happy hanukkah!

So since I got back from London, things have been very relaxed. I should be working more on my papers, but I'm a procrastinator...we all know this. In my mind, they will be very simple to write. I know that once I actually start they will be fairly simple actually. They won't win any Pulitzer Prizes, but they will get me a decent grade. Truthfully I'm more worried about presenting them to my teachers. I have to sit with each of them and talk about what I wrote. I hate talking to teachers about papers. I would rather they just read it and give it back to me, no questions, no suggestions. Talking to them individually makes me very nervous and I can never explain what I was trying to say accurately. Oh well, I have some time before that goes down.

In the few days after London, I was so worn out I didn't really leave the apartment at all, so lately I've been trying to push myself to go out and do at least one thing everyday. Even if its just taking a quick walk, every little thing counts. Since I only have 2 weeks left, I want to enjoy every moment of Venice that is possible.

Last Tuesday was a long day because of my art class. I knew when I woke up that I had to be prepared physically and mentally for the day. We started at 11 am and ended at 7 pm. Yea it was long. First, we went to the Salute, which is a church in the Dorsoduro section of the city. It is amazing. It is definitely my favorite church in the city. It is completely Baroque in style, which is a style I'm in love with. After exploring the church for a few hours, we got lunch at this local cafe. Apparently, in the 60's a lot of famous artists used to go there so that was kind of cool. After lunch, we headed to the Accademia Gallery. I had already been there, but wanted to have Elena show me around and it was free :) I remembered a lot of the painting from the first time I walked through, but having someone personally guide you around and talk about them changes things a lot. You really have a better appreciation of the works. There are so many works that I love in that place and I wanted to buy postcards of them, but they didn't have any of the pieces that I liked. It was very sad. After Accademia, I went to Ca D'Oro because it is free the last Tuesday of the month. It is a smaller art gallery that I was planning on not seeing because of the entrance fee. When I found out it was free, I jumped at the chance to go. The gallery was pretty interesting. I was really interested in the sculptures that were there. There was also a concert that night. It was a group of people playing ancient Venetian music with things that sound like flutes and recorders I guess. It was pretty cool. I was so tired from the day that I started to fall asleep in the middle of it.

The next day I had class and was a bit unprepared for it. I was supposed to have more research done for my paper, but whatever. Later that night, I went with some people to watch them light a huge menorah in the middle of the Campo Ghetto Nuovo. We got there a bit early, so they invited us into the synagogue to get warm. We ended up meeting a few people from Australia and Israel so that was cool. After the lighting they had a small party with food and dancing. The dancing was a bit crazy because we didn't know the dances. The food was fantastic! I was introduced to latkas, which are potatoes and onions put together, and I couldn't get enough. They also had these amazing donuts and cakes. It was pretty awesome. After that, we went back to the synagogue to continue the party. They played games with the kids and we talked to some more people. We also got to watch this video about the Jewish history which was made for kids so it was really funny to me. Then we got to eat more good food! They had meat, and hummus, and pita, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I was excited. Oh and I got a free menorah. I haven't been lighting it every night because I don't have matches, but its pretty cool.

Other than my Jewish craziness, I've just been "working" on my papers. I have been doing some research everyday and hope to finish them early so I can enjoy my last week. Thats about it. Thanks for reading! Ciao.

ANDY RODDICK!

Sorry about the obnoxious title, but I couldn't really name this post anything else.

Let's see whats been going on. School wise things are going well I guess. I have to write two papers before I leave and I'm kind of worried about getting them done. There are a limited number of books in English at the school, so its been a bit difficult trying to find enough information to start. I'm sure I'll get them done though. I always do! Last Thursday I had my art class again. The school has been having problems with having classrooms for everyone so we decided to take a field trip. Since we didn't have to be at the school at a certain time, Elena decided to start at 11 am. I was like cool, we'll finish early and I can have the afternoon free to do stuff. Wrong! The class lasted 6 hours! We walked around Santa Maria Gloriosa di Frari and Scuola di San Rocco. It was a fabulous introduction to Venetian painting with each place housing works from Titian and Tintoretto and a whole host of other great people. So I was happy to have Elena there explaining things to me, but it was a little excessive. When it was over I had to walk home in the rain and then I made dinner and went to bed. It was a very long day.

The next day I went to see Harry Potter. OMG! I'm not really that big a fan, but I've seen all the movies and wanted something to anyway. I was super nervous about it being in Italian. I went with the other group of American study abroad students and it was nice to have some people to talk to. A couple of them are huge HP fans and decided to use the Venetian flag as a Gryffindor cape since the flag is gold and red and has a winged lion on it. It was pretty funny. I'm not sure the Venetians would approve lol. The movie was pretty good. I was able to get about 70% of it, so that made me quite happy. The part when Harry and Hermione kissed cracked me up. Sooooo awkward. But yea it was definitely better than the last one which bored the crap out of me.

The next morning I went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum because I'd never been and it was free for Venetians. Yes I know I am not technically a Venetian, but I have my IMOB card and that counts. So I was pretty excited. The place was so cool! There was a whole room filled with pieces by Jackson Pollack! I could live in that room. What I love about his stuff is that it never gets boring. You can stand in front of it for however long you want and still find something interesting to look at. So fantastic.

After the museum, I packed for London. My flight was quite late, but it was at the airport in Treviso, which is about an hour outside of Venice. So I had to take a bus there and then wait some more. The flight went fine and I got to London at like midnight. I had to take another bus to central London which was like another hour. I got to London at like 1:30 am. Then I had to take another bus to get me closer to my hostel. Then I had to walk about 20 minutes to actually get to the hostel. So by the time I got there it was about 3 am. The hostel is considered a "party" hostel, but I booked it because it was super cheap. When I got there the room I was supposed to sleep in was pitch black and I didn't want to wake anyone so I had to find my bed and lock my stuff up only using my cell phone as a light. Ugh it was a bit rough. I also didn't have a pillow so that was pleasant. The next morning I had to get up semi-early to go to Wimbledon. I had to take the tube and then take a bus to the actual park. That took about an hour. It was fantastic to see it for the first time. It was much smaller than I imagined. Its crazy to think that so many people visit the event in the summer. I got to take a tour of the entire place. I got to see Centre Court, "Henman" Hill, the room where the players are interviewed, and the court where John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played the longest match ever. It felt great to be in this historic place and learn about how and why the tournament began. After the tour, I was able to go to the museum, which was also very interesting. A lot of the stuff was interactive so that was cool.

After my visit to Wimbledon I took the bus and the tube back to central London and decided to do some sightseeing before my first tennis match. I saw the London Eye, Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery. The National Gallery was fantastic because I got to see The Arnolfini Double Portrait, a painting I've been obsessed with for years. Its even more amazing in person. The detail that went into it is so crazy. I also go to the see Van Gogh's Sunflowers, which is one of my favorite paintings ever. Soo amazing. Its crazy that the whole museum is free. If I lived in London I would go like everyday.

