Homecoming: A Fight For My Life

It's been three days since I've returned home, and I think I'm just starting to get over the insanity that was this past weekend. It was the craziest two days of my life, for others the craziest five or six. No one really predicted that a freak blizzard would take over Europe on Friday, December 17th, and completely shut down every major (and non-major) airport, making it impossible for hundreds of students who had studied abroad for a semester return home for Christmas.

I remember Thursday night we all decided to try and stay up as late as we could. The goal was to see the sunrise off the Ponte Vecchio, and then just sleep all day on the plane rides home. Unfortunately I had been up all night the night before studying for three final exams that Thursday, so another all-nighter wasn't in the cards for me. Nevertheless, I got three hours of sleep, woke up at 6 am, tearfully said goodbye to an amazing new friend I'd made during the semester and got into my taxi headed towards the Florence airport just as it was beginning to snow.

The forecast was "light snow flurries." I wasn't worried. Planes take off in Colorado when there's snow everywhere. It wasn't long after I'd gotten to the airport that my flight was cancelled. I was immediately frustrated because other planes were still taking off, to Paris and to Switzerland, but mine was going to Germany. I tried to get on any other flight that day, but they had nothing. They offered a later flight to Germany, which was actually one that had already been delayed from that very morning. Things started to look pretty bad to me. The lady was only offering me flights out of Florence a couple days from now (and a couple out of Pisa), and all headed towards Frankfurt.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the snow wasn't going to let up. Where is the weather freezing? Germany. If there is an airport in Italy that can't handle anything which is it? Florence. I could see a huge disaster brewing. I went back up to the lady at the counter and asked if there was anything out of Rome that went directly to the U.S., and she found one. She said it was tomorrow morning (Saturday, December 18th), and that I would never make it. I asked to be placed on that plane, and then Lufthansa gave me a ride to a hotel they'd set up.

The hotel turned out to be really nice, despite my disappointment at not being able to go home that day. I spent the day calling lufthansa to see if that flight was going to get cancelled. I called my mom. I called my university, who told me to wait it out in Florence, because I would never make it to Rome. It snowed heavily all day in Florence, covering the entire city. Public and private transportation (buses, taxis, some trains) were completely shut down, and no one could go anywhere. I found out during the course of the day that other friends who were supposed to leave later got their flights cancelled and ended up at random hotels, back at our apartments in the center of the city, or were sleeping in the airport that night because transportation was down.

It was awful. I had never been in such a situation where the entire world just shut down.

I realized I wasn't going to be able to make it to Rome because transportation was down, and I couldn't walk to the train station with two fifty pound suitcases, a duffle and a backpack. My university kept saying to wait it out in Florence, but I wanted to risk it. I wanted to get home. My mom had an idea: "Why don't you get up at 3 am and just start calling for a taxi."

So that's what I did. I went downstairs at 3 am to the hotel reception and asked them to call a cab. They told me there was no way I was getting out of there because transportation was down, and I just said "Please, can you just try to call a taxi." One picked up in thirty seconds and said he'd be there in six minutes. I checked out of the hotel, and thus began my adventure getting to Rome.

The flight was at 11:20 am. The train to Rome left at 5:50 am and was supposed to get in at 8:24 am. There was supposed to be an express train from the train station directly to the airport. As soon as I got that taxi, I really started to believe that the whole plan was going to work.

On the way to the train station at three in the morning, a few Italian teenage boys were standing on the side of the road, and one threw a snowball at our taxi. My taxi driver got out of the car and ran and grabbed the kid by the collar and started yelling at him in Italian! He pushed and shoved him a couple times, and the kids ran off. He got back in the car, said as nicely as he could "Scusi," and we kept driving.

Florence was a mess. There were trees down everywhere, and snow covered everything. I've never seen a city just completely incapacitated by a snowstorm.

We made it to the train station by 3:30 am, and I had two more hours to wait. In the freezing, cold, open train station, I sat huddled against my two suitcases, duffle and backpack and waited for my train. I watched as some local and regional trains were cancelled or delayed, and a bum talked to me a couple times in Italian. Finally it was 5:30 am, and I got on the train and immediately passed out. I woke up to find out that the ride had taken longer than expected and we were going to be twenty-five minutes late. No big deal, I can take that.

