The Italian & the Cosmopolitan

Spring Break has started off with a bang! I stayed in the city...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:20:06 -0400

Spring Break has started off with a bang! I stayed in the city for the weekend because on Sunday morning at 7am I auditioned for The Voice- so fun! After having quite a successful weekend hanging out with Audrey and meeting my soul mate, Sonia, I stood in line (with the greatest suitemate ever) for 2 hours and then waited for 2 more hours and got to sing for one of the vocal coaches for the show! Obviously I knew I wouldn’t get through to the callbacks but it was still such a fun experience! I can’t believe that Audrey woke up at 6am with me and stood out in the cold for two hours and then WAITED for me while I went in and waited to sing. Talk about friendship. Of course, the entire weekend I had been craving a bacon, egg and cheese and that morning was no different. As we stood in line and bonded with the people in front of us over how cold it was (seeing as the sun had yet to rise), our new friend Michelle complained about the lack of chinese food in front of her and I complained about the lack of a bacon, egg and cheese in front of me. Low and behold, when I came out of auditions, Audrey (the greatest person ever) had already done some research on where we could immediately go to find a bacon, egg and cheese. And when that plan failed, had no qualms about asking the random security guard where he likes to go to fulfill said craving. We wandered in the direction he pointed us and found the Skylight Diner on 34th and about 9th. Finally my bacon, egg and cheese wishes were fulfilled. (See photo above). Overall the day was really fun and I’m glad I went to the audition. There were thousands of people there and the entire process was extremely organized, I was impressed. After finally getting into the building we had our bags checked and then checked in to the waiting area where they gave me a wrist band and scanned my audition sheet (see picture above) and then sent me over to a seating area where everyone was seated in rows of ten. Then they took people by 10s and brought them to where the audition rooms are. You wait there for about 30-45 minutes and then go into a small conference room where there is one judge (a vocal coach from the show) and you sing one at a time. It was really fun to hear everybody else and just see all the different kinds of people there auditioning. Overall, it was a success! I may have no gotten a callback but I went to my first New York cattle call audition! And now I’m home and happily on spring break, sleeping 14 hours a night and not getting out of my pajamas. Life is good.

Until next time! Arrivederci!

Remember that one time...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:46:00 -0500

Oh hey, remember that one time I was going to blog about NYU and my life in New York? Yeah…me neither. Well lets see if we can get some of this started again. It’s been 7 weeks already and I have no idea where the time has gone. This semester is flying by as NYC gets warmer and the people get happier. Gradually the hipsters are taking out the pink skinny jeans and the yellow blazers. Get ready New York, the color is coming. I couldn’t be happier that the weather is getting warmer. Yesterday it as 60 degrees and today it is even warmer. It is astounding how the weather so massively effects my outlook on life. I could literally scream I want warm weather so badly. All I want in this world is sunshine and shorts and bare feet and days at the beach. Soon enough…

But I digress. Life at NYU has been beyond what I expected it to be. I am literally living the life in New York City. I have an amazing apartment in Union Square with the most fantastic suitemates I could possibly ask for. I am taking classes that I adore and spend 3 days of my week with 13 other students that I love, studying what I love and literally clowning around. My classes that aren’t my studio class aren’t that exciting but it is important to stay educated. I have been starting to notice the academic difference between Wellesley and NYU in the sense of how the students respond to the classes. At Wellesley it is all academia all the time and that is a very obvious and intellectual atmosphere. At NYU there is most definitely an academic atmosphere but it is less obvious. Students here know how to have a good time and relax after your homework is over. It’s not a stay up all night getting everything for the week done kind of place, and that is a very relaxing environment in which to be learning. I don’t feel intellectually intimidated all the time, which can be relieving after spending so much time in the Wellesley bubble. I am still trying to get used to the fact that people leave their rooms on a week night. I mean, people go out on any day of the week if they want to and this is wildly confusing to me…it’s almost like we’re in the greatest city on the planet and people are taking full advantage of this fact. I am slowly realizing that I do not have to stay in my apartment once I get home from class, this is a very unnerving and new concept for me to grasp on a school night.