After my bit of sightseeing, it was time to head to the O2 to watch some tennis! It took about an hour to actually get to the venue cause I took the bus and it the place was in North Greenwich. When I got there I was extremely excited. I knew it was going to be a great event within the first five minutes because I walked right past Justin Gimelstob. He is a former player turned commentator and "journalist." I didn't stop and ask for his autograph because he was in the middle of a conversation, but it was cool anyway to see him out and about. The first thing I did was find something to eat because I hadn't had anything all day. I decided since I was in London that I should try some fish and chips. So I got a cod and chips combo. It was pretty good. I had to put a fair amount of tartar sauce on the fish to make it pleasant, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. After that I made my way to my seat. Now when I bought these tickets, there was a warning about buying them if you have a fear of heights. I was scared to see exactly where they were because of this warning. Turns out they really weren't that bad. I was a little shaky at first, but got used to how high they were fairly quickly. The first match I watched was a doubles match and then I watched Roger Federer play. Live tennis is so different than watching it on TV. It is so silent during play. Like you could hear a pin drop. With TV, you have music and commentators talking through the points. Its quite crazy how different it really is. The Federer/Ferrer match was pretty boring because Federer won really easily. He is so arrogant it kills me. In his post match interview he pissed me off so much. I don't think he realizes how pompous he actually sounds. I guess you get to be that way if you are "the greatest tennis player ever."

The following day was the greatest day ever! After I got up I went straight to O2 because I wanted to walk around the Fan Zone and I didn't want to be late for my matches. When I got there the Fan Zone wasn't open yet so I had to find something to occupy my time. I found a Starbucks and decided to get some coffee. Its Christmas time so they had their special blends going. I saw a thing for an eggnog latte and was like hell yes! It was one of the most fabulous things I've ever tasted. It was like heaven! I got a blueberry muffin as well, which was also quite tasty. After I finished those, it was about time for them to open the Fan Zone. Right when I walked up they removed the barriers and it was a rush to get seats at the practice courts. I didn't know who was practicing, but I had some time to kill and decided to see what happens. Robin Soderling was practicing! Now I've never really liked or disliked this player, but I was excited to get to watch him practice. He is pretty easy on the eyes as well, so that was good. After that I went to watch my first set of matches. When I walked into the arena and found my seat, I realized Novak Djokovic was warming up for his match so that was fun to watch. In the afternoon session, I watched a doubles match and then watched Djokovic play Berdych. It was a pretty easy match for Novak and was over quickly. He is the funniest player on the tour right now. I also love listening to his interviews. After the matches, the players sign the camera lens and instead of signing his name he drew a duck. I thought it was quite amusing. After that I had to leave the arena so they could prepare for the evening session. I decided to go back to the practice courts to see what was up. I sat for a while thinking that nothing was gonna happen but then Jurgen Melzer walked up to practice with his doubles partner. He is becoming one of my favorite players. He is also pretty easy on the eyes lol. So I watched them practice for a while and then it was time to head back into the arena for the last round of matches. As I went up to my seat, these were the worst seats I'd had. I was in row s and the rows only went up to row u. Yea it was pretty high. Anyways, I turned to look and see who was warming up and it was Andy! At first I was content just to sit and watch from my horrible seat, but then I thought maybe they would let me into the lower section to get a closer look. I was right! I was able to go really close and watch the end of his practice. AT this point, my hands were shaking and I was freakin out. I really didn't expect that to happen and I felt really embarrassed. I prepared my sheet of paper and marker to maybe get an autograph. As he finished practice and started walking over to the group of fans, I tried to worm my way through, but by the time I was able to he started walking away. I think at that point I said "please, please" kind of loudly. Not my finest moment, but whatever. I was super sad, but he was being rushed off the court so I understood. I also didn't even expect to be that close to him, so it was fine to leave without his signature. So after that I returned to my seat and calmed myself down a bit. I watched the nights doubles match and then got ready to watch Andy vs. Nadal. Now pretty much everyone thought Roddick was going to get killed. I actually someone behind me saying just this and it made me sad. As the match started, Andy was playing really well. He won the first set, and I was like he could actually win this! I wanted to turn around and yell "you were wrong!" to the person who doubted Andy lol. Then in the second set, as in most Roddick matches, he started to struggle and ended up losing the match in three sets. I guess I wasn't surprised since its becoming a Roddick trademark to get his fan's hopes up and then lose kind of badly. It was still a fantastic match and watching him play live was a great experience. Watching him on tv will never be the same again.

After the matches I was dreading leaving the arena. It meant the end of my tennis extravaganza and it meant that I had to ride the bus for an hour to get back to my hostel. I wanted something warm to drink for the trip and I had some money to get rid of so I decided to get another eggnog latte! Oh so good once again. I got back to my hostel pretty late and only got about four hours of sleep that night. I had to get up to catch the bus to the other bus to the airport. When I got to the airport, I had some more money to spend so what do you think I did? Right, I found the Starbucks and got another eggnog latte. This one was more for the caffeine and the fact that it would probably be the last one I have for a while. I flew home and when I returned to the apartment, I took a shower and went to bed right away. This was at about 5 pm. I slept until 9 am the next day. I definitely needed the rest.

Now I'm back to my normal life, with only memories of Andy Roddick swimming in my brain lol. I have about 20 days to write three papers, so I'm a little pressed for time. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading :) Ciao.

so much to tell

Ok so the last time I updated was about two weeks ago and a lot has happened since then. This might be a very long post! So...where to begin?

Two Tuesdays ago I had my art history class with my teacher Anna. She is great, but she talks sooo much. The class is only supposed to be two hours and we were walking around for about five. I'm actually learning a lot, but after about three hours my brain goes to mush. Oh well at least it gives me something to do. While we were walking around, she saw this restaurant that she likes and asked me if I had been there. I said no and she was like this definitely has to change. So after we got done looking at the third church she took me there. We had a really good fruity wine that I wish I could remember the name of right now. We ate mini pizzas and pizza dough stuffed with anchovies. Before that moment, I had never had anchovies in my life. They weren't horrible but they were sooo salty. It was the most amount of salt I've had since coming to Italy. I don't really think I'll order them in a restaurant willingly, but if offered them I guess I wouldn't turn them down. I need to start trying new things. Its the start of my new, I need to change a lot and try new things attitude.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. That Friday I finished the Italian language class. I got a certificate and everything! I am so happy to be finished although I don't know what I'm going to do with the ample amounts of free time I have. I guess I can dedicate most of my time to writing the papers for my classes. With only about five weeks left, I should probably start them. Also at the end of the week, a group of American study abroad students showed up at the school. They will be in Venice for a month and I told them to let me know if they ever go out and do something. So yay! I might not be as lonely for the last few weeks. Kinda crazy that there are only like five weeks left. It feels like such a long time, but I know that it will go buy super fast.

Last Saturday, I met up with one of the American study abroad students, Matt, to kind of show him around Venice. All the others went traveling because it was the start of their week break as well. We walked around Venice for like a million hours. Seriously it was crazy how much we walked. I think we hit like every corner of the city. I also realized that I know more of the city than I thought which was cool. In the evening, we ended up going to one of the bars near school. Matt wanted to meet some new Italian friends. Thankfully all the people we met spoke English so I didn't make a fool of myself.

Sunday I went to the opera. I'm not really a fan of opera, but I thought it would be fun to experience. I originally was only going to take a tour of opera house, but in the end I decided it would be much more fulfilling to actually experience a show. I saw "The Elixir of Love," which was actually pretty good. When I bought the tickets, they said that I would not be able to see very well and they were right. To see a small of the stage I had to scoot my chair all the way up to the one in front of me and like hover over the shoulder of the person in the seat. Luckily, the people working there realized that I was alone and found an empty seat for me with a perfect view of the stage. But yea the show was good. I'm totally amazed at the skill it takes to perform opera. Its crazy! One thing I didn't like was the fact that they would repeat a song if the audience clapped long enough. I mean I'm all for hearing more music and giving the singers praise, but when you stop and bow and then sing the same song it just takes you out of the plot of the show. I guess its normal for an opera, but it didn't sit well with me.

Monday I just visited more churches on the chorus pass. Visiting churches has become one of my favorite things to do. Its crazy how much detail and art are in these buildings. I hope that people that go to church in them know how lucky they are to be able to worship in this space.