After the train arrived, I follow the signs to the express train to the airport. I had to go slow and take multiple breaks because I was bearing the weight of probably 175 pounds on me. When I finally got to the platform (which was so nicely placed on the other end of the train station), I found out that the express train wasn't running that day.

The next hour was really a huge blur. I ended up taking a metro four stops to another train station and taking a thirty minute train to the airport from there. Along the way, some guys helped lift my suitcases up a flight of stairs, some policemen pointed me in the completely wrong direction, an old couple gave me a bottle of water, and I'm pretty sure I cried the whole way. Mostly from the pain of carrying all my stuff; I had blisters all over my hands.

On the train to the airport, I realized I wasn't going to make it. It was within one hour of an international flight to Charlotte. No good. I called my mom and told her the bad news. She told me to just go ahead to the airport and see if they could get me on another flight. You cannot imagine my frustration and disappointment. I had made it so far.

When I got off the phone, a man standing next to me in the train said, "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. You're flying US Airways, right? When we get there you'll need to take a shuttle to Terminal 5; that's where US Airways is." Grazie.

When the train finally arrived at the airport, things got blurry again. I remember running with all of my stuff and barely making it on the shuttle to Terminal 5 before it left. At Terminal 5, once a lady saw that I was trying to make the flight to Charlotte (with 25 minutes before departure), I was escorted to the front of the check-in line, the check baggage line, and the security line. I got through everything within minutes and walked directly onto my plane. I'd made it.

Looking back on that day, it's hard to understand or even fathom how I made it home. Nothing was in my favor. But I had the random support of strangers who helped along the way and the drive to get home, and I guess that was enough.

Quite an ending to an incredible semester.

it hasn't felt like home before you

no. no. no.nonononoononono...noooooo.no.

The past few weeks have been amazing. I've done a ton of work, but I think they've been my favorite weeks of the whole semester. I don't want this to end yet. I didn't have enough time.

Honestly, what was I thinking? I want to redo this. Can I have a go at it again?

: (

Undici Giorni???? DIO MIO.

i hate all the parents who came to see their children. i just got my picture taken as a dad took a picture of the library on his nifty camera and i want he and his wifeto go back where they came from. i bet your kid won't show you italylike i would'veshown my parents...so you're missing out.

sprained ankle is poopy. it's okay if i walk very flatfooted and on no incline and put more weight on my right foot. but otherwise, not so great. and cobbled sidewalks and streets of florence are very inconvenient.

i bought boxes today!!! im excited to pack them. i just hope they make it home... but im only sending stuff that isn't from anthropologie. we are not losing 70dollar tops. but we can lose 5 dollar ones from old navy. :D and all my papers, books, and presents. so fam, if the boxes get lost, no presents for you. everyone just say a little quick prayer and cross your fingers that italy actually lets my boxes make it to the Stati Uniti, because that'dbe great, grazie.

i wrote an amazing oral today. ill post it later. you will all like it. naw ill do it now, it'll be good to study anyway. I can't be held responsible for any mistakes at this point because i havent talked to domenico about any of it yet, so itll be fixed eventually.:

im presenting 7 photos.

foto 1:

Il mio semestre a Firenze era stupendo, ma sono emozionata andare agli Stati Uniti. Non vedo l'ora che arrivino le vacanze. Primo, voglio vedere la mia famiglia. Ho quattro sorelle e un fratello. Ci divertiamo insieme. Questa foto mostra i miei genitori e tre di mie sorelle (dalla sinistra a destra: Jessica, Sarah, e Jennifer). Ci assomigliamo. Non vedo l'ora che mangiare la cucina di mia madre. Lei e' la migliore cuoca che conosco.

My semester in Florence was awesome, but I'm excited to go to the US. I can't wait for vacation. First, I want to see my family. I have four sisters and a brother.We have fun together. This photo shows my parents and three of my sisters (from left to right: jess, sary, and jer). We look alike. I can't wait to eat my mom's cooking. She is the best cook I know.