Aside from the culture shock I think that week 7 has been an excellent one in terms of getting used to living in the Big Apple. Although I grew up with New York as my backyard, living here is a whole other ballgame. I’m starting to get a hang of maneuvering my way around and learning all the tricks. Basically, I am having an amazing time and the fact that it is starting to become warmer is making me completely bonkers. I just want to be outside all the time today but alas I have class. At least I only have one class. And spring break is next week! I can play outside all I want in the lovely nature of Connecticut.

I am definitely in desperate need of spring break. Despite how happy I am at NYU, I am completely and totally exhausted. I did not really work out a very easy schedule for myself. 4 days a week I am in class for 8 hours 9:30-5:30 and the other day of the week I have a 9:30, so every day I am up at 8:30 and going going going until about 6pm. It can get really tiring, and I’m slowly starting to unravel. Turns out I heavily rely on sleep in order to function properly in the world. Who knew? But it doesn’t matter, soon I will be home and falling into a lovely spring break coma. As for now, I’m off to find myself some food and perhaps a place to sit outside and read a few plays for studio.

Arrivederci!

Procrastination.

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:56:43 -0500

So here I sit trying to write my essay for the 12 College Exchange application. This week was a long one but there were many fun aspects to class, especially studio. This Friday in studio (with Nate Flower- Google him, he’s a cool guy), we did tumbling! Yes, it is exactly what you are thinking. For about an hour and a half we did forward rolls. Similar to what babies do when they don’t yet know how to walk. Then they got a little more advanced and we were to roll but make sure to not roll over the person lying on the floor. As we switched to cartwheels time was up but damn that class was fun. Despite the incredible soreness I am currently experiencing throughout all of my back muscles, I really hope we get to do tumbling again next Friday. I want to learn how to do handsprings and handstands and all kinds of nonsensical actions that I will most probably not use in my life. It’s hard to think back to earlier in this past week since every day is so packed with things to do that I have to immediately forget yesterday and focus on the present. Alas my procrastination skills need to stop being so amazing so I can write this essay. Bye bye for now Internet.

Arrivederci!

Last two days in Italy!

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:09:44 -0500

Spanish Steps - FINALLY

Of course we went back. Why not?

"Prada Street"

Grace is excited for America...

Homeward bound!

Goodbye, Hotel Dorica!

Last two days in Italy!

Tory Burch in Italia!! Took a picture for Elizabeth and sent it...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:05:07 -0500

Tory Burch in Italia!! Took a picture for Elizabeth and sent it to her. She was very happy - I wish I’d gone in!

Our classroom and the view from my hotel room!

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:04:07 -0500

Our classroom and the view from my hotel room!

Slacker

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:48:50 -0500

Well, my blogging abilities have gone down the tubes. My apologies for those of you (Mom and Dad) who are avid readers of this lovely blog. The first two weeks of classes at NYU have been insanely busy and wildly exhausting due to the great deal of jetlag I did not anticipate. After almost two weeks of being here I am finally getting the lay of the land. Yes, I live just outside of NYC and yes, I come here quite frequently whether it is for doctor appointments or my internship at Sony. However, it turns out I have a very small knowledge of how to really and effectively get around. Thank god for the map app on the iPhone.

The first two weeks of school have gone by slowly but quickly at the same time. I am 100% exhausted all the time but it’s a good exhaustion. Four days a week I have class 9:30-5:30 and for at least two hours on all of those days I am moving, which I love. But it can be completely draining. There are some days, like today, when I just cannot handle a 2 hour modern dance class…even if for 80% of class we are rolling around on the floor. Let me tell you, X rolls on hardwood start to really hurt after doing about 20. But it’s almost Thursday, which is the day of napping. And thus far homework hasn’t been killing me, so I can’t really complain. I am still waiting to hear back from a voice teacher, with whom I am trying to have a trial lesson. Also there is that whole, summer internship, build my resume kind of situation that I’m doing very little about. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in my life! The weekend will be good, I can sleep all day and get my life together all night. It’s such an excellent system that then completely throws off my ability to sleep properly during the week. Ah, the life of a college student. But enough whining about literally nothing, I must do some homework and sleep before midnight - this is the plan and I will stick to it! Some belated Italy pictures to follow this post.