Tuesday was the first day of my trip to Rome! I didn't sleep much the night before because I was worried about not waking up in time. My flight was pretty early and I had to take a bus to the airport. I flew with easyJet, which was really weird to me. The airline is very easy to use and pretty impersonal which I like. The weird thing was how you boarded the plane. So you go to your gate and wait for them to start boarding. You get to board, except you don't. You walk down and get on a bus, which then takes you to the plane. With easyJet they don't assign seats so when they open the bus tours its like a mad dash to the plane. Kinda fun, but kinda nervewracking. The plane ride to Rome was really quick which was good. When I landed in Rome I had no idea where to go. I knew I was supposed to take a train somewhere so I started tour them. As I reached the door to the train terminal I was stopped by a woman promoting bus shuttles. I thought it was a large shuttle bus and figured it might be cheaper than a plane and she seemed to know where I needed to go so I went with her. She leads me out to a black van, where like 4 people are already waiting. I was slightly nervous and felt like I was about to be kidnapped. But I went with it, fearing for my life the entire drive. Everything turned out okay with that though. They took us to Termini which is the main train station in Rome. From there I took a bus to some random piazza and walked the rest of my way to my hostel, of course getting lost a lot. The hostel I booked used to be a convent and it definitely had that feel. But whatever it was super cheap and I was only sleeping there. After I checked in, I left right away to start my sightseeing. I went to the Colosseum first because it was one of the main things I wanted to see. I bought a Roma Pass before I left which allows you free bus/metro travel in Rome and free entrance to the first two sites you visit. The Colosseum site included the Roman forum and everything around there so I thought I would get that free. The Colosseum was cool. It wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. I mean of course it was super huge and awesome to see, but I didn't get that awe-inspiring feeling. I did however get that feeling when I saw the Roman forum. It was incredible to see! It was monstrous and it was one impressive thing after another. I think I said wow about a million times. After the forum I walked to the Trevi Fountain, which is the main thing I wanted to see in Rome. It was marvelous. Pictures don't do it justice. It sucks that there are so many people by it all the time. I did the necessary tossing of coins into the fountain. After the Trevi, I went to find the Spanish Steps. They were pretty impressive to see. They were a pain in the butt to climb though. Its like a never-ending stairway. Eventually I made it to the top and witnessed the pretty sweet view. When I went back down to the bottom I realized I had used a photo of this very spot for some viscom projects last year which was pretty cool. I knew the pics were taken in Rome, but I didn't know exactly where. After the steps, I went to the McDonald's located in the Piazza di Spagna. It is the coolest McDonald's in the world! The bottom floor is a cafe and the top floor is the restaurant. Apparently it was the first McDonald's in Italy. There is an X-Box in the middle of the restaurant that kids can play on and it looks too fancy to be a fast food restaurant. After eating, it was dark so I decided to go back to the Trevi fountain. This turned out to be a fantastic idea. The foutain was even more fantastic after dark. After that I went back to the hostel and fell asleep at like 7:30 pm lol. I literally couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, I don't care how weird it looked.

The next day was Vatican day! I was super excited about this. Even though I'm not really religious anymore, it was something I grew up with and kind of a dream come true to be there. I had an appointment at the Vatican Museums at 11, so I went to St. Peters square at like 8 to have ample time to walk around and explore the Basilica. Seeing the place for the first time is crazy. Its so imposing and fantastic. I walked up the front of the Basilica and was told it was closed. My first thought was noooooo! This was the only day I could see it and I needed to see it right then! After a bit of confusion about when the Basilica would open again, the guard informs me that I can go to the dome of the church. I was like whatever that could be cool. So I paid 5 euro to climb the 551 steps to the top. Its a little over 300 steps to get to the large dome and see the inside of the church. You can only see a small amount of it because the landing doesn't reach all the way around and they have a fence around the area that you can walk on. I took a lot of pictures at weird angles through the fence because I thought this was the only chance to see the inside of the church. Boy was I wrong, but more on that later. After "seeing" the inside of the church, I climbed the rest of the stairs to the top of the dome. When I reached the top I literally said "Hallelujah!" My legs hurt so bad, but the views of Rome were completely breathtaking. When I looked out over the city I knew that I had made the right decision in paying to go up there. After that I went the souvenir shop on the top of the church. Yes they have a souvenir shop on the top of it. It made me laugh too. After the shop I made my way down the staircase allocated to people exiting the dome. The stairway led straight into the church! I was so confused. I was like how am I standing in the church when the guard at the beginning told me it was closed. So so so confused. Oh well...I decided to take advantage of it. After taking some pictures and being amazed by the incredible stuff in the church I noticed a fair amount of people coming into the church (again confused why the guard said it was closed) and decided to check out what was going on. At this point it was about 10:15 and remember I had an appointment at 11 in the museums. I walked up to a spot just in time to hear someone say the Pope was gonna be there any minute. What?! The Pope?! SWEET! So I was like I'll wait until 10:30 to see him and then book it to the museums since they are a little ways away from the church. 10:30 came and no Pope. So I decided to wait until 10:40. That time passed and still no Pope. Just as I was about to give up hope I hear the music and people start cheering and there he is! It was fantastic. Again, even though I'm not really religious anymore it was a dream to see him in person. I took like two pics and then had to book it to the museums. I reached them just in time to make my appointment. They are pretty much normal art museums, which was kinda disappointing, but there were a few highlights. As I was walking through the first few galleries, I started thinking about how Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" might be there. As I was thinking this I see a sign that says its been taken down because the room is being restored. Ugh sadness. One thing I was excited to see was "Laocoon," a statue I had learned about in one of my art classes freshman year. I didn't know it was in the Vatican museums, but it made me happy to find it there. Another highlight was the Sistine Chapel. Its like one of the last things they let you see on the way through so I was pretty happy to finally witness it. They don't allow pictures, but I strategically hid my camera and was able to get a pic of "The Last Judgment" and "The Creation of Adam." So cool to see in person. So yea, in total I was at the Vatican for about 5 hours. After that, I went to the train station to buy tickets for my trip to Montepulciano (where they filmed part of New Moon) which I would take the next day. At the train station, an Italian woman asked me to help her with the automatic ticket machine and I was able to do it all in Italian. I felt pretty accomplished. After that I went to a contemporary art museum. I mostly did it because I wanted to make sure I used my second free entry on my Roma Pass and I was getting a little sick of looking at older art. The museum I want to was called MACRO and it was pretty impressive. I love contemporary art cause none of it really makes sense. Like you feel like its simple and you could do it, but then you think about it or even try it and its impossible to actually do. I love it cause its amazing to see how others think and what they can come up with. I wish I was that creative! After that I went back to the hostel, read a bit, and went to bed.