Foto 2:

Comunque, questo semestre, ho imparato cucinare come mia mama! io e la mia amica preferita abbiamo cucinato molto e adesso voglio cucinare per la mia famiglia per dimostrare le mie abilita'. Mi piace cucinare la pasta, il pollo, e le verdure. Vorrei bevere il vino con i pranzi che cucino, ma si deve avere ventuno anni (?) negli Stati Uniti.

However, this semester, I learned how to cook like my mom! my best friend and I cooked a lot and now i want to cook for my family in order to demonstrate my skilllzzz. I like to cook pasta, chicken, and vegetables. I want to drink wine with the meals that i cook, but you have to be 21 years old in the US.

Foto 3:

Anche, sono emozionata per il Natale in Florida. Abito vicino a un lago e sempre fa caldo. Questa foto e' dal Natale scorso. I miei capelli era lunghi. Il albero era molto bello! Di solito, io e la mia famiglia andiamo in barca intorno al lago. Questa e' mia sorella Sarah. Ha ventiquattro anni e frequenta la scuola di medicina all'universita' di Wake Forest.

Also, I'm excited for Christmas in Florida. I live next to a lake and it is always hot. This foto is from last christmas. My hair was long. The tree was very pretty. Usually, my family and i go in boat and go around the lake. This is my sister Sarah. She is 24 years old and goes to the school of medicine at the university of WF.

Foto 4: our gingerbread men from last year:

La mia famiglia ha molte tradizioni per il Natale che sono divertimenti. Questa foto mostra i biscotti di uomini di pan di zenzero (??). E' molto importante avere buone idee per i biscotti. Prepariamo le nostre idee durante l'anno. Il Natale scorso, ho fatto un elfo, un diavolo blue (la mascotte di Duke), Charlie Brown, Lucy, Henry l'ottavo, Anne Boleyne un uomo con un snuggie. Tiger Woods e' qui.

My family has a lot of traditions for christmas that are fun. This photo shows the cookies of gingerbread men. it is very important to have good ideas for the cookies. We prepare our ideas during the year. Last xmas, I did an elf, a blue devil (the mascot of duke), charlie brown, lucy, henry the 8th, anne boleyn, and a man with a snuggie. Tiger Woods is here (i'll point to him).

Foto 5:

Anche, non posso aspettare per vedere i miei amici a Duke! Questi amici sono attori. Facciamo quattro spettacoli ogni anno. Anche, ci divertiamo insieme. Andiamo in cinema, cuciniamo la cena in un appartamento, o facciamo una festa ogni fine settimana. Mi piace uscire con i miei amici.

Also, I can't wait to see my friends at Duke! These friends are actors. We do four shows each year. We also have fun together. We go to the movies, cook dinner in an apartment, or have a party each weekend. I like to go out with my friends.

Foto 6:

Infine, non posso aspettare per le partite di pallacanestro di Duke. La nostra squadra ha ottenuto il titolo di campione nazionale l'anno scorso e sara' di nuovo quest'anno. Mi piace dipingersi con il colore di blu. Questo e' il mio ragazzo. Vorrei vederlo un po' anche.

Finally, I can't wait for Duke basketball games. Our team won the title of national champions last year and it will again this year. I like to paint myself with the color blue. This is my boyfriend (pointing). I would like to see him a little bit, too.

Foto 7:

Ma, non dimetichero' mai il mio semestre a Firenze. Ho imparato molte cose di la cultura, il cibo, le persone, e di i miei corsi. Il mio appartamento era fantastico e le persone che ho conosciuto erano molti simpatici. Ciao Firenze!

But, I will never forget my semester in Florence. I have learned many things about the culture, food and people and from my classes. My apartment was fantastic and the people i met were very nice. Bye florence!

super cute, typing this out made me so sad.

ciao.

bec

Things I'm excited about going home for:

I've decided to make a list of reasons why I'm excited about going home in order to help (maybe) the process of me coming to terms with going home. Plus I'm going to be doing my oral in Italian on Monday on this (things I'm excited about), although i wont be able to say the majority of this in Italian, so it'll be much simpler.

I'll probably edit this a bunch over the next week or so, so check it regularly!