Arrivederci!

Travels

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:44:31 -0500

The past few days have been incredibly hectic. The day in Italy was fantastic. Grace and I spent the whole day out and about shopping like maniacs. We went to dinner at this great place by the Spanish steps that Leah and Bridgid recommended and then we wandered up to the Piazza del Popolo and then back down and wound through Ancient Rome back to the hotel. We got back from dinner around 10:30 and spent the rest of the night packing. Up at 8 to leave the hotel at 9 and be on a place at 1:30, for which the 4 hour wait was pretty boring. Then we were in Germany and had a quick layover before we were headed back to AMERICA! The flight was long (8.5 hours) and I was very antsy and wouldn’t allow myself to fall asleep so that I could sleep well that night and not be too affected by jetlag. Customs was a breeze, shockingly, and Mom & Dad picked me up at arrivals! I was home by 10:30 and in bed by 11:30 after slightly unpacking and taking a much needed shower. Then I was up at 6:45am to be on a 7:38 train to NYC for my first day of class at Tisch! I eventually found my classroom at Chelsea Studios and it was empty. So I awkwardly waited around for a few minutes until I saw another girl making a bee-line for the door and followed her.
Studio class was so much fun. My teachers were all incredibly good at what they do and those 8 hours sped by. Everyone in my class is very nice and friendly and we all got to know each other very well during that first day. The first two hours of class was clowning with Gregor and he is very cool. It isn’t clowning in the sense of the circus but it is European clowning so it is much more subtle. We played a name game called Mr. Hit for about and hour and a half and then we played a game of tag for reasons I cannot say and then Gregor talked to us a little about clowning and that class was over! We had a 10 minute break before Movement class. We have two teachers that alternate for Movement class, Julia and Nate. Julia teaches Mondays. She reminds me so much of my cousin Claire Monica it is a little frightening. That class was a lot of fun and Julia is great! It kicked me ass though, turns out I am much less flexible than anticipated. Then we had an hour for lunch and me and a few people went to Brgr and it is most probably the most amount of protein I have eaten in one sitting since before Italy. It was a very exciting time. Also this lunch was not pasta or pizza, so that’s a plus.
After lunch we went back to have scene study with Angela and we played more name games and the “Yes” game, which is too difficult to explain through writing but it was a good time. Then we presented what we had done for homework before the semester started. We each had to think of a story that we were going to share with the group and we all paired off and told one other person the story and viceversa and then each pair picked which story they wanted to tell and went up and told it as if both of them were there and we all had to guess to whom the story belonged. The goal is to make it seem like you were really both there and if people can’t guess whose story it is, then you did a good job. After that I was so incredibly exhausted and jetlagged and dead that I decided to hop a train home and sleep there. It was an excellent decision. I walked to Dad’s office first and said hello and hung around and then made the 7:08 express to Greenwich and was home by 8:20 with Boston Market waiting for me. Sometimes my brother can be so delightful. I was in bed by 9:15 and dead asleep soon after. And then of course, up again at 6:45am (but actually at 7) to be on the 7:38 express to Grand Central to be in class by 9:30.
Today I actually have all three of my other classes that I have signed up for outside of my studio class. In the morning I had The History of Musical Theatre in the 1960s and we didn’t really get into much but my teacher is really cool and I now I need to spend a great deal of my life watching Mad Men and Mr. Ed. Then I was going to go get my ID before Modern Dance but the line was huge so I left and went to class. Modern dance was really fun and I can tell it is going to be very difficult but I’m excited. Now I have about 40 minutes until my next class and I am sitting in the Tisch Building trying to get the internet to work and failing so I am writing this blog post on a Stickies note on my dashboard. More posts to come soon about my upcoming class, Media Moguls in the 20th Century.