The next day I had to get up early again, to make sure that I made my early train. I had to take a two hour train to Chiusi before heading to Montepulciano. I thought that the bus would take like 10 minutes to get there, but in reality it was like 40. So when I actually got to Montepulciano it was like 12:30. I had a train to catch back in Chiusi at 3:30. I was rushed for time. I wanted to find the clock tower from New Moon. The entire town is a huge hill. I wanted to get there fast but the hills were really rough. I finally made it to the square with the clock tower. I was pretty impressed since I didn't use a map. My legs were killing me but it was cool. It was sad to find out that the fountain that Bella runs through in the movie isn't actually real. But all the other background stuff in that scene is. I was stoked. Right after I saw it and went into the church in the square I had to trek back to the bus station right away. The bus I took back to Chiusi was like a school bus, so it was filled with kids giving me weird looks cause obviously I'm not usually there. After that it was another 2 hour train ride back to Rome and then an hour train to the airport. I don't know if that trip was really worth it but the views on from the train ride were awesome and now every time I watch New Moon I can say I've been there! When I got to the airport and checked in, I went to my gate. Sitting in the area were some Americans. I thought oh yay maybe I can talk to them and give them some tips about Venice to pass the time. After I sat down I realized I didn't want to talk to them because they were being so obnoxious. It really is true you can tell an American tourist by how loud they are. These kids were talking about how they were going to get drunk and high and be crazy. And they were even talking about how one of the kids in their group wasn't good at anything and he wasn't smart. They said all this after he left to get some food and it was so sad to here. So stupid to talk about a friend that way. I know I may talk about my friends when they are not around, but I would never say they aren't good at anything and aren't smart. Of course they are. Everyone is good at something! These kids just put more stock in having a good gpa and playing sports. Anyways after that was the plane ride and then I was back in Venice. I realized when I got back how much I missed it. It was a great feeling to have especially since I've been a bit bored and lonely here. I was happy to feel like I belonged and that it felt a bit like home :)

Wow that was a lot. Sorry I saved all that up until now. My next post will be about my trip to London and hopefully I'll tell you how awesome it was to see Andy Roddick play :)

Thanks for reading! Ciao.

its all about piazza san marco

So I guess the past week has been a bit boring, but thinking back on it, its actually been pretty good. Even though I haven't been that active I've started to really let myself find the beauty in the small things. Like walking home from school one day, Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley came on my iPod right as I was walking across the bridge over the Grand Canal at sunset. I just stopped on the bridge and watched and listened to the whole song. It was pretty incredible for me. Everything about Venice is gorgeous I don't know. I sound really cheesy but whatever.

Like I said life has been pretty boring. I've pretty much just been going to school, coming home, eating dinner, and going to bed. Which is fine. Its not like it is required that I go out and do something every hour of every day. Although I have made myself a promise that from here on out I'm going to go out and see something everyday. Even if its just something small. I want to be active and be excited about the city. If I don't get my rear in gear I know I will regret it when I go home. I'm trying to be careful though because money is tight...really tight. I think if I am stingy I will be able to make it out of here with money left in my bank account! Lets all cross our fingers lol.

I've been spending a lot of time in Piazza San Marco lately. I have no idea why. I always find myself back there. I hate all the tourists, but ever since I went there with my teacher for class it has become something so amazing. I think I could sit outside the Basilica and just stare at the mosaics and the marble for hours. Its breathtaking. Its something you need to see at least once in your lifetime. The Piazza is also something that is good to use to find other places. For example, I wanted to find this one landmark and it was semi-close to San Marco, so I went to San Marco first and took it from there. I guess its just an excuse to walk through the Piazza just one more time :)

Saturday was the first day of the week that I actually wanted to get out and do stuff. I decided I should use my vaporetto pass all that I could because I decided not to renew it this month. I wanted to visit the cemetery because its its own separate island and I wanted to see what it was like. Little did I know that this weekend was the weekend that everyone goes to the cemetery. Ugh I felt bad walking around just to watch, while everyone else was there to visit their loved ones and clean things up. Needless to say I didn't stay long. The place was pretty cool though. Every grave really reflected the personality of the person, or at least what their family thought of them. The worst part of the island are the sections where you walk over the some of the graves. It looks like a sidewalk so I didn't realize I was doing it at first. A lot of people were doing it, but I felt wrong about it so I jumped down to the ground to walk.

After the cemetery I went to the church at Redentore. I bought this thing called a chorus pass that allows me entrance to like 14 churches for like 7 bucks. It was worth it to me. The church was beautiful. It was pretty simple compared to others that I've seen. I wanted to kind of make my time worth while so after I walked around and looked at the paintings and details and whatnot, I just sat in one of the pews for a while. It was peaceful and I could really example the details. After that I went to look at the Scala Contarini Bovolo. Sadly, they are closed to the public which means I could go inside, but they were breathtaking anyway.

Yesterday, I decided I would head to the movies. I wanted to see a movie that I had already seen in English so that I would know what was going on. I decided on Inception because I wanted to see it again. I had to go to Mestre to see it and there were only two theaters showing the film and only one of those had a showing at the time I wanted to go. Obviously with my luck, I wrote down the address to the one that didn't have a showing until 10. I got to the theater at 6. Ugh. I decided to buy a ticket to Despicable Me, which showed at 8, in addition to the Inception ticket. So to kill the 2 hours I just walked around. Despicable Me was in 3D and the glasses they give you are sooo intense. They are monstrous and very heavy. I wish I could have kept them, but they were really crazy about getting them back. Luckily I took a picture of myself in them. The movies were weird too because they have assigned seats. You can't just sit anywhere you want. Which is whatever just different. I actually understood a lot of Despicable Me and liked the movie a lot. Inception was a little more difficult, but I already knew what was happening so it didn't matter. I'm pretty much in love with Joseph Gordon Levitt in the movie. I finished at the movies at like 12:45 and after that I walked back to the train station. Upon arrival I found out there were no trains back to Venice until like 6 in the morning. Yea I was not spending the night in the train station. Luckily I overheard a family talking to a police officer asking how to get back to Venice and he gave them directions on the bus they could take. Hallelujah! The universe was definitely helping me out there. So I took the bus and got to bed around 3. Happy Halloween to me!

its a coldplay kinda week

Wow so I've done nothing this week. After my trip to Verona, my legs hurt for about 3 days so I didn't want to do any walking. Monday after class I went to the small island of Torcello to look around because my art teacher told me to. I had also planned on seeing it, but this actually forced me to go do it. After missing the correct vaporetto stop I arrived at the church just in time to see it before they closed. I think the people were a bit angry that I actually wanted to go in. They looked like they were all ready to hit the road and be done with work for the day. Whatever...it took an hour to get there so I was definitely staying to look around for a few minutes. It was pretty cool. The floor is covered in this fantastic marble work. I wish I could have taken a picture of it. It was amazing. The rest of it just kinda looked like a typical church. When I was finished inside the church I walked around outside for awhile. It was a bit creepy because the place was completely deserted. Only about 30 people live on the island and I arrived after all the crowds, so it was a ghost town. I saw some beautiful orchards and got a closer look at the mountains. I started walking back to the vaporetto stop and felt like I was going to be murdered by a gang of cats. They were everywhere. It was a bit insane. I took a picture of 4 of them as they stared me down. I waited at the vaporetto stop for 30 minutes because they only run every half an hour. The sad thing is I could see it just sitting across the water waiting until the correct time. I was like I could just swim this and be there. Whatever I waited and had a photo shoot with the beautiful sunset. I got home an hour later and made my usual dinner of a blt and potatoes. Yummy.

Tuesday was kind of the most horrible day ever. Instead of having class on Thursday, I met with art teacher at Piazza San Marco to take a walking tour and get a bit of the history of the place. Class is usually only 2 hours, but this turned into a 4 hour excursion. After we finished my brain was filled to the brim with information and I kind of wanted to die. It was really interesting but overwhelming. I need to go back to the basilica to experience it without all this information being thrown at me. It is crazy how amazing the place really is.

Wednesday I had my history class which went the same as it always does. I'm nervous about the papers for both the art and history classes. I hate writing papers! I'm so bad at them. They always end up being filled with fluff and no actual content. I guess we'll see how they turn out. Ugh totally dreading them.

