wine also. :) Couldn't argue with the setting though - right on the grassy edge of the Arno River right near a beautiful old bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, that was built in its current form in 1345. I believe the dinner area is actually a private club for rowers and their boats were stationed right near by. We were tempted to take one out for a spin but decided to be good (would be a shame to get in trouble so early in semester!).

First day, then a break

2008-09-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

my favorite poster graffiti on a wall near my school

First day of school on Monday went very smoothly. Started class at noon, and except for a few breaks, I had class until 8:30pm. Very weird to walk out of class and into the night, in the middle of a busy city with multicolored lights and people relaxing outside small cafes. Web Design class lasted 2.5hrs, but went by in no time. Very modern Mac desktops with Photoshop CS3 and Fireworks and Dreamweaver, just like at my college at home. I had to take a photo of myself through the computer's webcam for the professor, and that is now my profile picture on here. Today, strangely enough, was a free day with no classes, so I wandered through the streets and struck up conversion with street vendors. One was from Sicily and another from Romania. Both had fascinating little stories to tell and were very friendly and welcoming. I also achieved my goal of wanting to buy some Italian indoor soccer shoes - both for playing in school soccer leagues here and for wearing around. It took ages to find some that were affordable. Things, especially shoes, are extremely expensive here. Everyone wears fashion bling-bling. So many gold shoes, it's very weird. More fun stories to come tomorrow, I'm sure. :)

a man steers his boats to a dock on the Arno

nothing more refreshing than a beautiful morning bike ride - the Duomo is the large dome

Florence at night

2008-09-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

After having dinner at a small pizzeria, I biked a bit along the Arno River for awhile to celebrate the night right before school starts tomorrow. I came across a large group of people standing in the street and leaning against stone columns near one of the bridges while listening to pumping music. Turns out it was a club that is very popular on Sunday - yet another radical change from Georgia. It's too hot for people to cram inside the club, so everyone just takes their drinks out into the street. I hopped up onto a stone fence and enjoyed the river breezes while I sketched out a picture of the people and the reflection of the lights off the water. Here's to a great school semester starting tomorrow.

city life

2008-09-06T09:29:00.001-07:00

I finally got my hands on a rental cell phone today, which will help me much especially when school starts. A few of my school friends here decided they were going to search out an Italian beach today, but I declined and decided to rather get a few errands done instead. I also trekked around the city for about 7hrs with a bike that my host mum is loaning me. It doesn't have any gears to switch to, but it works. So I got a workout today while exploring at the same time. Some views of what I came across:

a woman's chalk painting in the middle of a heavily traveled pedestrian area

a random street I turned down into with my bike while exploring

photos, finally!

2008-09-06T05:23:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of my shots from the past two days. I am SO happy I have a card reader now, although it took a few employees at an electronic store having to track down a fellow English-speaking coworker to figure out just what I was saying/looking for. More photos to come soon.

the Arno River, which borders Florence to the south. I bike over this each day on my way into town.

another view of the Arno

my bike path along the Arno

let's not forget rows upon rows of scooters, which rule the city

my cute, narrow room

desk area

view from bedroom window

living room

waiting for the start

2008-09-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to starting school more and more. It ends up that I don't start orientation until tomorrow, and then school finally starts on the 8th. I love the "mum" I'm living with, Ms. Elisabetta Vannini. She speaks Italian, Spanish, French and English. Out of the languages that I can speak also, she's much more comfortable with French than English, so it's neat that I'm relying on my French much more than I thought I would. We speak about 70% French and 30% English. Her daughter Alice seems very cool (has a ton of American movie posters in her room like Pulp Fiction) but I haven't met her yet.

I'm getting to know the city of Florence little by little. I learned yesterday that you really must pay attention which way the bus is headed when it stops at a location. I was so excited that a bus was my line number (#31, #32, #33) that I immediately hopped on it yesterday. It took me way out of town into tiny suburbs. When I started to lose sight of large buildings and churches, I knew I was in the wrong place. The bus got to the end of the line, everyone got out, and I was still just sitting there. So I cautiously asked the bus driver if the bus would be returning into Florence. And of course I asked in English. He shook his head, crossed his arms, and I gathered from his Italian that he only spoke French and Italian. Another test for my French. I don't think he was impressed though, cause he just tapped his watch in my face and counted out the 10 minute wait with his fingers then walked away. I just meekly walked back onto the bus and selected a back seat. Finally, 20 min later, I was back into town. An interesting experience nonetheless. Luckily though I learned from it and the 3-4 times I used the line again, I haven't picked a wrong direction line.

I was suppose to have my first day of orientation today, but when I showed up this morning, they indicated to me that my school region goes tomorrow, and students more in the northeastern US went today. So I had a healthy, wandering walk about the city and then (successfully!) found my way back to the apartment on Via B. Accolti again. My feet need to toughen up a bit...they're use to being car-pampered. So I slept for 5 hours. Overall, a good and relaxed day.

Tomorrow is orientation and I also need to track down a digital SD card reader for my camera. I remember specifically putting it in my suitcase, but I switched suitcases before leaving home so alas, I don't have one now. Need...photos...photo-imaging brain...is...thirsty....

Ciao Firenze!

2008-09-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

flying into Florence/Firenze

Made it successfully into the city via my connection in London just fine. Had a thrilling time with the taxi driver from the airport. I didn't even know it was possible to zoom down these narrow streets in tandem with other vehicles, but he pulled it off! I got about 3 hours of sleep on my 8hr flight from Atlanta to London. British Airways was a pleasure to fly with, just as they say. There's something adorable about classical music playing during boarding. Even more so when we bump onto the runway in London, and the second we do, the music bursts out in an orchestral trumpet. Oh, the British. I love them so. Tomorrow I head to the Lorenzo De.Medici (LDM) housing office where they.ll set me up with my family stay. Staying in the heart of Florence for a night in a hotel is a fun experience, but I.m looking forward to making some friends here and not just being another strange face in the traveling crowd.

Until then...

near the London airport

taking a train from one London terminal to the other, and of course it's raining in Britain. go figure.