The first McDonald’s that opened in Italy! It was much...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:22:15 -0500

The first McDonald’s that opened in Italy! It was much fancier than expected…They gave Grace a tiny bottle of McDonald’s brand olive oil to go with her salad.

Look, Dad! Tiny rabbis made of Murano glass!

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:20:47 -0500

Look, Dad! Tiny rabbis made of Murano glass!

Yesterday was AMAZING. I finally got to go to the Colosseum and...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:09:00 -0500

Bein' a badass

View of il Colosseo from Palentine Hill

Yesterday was AMAZING. I finally got to go to the Colosseum and let me tell you, it was worth the 15 day wait. I’m pretty sure yesterday was my favorite day being here. I got to see the Colosseum, Palentine Hill and the ruins, which unfortunately we were quickly herded out of because it was the end of the day. But everything was just so beautiful, I was so happy that I got to go and the day was beautiful and everything was just incredible. I would spend an entire day at those three monuments. From sun up to sun down I would just wander around. One of the best parts about Palentine hill was the orange trees. At one point you walk onto a plateau and all you can smell is oranges, it is so delicious. Then you eventually stumble on a mini orange grove and all the trees are full of ripe oranges! I tried to get Megan (who is 6 feet tall) to pick me up and let me grab one but she said no… The views from the hill were so beautiful and I am a little overly obsessed with the panorama setting on my camera so I spent a great deal of time playing with that. I used it in the Colosseum too, it was pretty awesome.
When we walked out of the Colosseum and down past one of the arches (not positive which it was) I realized that this was the one place that pops into my mind when I think about going to Rome with my family. This one large walkway between the Colosseum and Palentine hill in front of the arch is always what I think about when I think of going to Rome with my family. I was wearing that long blue skirt with the lace trim at the bottom of colorful flowers sew into the hemline and a coral tank top and it was hotter than anything so we stopped at one of those carts on the side of the road and bought Pringles and sodas. This is what I remember from my trip to Rome when I was 11. True fact. Well this time was much more pleasant seeing as it was around 55 degrees and sunny. We spent a long time playing on Palentine hill, climbing all over the ruins and taking various photos. My one bad-ass moment in Rome was when I decided to stand on the OTHER SIDE of one of the danger signs on Palentine hill. (See photo above). Watch out. I’m wild child. Mom, you better reel me in before I get too crazy.
I wish I could’ve gotten to explore the ruins a little more closely but I was there and I got to see them so I’m pretty happy. We took a ton of pictures and Facebook is hating me for trying to upload 245 at once, but eventually it will give in.
Grace and I are now off to the post office to send some long overdue post cards that will not arrive to those in the United States until probably February. But hey, they’ll be post marked with Italian stamps! Tomorrow is the day of shopping. The plan: buy things. The place: Rome. The money: scarce. The goal: fiiiiine leather goods.
Arrivederci a domani!

Click to enlarge!

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:02:00 -0500

Click to enlarge!

Hello to those of you who are so kind as to read my blog! Sorry...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:50:00 -0500

The hunt.

Strike a pose.

Kitty playland

Hello to those of you who are so kind as to read my blog! Sorry about the infrequency in posting, I’m just having too much fun to pay attention to the internet. It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day out and class is over. Finito. Done. Forever. Now it’s time to festeggiare! (That means to party). We woke up today to a cloudy, rainy, disgusting day and as class wore on the day became more and more beautiful! Now it is 60 and sunny and I’m sitting on my bed with the windows wide open. See the picture above for the view from my room. Also exciting news: I GOT MAIL! Thanks, Mom! It was beyond exciting to go to take out my key and find some mail sitting in my key box. I bragged to everyone.