Other than that I really didn't do anything the rest of the week. I have been a little homesick lately and I'm not sure why. I guess I've just been thinking a lot about seeing my friends and stuff and I feel like I'm missing too much of their lives. Only about 8 more weeks though! Its crazy how fast time is going. In the beginning time was moving quite slowly but now I feel like I don't have enough time. I don't think my study abroad experience can live up to other peoples. I haven't done that much. I mean by my standards I have, but by others I don't know. Anyways now I'm just rambling. Sadly thats all I have to say about this week and whats been going on. Not exciting at all. Hopefully my next post will be more lively :) Ciao.

walking along the highway in italy is scary!

Wow...it has been a long and tiring week. As you all know I started Level 4 last Monday and its wearing me down. Not that the class is really that hard, I just feel like I should be doing better so that stresses me out. I feel like I should be way better at speaking, but I still get super nervous. Also, I have homework every night, which I didn't have for the first 4 weeks of classes. In addition to the stress of Level 4, I've been feeling the weight of my other two classes. I've never been good at history so my Venetian history class has been killing my brain. I mean its interesting when I hear it but I don't really care to remember it. My art class is kind of the same way. I love art and I love to hear about it, but I'm never good at remembering historical things about it. Although it has helped being able to see examples of the subjects in person. It makes it more real. I'm also thinking about the two papers I have to write. Thank goodness they are in English. They both have to be about 10 pages I think. I haven't written a paper in a while. I guess we'll see what happens.

Um...let's see. Oh yes I wanted to complain a bit about doing laundry. Why don't they have dryers here? I mean it just takes so much less time. At home if I need to wash something because I want to wear it the next day, it can happen. Now if I know I want to wear something and its dirty, I have to wash it like 3 days prior. Then I have to hang it on this thing thats pretty much like a clothes line to dry for days. Air drying your clothes is kind of like starching them. They get stiff and sometimes its not pleasant. Also they don't go back to their original shapes. I tend to stretch out my shirts when I wear them cause I pull on the bottom a lot. Without dryers they stay stretched out. Ugh.

This week I'm realizing how fun it is to talk about stereotypes with people from other countries. Everyone thinks that all we eat in the United States is hamburgers and all we drink is Coca-Cola. Obviously that is not the case. Sure they are popular but not for every meal every day. Pretty much everyday someone asks me a question about an American stereotype or if something they heard is real. Haha like my host. When we had dinner a few weeks ago, she brought up a book she'd read by John Grisham. The subject of this book had something to do with Christmas and in it he talks about how Americans have contests to see who can decorate their houses with the best lights/decorations. She was completely amazed when I said this was true. It was like a piece of her life was complete. Just makes me chuckle a bit to talk about these things.

Um something exciting this week is that I've lost 13 pounds! All this walking has been doing some good. Which brings me to my Verona story. I definitely did a lot of walking!

Lets start at the beginning. So the night before I was supposed to be asleep by 9 pm because the train left super early in the morning. Obviously this going to bed early thing didn't work and I really only got about 4 hours asleep. Surprisingly when I woke up I was really awake. Maybe from the excitement who knows. Anyways I got up, got ready, and left for the train station. Its really close and it was very nice walking around Venice when its pretty much abandoned. Its so peaceful and I didn't have to shove myself through large tourist groups. I got to the train station, so nervous I was going to miss the train or get on the wrong one, but I made it. It was the first time I've ever been on a train and I have to say I like it. Its easy and kind of relaxing and I can look out the window without being afraid of how high we are. I got to Verona at 7:30 in the morning and the first thing I did was buy a map. I bought a cheaper map because I was stupid and figured I could find my way without a super comprehensive one. Boy was I wrong. After I bought the horrible map I should have gone straight to the bus to let it take me to the touristy places, but did I do that? Of course not. I set out with my crappy map and my quickly jotted down mapquest directions and had quite the adventure. To start, cars are scary. I haven't been around them in so long it was bit jarring to have them whiz past me and to actually have to look for them when crossing the street. Also, I went in the complete wrong direction I was supposed to go which took me to a place that wasn't even on my map. So I turned around after I figured this out and went back to the train station. Did I go to the bus now? Of course not. I thought I figured out the map and started walking again. After about an hour I was like this just doesn't seem right. Haha yea I walked for an hour before I realized this. While it was nice to take a walking tour of the "real" Verona I was like lets just get to where I want to go. I kept walking though figuring at any moment I would find something to help me. I soon did! It was a sign pointing to the center of Verona, where all the touristy crap is. I was overjoyed! This sign did not lead to the city center though. I walked for another hour and a half, but not along safe residential roads. Oh no...it was along the highway. I probably almost died about 5 times but hey I lived! Eventually I found civilization and got on the bus. So after like 3 hours I finally got to the first place I actually wanted to go! The rest of the Verona trip was fantastic. The city has this card called the VeronaCard that allows you to see 13 attractions around the city for 10 bucks. Pretty sweet deal. I went to 8 out of 13 during the day which is pretty good if you ask me. I walked to all of them too which makes it even more impressive lol. I saw two churches that took my breath away and the landscape was fantastic. The Romeo and Juliet attractions were kinda interesting so I'm glad I went but also kinda stupid. After walking to all these places and being on my feet for like 10 hours I decided I was done. The city was beautiful but it was starting to get dark and I was super tired. My dying legs were begging for me to return home. So went to catch a train 3 hours earlier than I planned. I didn't mind though.

Today I was supposed to go Torcello, an island like 45 minutes from Venice by waterbus, but I didn't feel like it. It was raining and my legs are very very very sore from yesterday. I have to go to do some research/studying for class. So I'm going tomorrow.

Anyways thats all I have. Until next time, peace out!

colors!

So its been like a week since I last updated and I'm very unsure what I talked about before so we'll see how this one goes.

Today is the start of a new round of classes. The school that I am at is set up a bit strange. They do sets of 4 week language classes and then they start all over. So last week I finished Level 3 and this week I'm starting Level 4. Eek! Time to start freaking out. I only have to do it for 4 weeks so thats only 20 classes. Then I will be finished with language and only have my other two classes. Ugh I don't know what I am going to do with all my free time. Friday night I read an entire book because I didn't have anything to do. It was a good Nicholas Sparks book called "The Lucky One." With some research on the net I found they are making it a movie and guess who is playing the lead. Oh come on just guess. Zac Efron! Thats right. I think he is completely wrong for the role, but we will see what he can do with the part.

Lets see...I guess I've been doing a little sightseeing. I went to the Palazzo Ducale last Tuesday (maybe). It was sooo cool. I didn't know what to expect but it was awesome. You would walk through these seemingly normal, small rooms and think oh this is boring. But then you reach the grand rooms and its fantastic. The walls are covered in these huge paintings, paintings that I would never be able to finish because I would get so pissed off at how long they were taking. Everything in the room is trimmed in this elaborate gold decoration. I could spend an entire day sitting in one room just looking at all the intricacy. Wow!

Wednesday and Thursday I began my art history and history of Venice lessons. I only have them each once a week for two hours so thats not bad at all. I've never really liked one-on-one teaching. I'm more of a lecture person because I can just fade into the background. This just me and the teacher thing is going to be weird, but I will definitely learn a lot more. I'll keep you updated.

Friday I read that book...boring.

Saturday I went to Murano, which specializes in working with glass. I only stayed for like 2 hours and didn't see as much as I should but there is always time to go back. I spent most of my time looking at the shops because I wanted to buy something for my parents. I ended up buying both of them a gift. Not very practical things, but I thought they were cool. I hope they like them, even if they are a bit pointless lol. That night when I got home I found Space Jam on tv! Yes! Of course it was in Italian, but it was still awesome to watch. I was really interested in how they would do the Looney Tune voices because they are so special to the characters, but they did a good job.