On Wednesday, Fabio Caramasci took us to the Piazza Vittorio because we are reading a book in class that takes place there. He showed us this huge market (which was mildly gross) that had everything you could possibly think of including pigs hooves and, in fact, a pig’s head. Then we went to the actual Piazza Vittorio which turns out to house CATS. Oh yes, it was an exciting day for me. There are these ruins of a large building in the middle of the piazza that is surrounded by a gate and I’d say close to 100 cats live there. They were just wandering all around, it was adorable. The biggest kitty playhouse in the world. Of course, out of habit I started making the chirping noise that I use to get George and Josie to come inside and one cat in particular decided that I was something he wanted to hunt so he came scampering over to me. I stopped making the noise and he just sat down in front of me and stared for a while, posing for pictures when I chirped at him. Obviously everyone thought I was a nut job because I was so excited about all the beautiful cats but it’s not like I pet one. There were a lot of all black ones that were slinking around like panthers and they were all hunting the pigeons.
After class Emily, Elena, Megan and I went to the Villa Borghese and wandered around the gardens. They were so beautiful and peaceful in such a busy city. I loved being up there and seeing the view and wandering through the trees. It was so much fun to see, I’m so happy my mom told me to go! The gardens were beautiful. Then on the way home we stopped in every store we saw that had purses. The hunt still continues.
Arrivederci!

The fun did not stop at Firenze. On Sunday morning, far too...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:52:15 -0500

The fun did not stop at Firenze. On Sunday morning, far too early for my liking, I hopped a train to Napoli and then another to Pompeii. Emily, Maeghan and I arrived in Pompeii around 12:30 and walked from the train station, not really knowing where we were going, to the archeological site of Pompeii! After an 11 euro entrance fee (thank goodness for cultural reimbursements) we finally got to enter into the once bustling city. Everything was very silent and serene, aside from a few very large tourist groups. The city was absolutely amazing. Although all of the bodies have been removed from their original standing points, we got to see three there were safely behind a gate. It was so powerful to be able to see these stone casts of people. It is mind boggling to realize that after thousands of years these people are still frozen in that pose. In 79 A.D. they struck that pose in order to shield themselves from the volcano and have been like that ever since. I am so incredibly happy that I was able to go and spend all the time that I did there. We wandered around for almost 3 and a half hours before we had to head back to catch our train.
Then of course today we had class. It was fun because Osvaldo (Prof. Laviosa’s brother) came to teach our class. We got to learn about music and listen to a bunch of songs. Then we got out of our afternoon class early which was amazing and Grace and I kind of bummed around the hotel. We did homework and I finished watching Julie & Julia, which we had been watching on the train back from Firenze before Grace’s computer died. I got to upload all my pictures and blog about my weekend! Now that you’re all up to speed I’m going to go to dinner and hopefully it will be as delicious as our dinner in Firenze- I will accept nothing less.
Arrivederci!

Click to enlarge!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:47:00 -0500

Click to enlarge!

Well it has been quite the weekend. Sorry for the lack of posts...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:43:00 -0500

Well it has been quite the weekend. Sorry for the lack of posts but I’ve been adventuring all around Italia! It began on Friday afternoon when Grace, Olivia and I took the 3:18pm train from Termini to Firenze! We arrived around 7:30pm and found our way to the beautiful Hotel Tournabouni Beacci. We put our bags down and headed out to find dinner. We got to walk over a bridge near the Ponte Vecchio and got to see it all lit up, it was so beautiful! Taking a suggestion from the concierge at the hotel we went to a restaurant close by. We decided to put our name in and wait the 30 minutes outside underneath the heat lamps. While we waited they brought us the most delicious Prosecco that ever existed that we later found out was complimentary, making it even more delicious. The dinner was absolutely amazing, by far the most delicious food I have eaten in Italy so far. All four of us ordered different dishes and we all shared - an excellent plan. I personally think Bridgid won in the ordering contest. She got spinach&cheese ravioli with the greatest meat sauce that I have ever eaten. All I want to do is find a bowl of that meat sauce and eat it with a big spoon. Olivia was a close second with this amazing tortolini with pears inside in this delicious cream sauce. The pasta itself was out of this world delicious. I realized that I’ve been eating kind of crappy food in order to save money. It is a very stupid, stupid thing. The dinner wasn’t even that expensive but it was a much nicer restaurant than what we normally go to and the cost was not much more than what we normally pay for much less delicious food. Therefore, new game plan: go to fancier restaurants. Just because they’re fancy doesn’t mean they’re super expensive. This is all I will say on the matter since I have yet to get to day 2 of Firenze.