Yesterday, I went to Burano, which is known for making lace. I'm not really a fan of lace, but I wanted to see it anyway. It took like an hour by vaporetto to get there so I was a bit worn out when I arrived. I was expecting it to look very similar to Venice, just with a lot of lace shops. I was surprised to find that the houses were very brightly painted. In Venice, the houses are painted in earth tones, but in Burano the houses are rainbow colors. It was crazy. It was like in the Wizard of Oz when things go from black and white to color. God I hate that movie. Anyways, I just spent my entire time taking pictures of all the colored houses. When I got home I made dinner and found Varsity Blues on tv! Watching this movie in Italian was the most interesting thing I've ever experienced. Its not a great movie by any means but it fills time. This time it was utterly fantastic to watch.

I also bought a jacket yesterday. I needed a fall/early winter jacket. Its fake leather, grey, and very different from stuff I own. It was pretty cheap so I just went for it.

Meh anyways thats about it. Ciao, until next time!

i don't know what to call this one

Wow its kind of been a while since I've updated so I'll try and include everything I've been up to.

First off, today is not a good day at all. I found out that a friend from high school died in a car crash. I found out over facebook. It's just not the way you want to find out about stuff like that. Even though I haven't talked to him in a while, it still hurts that he is gone. We were pretty close in high school since we had all of the same classes. We'll miss you Sebastian, you were a great guy with a great sense of humor and a great view on life.

Now for the less depressing stuff. I had a Mountain Dew! OMG it tasted sooooo good. I was told I wouldn't have one for another few weeks but low and behold one appeared. I was sitting having my morning coffee when I hear my name being called. I look up at the terrace of my school and a guy from my class is dangling the lovely green can over the side. I raced up the stairs to collect the soda. I tore it open and took a sip. It was fantastic. I tried to take small sips so that it would last longer. Apparently the guys who work on the military base can get it so one of the Americans brought some for everyone. It was the best thing ever.

Class has been going well I guess. I'm kind of blindly navigating my way through this weird set up of classes. Apparently after 4 weeks the classes end and then start over again. So I guess that means I'm moving up to level 4? We'll see. Also, I think my other two classes start this week, but I'm not completely sure. I was pulled out of class and shown times that I was supposed to meet with a new teacher. I'll let you know what happens after I have this special session. The worst thing about the school is trying to make friends. I've made some friends but they are all gone now. People are only here for 1 or 2 weeks so you get to know them and then they are gone. It really sucks. But I'm really getting used to being by myself. We'll see if anymore people come that I can make friends with.

I've been eating some really good Italian food lately because my host, Annamaria, has cooked two meals for me. One was some kind of vegetable stuffed with some kind of meat. Sorry about not knowing exactly what it is, but she said the name in Italian and I didn't catch it. She also made a salad of carrots and apples. I was like I am not eating that but it turned out to be pretty fantastic. The next day she made a really really really good soup. It was mainly rice, but it had a lot of vegetables in it. It was really thick and had minimal broth which is the way I like it. It was great.

I've pretty much been passing my time by going to museums. I bought a pass for like 12 museums in Venice, so I've taking advantage of that. This past Saturday I went to Accademia which has a lot of religious art. I mean I really don't want to ever see the stuff again. I like it and I think the paintings are beautiful but after a while they get really repetitive. It was cool though. Sunday I went to 3 museums. I only meant to go to one but they were really close to each other and I just stumbled on them so I thought why not? First I went to the Museum of Natural History. It was pretty much a collection of fossils and bones trying explain the evolution of human beings. The fossils were pretty cool. The end of the tour actually scared the crap out of me because the last 3 rooms or so is a collection of stuffed animals heads, dead bugs, etc. I walked into the room and just felt bad. I was scared that the animals were going to magically wake up and attack. I didn't like it. Plus, I felt really bad that all these animals had died. I did get to see a stuffed albino deer and a stuffed two-headed deer mount, so that was kind of interesting. After that I went to Ca' Pesaro, which is the modern art museum. I loved it! I prefer modern stuff so this was right up my alley. It made my day when I saw a couple of Kandinsky paintings. So great :) Then I went to the Palazzo Mocenigo which bothered me a lot. It was beautiful, but as I was walking through I thought about what the people might say if they saw tons of tourists walking through their former home. I pictured them sitting there going about their normal business and I just didn't feel good being there. It was the weirdest feeling ever. Yesterday I went to the Palazzo Ducale, which is in Piazza San Marco. It was huge! Its weird to think that people actually lived and worked in these places. The art is fantastic, the decorations are fantastic, its all fantastic. The prison downstairs was a bit frightening. I kinda had the same feeling I did at Mocenigo. I felt like the prisoners were judging me for being there. But I survived!

I've also been planning to travel many places. You get can a train pass to a couple of countries fairly cheap so I'm gonna do that. I'm just gonna do the touristy things and try to spend the least money possible but its making my trip a lot better just thinking about going to all these places. Plus its making the weekends fill up, thus making the trip go faster.

GELATO UPDATE! I've tried sooo many flavors and three are tied for my favorite flavor. They are yogurt, coffee, and mint. Weird flavors but sooo good. I'll keep you posted if I have more flavors.

Thats all I have for now, plus I'm about to be kicked out of the school. Ciao ciao.

la biennale

So this weekend has been weird. I really didn't feel like doing anything, but I worked up the energy to head to the Biennale on Sunday. It was pretty cool. It really makes me want to be an architect for the sole reason that I would get to build the models. They are soo cool. The Biennale is a collection of architecture exhibits from around the world. Most countries have their own pavilion of things. It was interesting to see the differences between each pavilion. I put pictures up of most of the pavilions on flickr. Unfortunately my camera died about halfway through so I don't have pictures of all of it. My favorite pavilion was the one from the Netherlands. When you walk into the pavilion you think its empty then you look up and see all these blue squares. Wtf? Then you walk upstairs and realize its a cityscape. All the buildings are made out of foam. It was pretty cool. I also liked the Belgian pavilion because it displayed pieces of flooring, carpet, railings, etc. that had been taken out of use. They did this to show the effects on certain materials with constant use. For example, there was a large piece of carpet on the wall. It had been taken from a house and it originally was in a room with a wood-burning stove. You could see where most people walked on it and how the fire affected it. It was pretty cool. A lot of the exhibits were interactive as well. The Great Britain pavilion included a wood structure you could climb up. There were places to draw and to sleep and to lounge. The Greek pavilion was called "The Ark." It was a wooden boat-like structure filled with everything one would need for living on a boat. Pretty neat.
There was also a main building for smaller exhibits. This housed more abstract works still under the realm of architecture. Look at my pics and you will know what I'm talking about and if there are questions just ask me :).

Yesterday, I woke up feeling horrible. I had a really bad stomach ache and decided not to go to school. I slept until 2 pm and felt a little better. I still didn't want to do anything so I just watched stuff on my computer all day. I don't know if any of you know of the show Roswell but I've been watching a lot of it. I have all the seasons on my external hard drive and I've probably watched each episode about 3 times now. You would think I would be sick of it but I'm not.