We wandered back to the hotel and finally got to sleep which was delightful. Breakfast at the hotel was excellent. Held in a huge dining room (compared to where we eat normally) with beautiful windows opening out onto the streets of Florence. Breakfast was buffet style and there were so many options! They had the cutest little packets of nutella and of course cheese, which clearly I love, and fruit and orange juice. It was so nice to have different options for breakfast, in particular the fruit salad. Then we hit the road! First stop was the Ponte Vechio which was absolutely amazing. I haven never seen so many beautiful pieces of jewelry in one place. Then it was off to to the Mercato de San Lorenzo for some shopping. We thought we’d found it when we got to the Piazza de Republica and found this enormous square of tents selling the most beautiful leather. The first thing I saw was this gorgeous leather carry on bag that I still want to own but have zero reason for buying and zero money for buying. But wow it was so beautiful. I miss looking at it. I found a gorgeous red leather journal, which is perfect. Then we found our way to the actual market we were looking for and it was astounding. It went on forever! It was like an entire New York avenue block that then split off in two directions and those two split into more directions. I could spend a week there. Everything was so pretty and the leather was to die for. I found some beautiful red leather gloves and bought myself a leather jacket! Then we went to the Duomo and we saw the David, which was amazing. I didn’t realize it was so enormous. I expected it to be life size but it was so huge, it was really quite marvelous. Then we walked to the Piazza Michaelangelo, which was quite a hike. Up a giant hill and then up so many steps that were so steep. It was like the Spanish Steps but worse. But the view is worth the hike, for sure. Once at the top there is such a beautiful view of all of Firenze. We stayed up there for a long time, taking pictures and just taking in the beautiful view. Then we all went back to the hotel, where we had left our bags, and decided to head to the earlier train. The trip was amazing and I am completely in love with Firenze. In. Love. I’m thinking of going back for the day on Saturday (the day before I leave!!). I would love nothing more than to spend another day wandering through the Mercato de San Lorenzo again and going into the shops on the Ponte Vecchio and seeing all the beautiful jewelry. There is a strong possibility that I will buy a train ticket and spend next Saturday in Florence. All in all, I am beyond happy that I got to spend most of my weekend in Firenze.
Arrivederci!

Click to enlarge!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:33:57 -0500

One day I will buy that bracelet.

Look mom! Grape earrings!

Lovelocks

Click to enlarge!

Today was a LONG day. Class felt like it dragged on forever. We...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:28:51 -0500

Today was a LONG day. Class felt like it dragged on forever. We go to meet the director of the movie we had watched (Solo Andata) and ask him questions which was very interesting. He was really cool and a lot of fun but oh my god can than man talk fast. Mom I know you’re reading this and you complain a lot about how quickly I speak but you would be astounded by the velocity at which this man can produce words.

Class finally ended at 3:45 and Grace and I stopped at Termini, the giant train station in Rome, so that she could buy her ticket to Firenze. The picture above is of Termini and we walk through it every day to get to class and back from class. It is always incredibly busy, it’s more like an airport than it is a train station. I want to say it’s like Grand Central but it is more laid out like an airport but is thought of in a similar way to Grand Central. After class I read some of my guide book on Rome to make sure I wasn’t missing anything but I fell asleep pretty quickly. I don’t know when I fell asleep and I woke up at around 6:30pm and worked on my test. Maeghan, Olivia and I went downstairs to the cafe below the hotel and got a quick and cheap dinner (only €3.50!) and then I came back upstairs to do more work on my test and finish my homework. We have an astounding amount of homework, which is unfortunate and stressful. All the girls that came to our classroom to speak to us about wintersession, when we were still deciding, told us there rarely had homework and when they did it was quick and painless. That apparently is no longer the case, which is unfortunate, but we all work on everything together so it makes it much less difficult and stressful.