Today, I decided to try and talk more in class and be less afraid. In the first part of the class, I think I did better. I was in good spirits and lively. We took our normal break and after I had my coffee and my marmellata I thought things would stay the same. Things took a turn for the worse. I lost all my energy to focus and didn't want to talk about anything. Ugh. The teacher after the break is different then the one in the morning and does not offer great encouragement. She only offers small threats. I will send you back to level 2 if you don't start speaking now! Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Today after I get done with my interneting I am planning on going to an exhibit about Leonardo Da Vinci. I'll let you know how it goes in my next post.

when it rains it pours

Hey everyone, sorry its been a little while since I've updated. Its hard to find time to use the internet. I found a spot in my apartment where it works though so thats quite exciting! This past week has been interesting. I can't believe I've only been here for 2 weeks...it feels like 3 years. As you know I was moved up a level in the language this week and its been going okay I guess. I don't think I will ever get over my nerves and just speak. When I have to speak my mind goes blank and I end up looking and sounding like an idiot. We'll see what happens. I think I would like the class a lot better if I were taking my others classes along with this one. I have to wait 6 more weeks to begin my other classes.

I really haven't been up to much I guess. Everyday after school I hang out with people, eat out for dinner then come home and sleep pretty much. Not a very interesting study abroad trip :( I'm trying to find ways to make things better but I don't know what to do. I'm still extremely homesick (which I never thought would happen). Anyone who knows me will tell you that they are surprised to hear this as well. Right now, I would give anything to get on a plane and be home. I know I would regret it when I got there, but I still can't pretend like I'm having a super amazing time. Its just been alright.

Friday night was kind of a horrible evening. It was one of my friends last night in Venice, so were hanging out by school getting some dinner and having some drinks. That was fun. We all got cheeseburgers which was odd since we're in Italy! It was nice to eat something familiar even if they didn't taste exactly right. Anyways the evening turned sour when the conversation turned towards a discussion of accents. We were talking about accents we liked and doing impressions, etc. This girl decides to say that an American accent sounds unintelligent. When she hears it she can't take it seriously and bla bla bla. I think I let it get to me more than it should have but she didn't even realize that it was offensive. I don't know, all I did was sit there and try not to speak anymore. After that I left because I didn't want to be near her and because there was a break in the rain. On my way home I was angry and hoping the rain wouldn't start again. I was walking over a bridge and it was slippery and I fell down a few stairs. Awesome! Then about 10 seconds later it started to rain, like monsoon rain. So I was upset, very very very wet, and hurt from falling. Such an amazing evening. I went home and fell asleep almost immediately thank Jesus.

Yesterday, I really didn't feel like doing anything. I thought it was going to rain all day and I was prepared to just sit and watch movies in my room. It didn't rain and it was pretty nice outside so I decided I should suck it up and go do something. I had never seen the area around Arsenale so I decided to do that. I wanted to go to the Biennale but by the time I got there I wouldn't have had enough time to walk around and see everything. I am planning on doing that today.

Thats pretty much it. This week I've decided to dedicate my time to going to the museums and maybe Verona on the weekend so we'll see what happens. Sorry my trip has been so boring. Maybe it will pick up a little this week. Talk to everyone later.

Oh and some more pictures should be up later :)

mmmmm gnocchi :)

So I don't remember what I talked about last time. Sorry if I repeat anything. Life has been pretty much the same here. Class is going well I guess. Last week I was in level 2 and this week they moved me to level 3, so we'll see how that goes. I know the grammar pretty well, its just the speaking that gets me. I am trying to be less shy and am slowly coming out of my shell I guess. Another thing that has changed is the person I'm staying with. I noticed that I didn't see her all weekend, so I was kinda worried. I woke up this morning to a note from her sister saying that Annamaria had to leave suddenly and that she would back in a few days. I was just getting comfortable with Annamaria and now I have to try and get comfortable with her sister! Ugh I hope she is back sooner than later.

I finally went out to eat! I went out twice on Friday. For lunch I had gnocchi, which is God's gift to mankind, and for dinner I had spaghetti, I will always love my spaghetti. Both meals were delicious. I also had some wine with dinner which was fantastic. It wasn't much different then what I drink at home, but it was only the first time. I'm sure it will get better.

Saturday it rained all day. Not fun! I only left the apartment once to go to the internet point and then spent the rest of the day inside watching movies and reading, etc. Yesterday the sun was back and I was very thankful. I woke up ready to go to the beach! I had to take the vaporetto to Lido, an island near Venice. I was surprised when I got there because they have roads and cars and buses! Civilization! It was fun just to walk around. I was nervous about actually getting to the beach because I was told a lot of them are owned by the hotels and therefore, very difficult to get onto but I easily walked to one. It was beautiful. Of course, I forgot my suit so I couldn't actually go into the water very far. I spent my time collecting seashells, there were tons with this amazing red/orange color on them, and laying on rocks getting some sun. I didn't put sunscreen on so I thought that I would be burnt, but nothing happened. I think I'm done trying to understand how my skin will react to the sun. At this point, its a mystery :)

I've also bought a few things in the past few days. Friday there was a small garage sale type thing in the square where my school is located and the stuff was pretty cool. I bought some necklaces from a woman and they are pretty cool. I thought they were pretty unique and plan on giving them as gifts when I get home. Yesterday, I found a small video store and went in to see what they had. I wanted a movie that I knew, but had an Italian language track. I ended up finding Step Up 2! Its funny to watch it in Italian, but its helping a little bit already. It helps to learn how words sound and to train yourself how to hear words at regular speed. Plus I love that movie! I've probably watched it too many times in the past few months but whatever. I also bough a mask! Its a very touristy thing to buy, but I couldn't come to Venice and not buy one. They are everywhere and they are special to the city. I bought one from this shop that I walk by everyday. I always stared at this one mask. Its beautiful and pretty cheap. I'll show everyone when I get back!

Thats pretty much all I have for you. I hope other posts are more interesting for ya! Ciao!

I hate mosquitoes!

So the biggest problem I'm having with Venice, are the freakin mosquitoes. Anyone who knows my history with the little buggers knows that when I get a bite it swells up to the size of a quarter. Not fun! I didn't notice them until my host asked me if I had them in my room. I answered no but late in the evening I saw one. I didn't think much of one mosquito but when I woke up in the morning I had 2 bites on one arm and 3 on the other. Wtf! I've been killing about 5 or 6 a day since then. I guess I'll just have to learn to live with them.

Class has been going ok. Its pretty easy. I'm not alone like I thought I was going to be which is pretty great. A lot of the people in the class are only here for 1 or 2 weeks so I don't know what is going to happen after that. I've been talking to people more which is good. A lot of people speak English which is helpful lol. I do need to speak in class more. I tried to up my time today and I think it paid off. What I learned at Truman is slowly coming back to me.

I'm slowly getting to know the city and finding things that I like. I've become kind of obsessed with cappuccino. I've had one the past couple of days during the break between classes and they are oh so yummy. I've also been pigging out on gelato. So far I've had 6 flavors. I've found that I like the fruity flavors more than say the chocolate or the caramel. My favorite flavor so far has been peach. Mmm. I'm definitely getting some when I leave school today. You know you are jealous!

I'm really tired of walking everywhere. I know its good to do and you get to experience more of the city but its super exhausting doing it for like 6 or 7 hours a day. The bridges don't help either. I have to cross 5 or 6 on my way to school. The bridge right by the train station is massive and always crowded with people so that is always a frustrating one to cross. I'm hoping I get into semi-good shape with all this exercise. Eating gelato and drinking cappuccino is probably not good though so we'll see. Some fun things happen when walking though. There are dogs all over the place. A lot of the people don't put them on leashes so its fun when they come up to you. I saw a dog that looked just like mine which kind of made me sad :(. The most interesting thing that has happened when walking around was seeing two people fighting. I heard it before I saw it. The fight was between an older man and a man in his 30s maybe. I was walking along and I heard some screaming. I actually thought it was a kid screaming. When I saw a crowd I looked at what they were watching and there was the fight. I don't know what happened but the younger man was hitting the older man and he even pushed him all the way over. It was kind of scary. I wanted to stop and see what was going to happen but I just kept on walking.