Tonight we are going salsa dancing! I have not even the slightest clue as to how to salsa dance but I’m gonna find out! Domani vado a Firenze!

Arrivederci!

Today was a fun day! Class went by pretty quickly because we...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:42:22 -0500

Today was a fun day! Class went by pretty quickly because we were going through an exercise that we had for homework pretty much the entire time. It was about vocabulary so I thought it was very interesting since we never really take the time to learn vocabulary. Lunch was really fun because we all sat with Prof. Laviosa at a big table in the cafeteria of the school and spoke Italian during the entire meal. It was so much fun. Then we went back to the classroom to have our afternoon class which was supposed to be a guest lecture from the director of the documentary we had watched about immigration to Italy, called One Way. But he never showed up so we did more of the vocabulary practice that she had assigned for homework for about a half an hour until she let us out because we figured he wasn’t coming. It turns out that he is coming tomorrow and there was a mixup with the syllabus. After class Bridgid, Olivia and I stopped at the train station to buy our tickets to Firenze! Then we walked back to the hotel and Grace and I CRASHED. So much napping - it was great. I woke up earlier than she did to go out shopping with some girls over by the Piazza di Spagna. I finally bought something! We found this little hole in the wall shop in the middle of all the fancy stores that looked interesting and turned out to be awesome. It was run by this most likely 90 year old Italian man who was just adorable. The store had all kinds of knicknacks and was about the size of a closet. There were statues for sale and ancient coins and beautiful jewelry and old boxes and platters and paintings. It was such a cool place and the old man working there was so kind. He was selling Murano glass necklaces and I knew that I wanted to buy one eventually while I was here and if I was going to get one I wanted to get it there because I just wanted to make that old man happy! Everything was priced well and he packaged everything for us individually and asked if we were buying presents and where we were from (all of these conversations in Italian of course) and he even explained where Murano is and how all his glass items are Venetian glass. It took him a while to package everything because he is very very old and has shaky hands but he did it all himself and I hope we brightened his day. I will be very proud to wear my necklace knowing that I bought it from such a nice man. We shopped some more after that and then headed back to the hotel and got some dinner then we all sat in the kitchen and did the reading for our homework. Tomorrow night we are going salsa dancing! It will be interesting…
Arrivederci a domani!

Well day 2 of class was exhausting because yesterday was so...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:15:31 -0500

Well day 2 of class was exhausting because yesterday was so exciting. We had 5.5 hours of class before we could finally go a-wandering. We dropped off book bags at the hotel and headed to the Bocca di Verita. It turned out to be much farther from the hotel than we’d realized but I finally go to ancient Rome! I saw ruins and the Colosseum (from afar) and a bunch of other things in passing. I’ll get over there soon enough and really spend time looking at everything. It was fun to partake in such a Roman tradition and see if the drain cover’s mouth would take my hand. Luckily I still have two fully functioning hands. We then got to go into the church and I got to light and candle for my Nana and Papa! I had really wanted to do this at the Vatican but I could not for the life of me find a place to light candles. Then Grace, Elena and I decided to walk to the Compi di Fiori and along the way walked through some of the Jewish Ghetto which was so cool! I took a picture in front of a giant menorah for my Dad, of course. Then we shopped around a little and I finally got around to calling Pino. We had dinner and then walked around some more before heading back to the hotel. The rest of the night consisted of booking a hotel in Firenze and doing so much homework my brain hurts. Now I can finally go to sleep and I am a little too excited about it…
Arrivederci!