Thats pretty much whats been going on. I'm sorry if its a little boring, can't really do anything about that.

first few days

Well I guess Venice is getting better. It involves a lot of walking which is super hard on my feet but I'm getting used to it. I've been using my vaporetto pass a lot to do all the touristy things around the city. I went to the Piazza San Marco on Saturday. All I can say about that place is there are people and birds everywhere. Its hard to even focus on the surroundings because of the crowds and trying to dodge the pigeons flying in your face. Saturday night I was really bored and decided to turn on the TV just to see what channels were there. I found MTV! I got excited because it was in English. I was like thank freakin God this is actually happening. Knowing that it was there I flipped through the rest of the channels and when I got back to MTV it was no longer in English. Damn. I ended up watching two episodes of the Hills in Italian. It turned out to be pretty interesting. I understood some of what they were saying but then that show isn't that difficult to understand. At least I had a little piece of home lol. I've also discovered a Burger King and McDonalds in the city. I refused to eat at the Burger King because it was so expensive and I haven't even been inside the McDonalds. My diet the past few days has consisted of pizza and gelato. Its all good in my book haha. Yesterday I visited San Giorgio. It wasn't intentional but the vaporetto stopped there. I went inside the church there and also went to the two art exhibit they had. One was about photography and the other about an artist named Piranesi. It was pretty interesting. I didn't know what I was walking into but I was pleasantly surprised.

I started school today and I was pretty nervous about it. For the past few days I've been walking back and forth between home and school so that I wouldn't get lost. It took me about 5 times to get the route memorized. When I got here this morning I was nervous about what level they would put me in. There are 5 levels for Italian and I got put into level 2. I can understand most of what they say in class and today was mostly review. I am still nervous about the program. I only take Italian classes for the first 8 weeks and then I will take my other classes. Kinda weird but I'll get used to it. The school has activities everyday after school so I'm planning to go to that today. I think its a walking tour around the square that the school is located by which will be good if I ever want to get food or drinks nearby. Thats about all I've got.

Here are a few pictures, more to come later (I was going to upload more but my computer is being mean):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46482291@N04/sets/72157624946816814/with/4986540768/

I just want to go home!

So...let me tell you about my trip to Italy. All of you who have listened to me talk know that I hate planes and that has not changed. I got on the first plane...not bad I guess. The flight was only an hour or so, which is a manageable time frame. The problem was that it was 45 minutes late and I almost missed my next plane. I met another girl on the flight to Dallas who was taking the plane to Madrid and we pretty much had to sprint to make it. Ugh it was horrible. Thanking God that I made this plane since it was the only one of the day, I prepared myself for the 9 hours I was going to be in this plane. Yea nothing can really prepare me for that. The beginning was okay because they fed me and we got to watch some TV. I had lasagna which was actually pretty good for being plane food. The movie was watched is called Just Wright and it stars Queen Latifah and Common. Really? This is the movie you choose. I didn't want to watch it at all but it was the only thing that was going to keep me sane. To my surprise it wasn't that bad. I missed a major plot point when I had to let my seat mate out to use the bathroom, but I think I put the pieces together. After the movie they showed an episode of the Office, which made me feel better. I wished they would've showed more. After all that we still had like 6 hours left. Ugh. I fell asleep soundly for the first 2 and then after that it was a struggle. I just wanted to stretch out and turn over. Plus, the person next to me was sleeping completely soundly. He was pissing me off so much. When the plane landed and I could finally stand up it was like a piece of heaven.

The Madrid airport made the trip hell again. It is the most confusing place I've ever been. I asked three different people the same question and they all gave me a different answer. After about 3 laps around this one floor I was able to find my plane with only about 10 minutes to spare. I looked like a wreck. I got on the plane pretty quickly, boy I did not want to get on another plane. I pretty much immediately fell asleep, which felt amazing. My neck pillow was a life saver. I woke up with about 20 minutes to go and enjoyed looking out the window at the Italian landscape. My plane was about 30 minutes late so I had to rush to get to the place I needed to be. I had to get my luggage, find a bank to get some euros, buy a bus ticket, and make it to the Piazzale Roma (which is 20 minutes from the airport) in about 35 minutes. Needless to say I was about 25 minutes late, sweating, and stressed.

I get to the Piazzale Roma and find the person I'm meeting with. We have to wait in line at the ticket place so I can buy a waterbus pass. I didn't really want one but I think now that I can use it to travel to the islands and then not buy one the last few months I'm here. We took the waterbus to a stop about 10 minutes from my apartment. The canals and buildings are beautiful! There are so many people and so much to look at. I'm happy I'm here, but I just want to sit down and not being carrying this luggage. We get to the bus stop, but we still had to walk. I had to drag my luggage all the way there. I made tons of noise which was pretty embarrassing but there wasn't really much I could do. I get to my apartment, thank God, and its pretty nice. I'm nervous about sharing the living room, bathroom, and kitchen because I don't want to impose on this woman. She is pretty nice and really helpful. After I got to the apartment and took the tour, I called my mom. This is where the breakdown started. I really thought I would be fine, but I guess not so much. I got a hold of her and started tearing up. Of course I made it okay and I'm safe, but honestly at that point I was just stressed and wanted to be home. I hung up the phone and had a good long cry. I decided that I just needed to get out, but after about a 10 minute walk I turned back around. I went back to the apartment and went to bed. I slept from 7 pm to 7:30 am. I was super tired and homesick and jetlagged so sleeping felt like the best option.

Now here I am, 11:20 am, still tired, haven't had anything to eat yet, sitting in the middle of my schools lobby using the internet trying to calm down. The internet is free at school so I'll probably use it everyday. I don't have it at home so that kinda sucks. But anyways, my shoulders are sore from my luggage, I'm still tired, I'm hungry, I'm homesick, and I'm hoping I feel better tomorrow. Meh thats all I feel like writing right now so hopefully its a happier post next time.

updates on life

so i never thought i would use this blog again, but i want to get back into it so that i can keep everyone updated with stuff that happens in italy. i hope you like the new design. i thought i would be more interested in looking at the blog everyday if i designed a little bit of it. i decided to put some stylized faces of myself on top because everyone is always saying that i make the most interesting faces. i think it looks kinda cool. i'll probably change it pretty quickly cause i can never stick with one thing for too long.

i guess i should talk about my summer a little bit. the summer started out really well. i got to participate in jba, which is a camp at truman state universtiy where kids get to take a class, live in the dorms, and do lots of fun activities. i met soo many amazing people. i can't even believe how well i got to know some people. i just light up when i see them...i never thought that could happen in such a short time. although, i guess its kind of inevitable when you spend every single hour with someone for that long of a time. anyways, i will never forget the experience.

i've also got to spend more time with my core group of friends this summer. i usually never get to see them during the 3 month break, but that has changed this summer. a few of them and i have become really close, at least in my opinion. i cherish my friends more than any of them will ever know.

its gonna be really weird spending the semester abroad. i don't want to miss out on any the crazy antics in kirksville, but i couldn't pass up the chance to study abroad. i'm going to venice, which is a city that i have always wanted to visit. i can't even imagine having this experience in another place. i will be kind of limited on money, but i've made peace with it. i'm looking forward to getting creative with the activities i can do. i really only want to travel to one or two places so i think the money thing will be fine. i get more and more excited about everything every time i think about it. everyone better be ready for a ton of pictures! i will try to update every one or two days depending on internet availability.

thats all for now, pretty lame post, but what are you gonna do.