Things I'm excited about:

-All my favorite foods: mom's cooking, all our christmas cooking we do (holiday shrimp, gingerbread men, christmas cookies, eggnog, pineapple stuff), moes, panera, zaxbys, tropical smoothie, mellow mushroom, toast, cheesecake factory, and decent grocery stores.

-the beach!

-the lake, specifically boat rides on the lake

-my xmas presents for my family. :)

-a queen-size bed, at least for three weeks

-going back to anthro and urban

-things being considerably cheaper

-nicer weather (although it's sunny today in italy...i am in the library)

-people: Fam, the cruise kids, mj, brent, andrew, josh, caitlin, tyler, monica, fac board, hnh kids, etc

-duuuuke. i love the campus feeling. i get it here too. but i love the duke one. i love calling duke home, i love being at duke

-duke classes, surprisingly, but im excited about the courses im taking next sem

-dancing!!! gah dancing

-food points. quenchers. the gym.

-making a scrapbook for this semester... or at least something to keep all this stuff in!

okay im procrastinating. ♥

i'm here, i'm now, i'm ready.

Fernando (barista in villa ulivi cafe) told me this morning that "i look beautiful today" in italian. i almost cried. i overslept from having stayed up pretty late reading 1984 and finishing my money and banking problem set. I got up at 8 am, the normal time i leave for school. if your problem set isnt turned into before 9 am (when class starts), you cant turn it in. I woke UP at 8 am. the bus comes three times in the hour, the third time, you'll be late. the first time... is at like 8:06.

i showered and got ready for school in 15 minutes. it was pretty incredible...but i was a wreck, no make up, didnt do my hair, and i was hardly awake. and fernando told me i looked beautiful.

mary jo posted on my wall this morning that there are only 16 days before i come home. i hadnt done the math yet (for various reasons), and my heart lurched. i thought i was going to be studying abroad for a semester??... did someone lie and it was actually just a quick little vacation? my head is so mixed up in last minute plans (which im very excited about), tons of work (though i think this week was worse that next week is going to be, but not as bad as finals week will be), and mixed emotions about going home.

i told emily this morning that im scared about going back to all my problems in the States. i'm scared things wont work out the way i want them to. I've sorta formed my own little world here. There are only a few other people in it here with me (i'm starting to think im a little shy, something i dont think ive ever come to terms with before, in the context of making friends at least...or maybe ive just become more shy). anyway, i like my little world here. i like my little routine. i like walking home from campus with my ipod plugged in because the bus never comes when it says it's going to. i love the lights on the streets of florence. i love pugi. i love the croissants and coffee and hot chocolate from the villa ulivi cafe. i love the library overlooking florence. i love my little room in my nice apartment.

throughout the semester ive had random cases of dying to be home. but now that it's finally and rapidly approaching i want to hide under the covers of my cozy italian bed and stay here forever. im scared about next semester. im scared about figuring out a career / after college plans / next summer. im scared about how my relationships have changed. i dont want to deal with any of it. i want my view of the states to stay frozen, and for me to continue in my little world here.

im not ready. i cant even pretend to be. im not even angry at my upcoming finals, ill do them forever if they could let me stay.

hopefully ill reach a better point. i do have two weeks. god. two weeks.

other news:

-i like this commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8. Im sharing it with my fascism class today when i present on 1984, haha.

-i dont feel stressed at all. and didnt get stressed once this week. then again my face betrays me (im broken out), which is funny, that you can even feel not stressed, but know you are. but at least my good mood is still overpowering, even if it cant overpower my break outs. but i must admit, if i was at duke, id be breaking down and out (hahahaha)

-im excited about this weekend. im writing a paper, but im also having lots of fun... it's the last weekend before finals and i figure better this weekend than next.

aight, fifty pages left in 1984. finishing a paper tonight. and writing two italian orals. let's go!

ready, set, here we go.

Today we learned how to order food in italian.

Now, reread that sentence, placing the emphasis on the word "today."

I'm trying not to count how many days I have left here because it's making me super sad, but, domenico, this wouldve been very beneficial at the beginning of the school year.

speaking of domenico, he asked me today if i was going to continue to study italian. my heart lurched. why do i have an innate desire to please every professor Ive ever had? i hate disappointing people. mostly i just wish i could go to school and do my thang. actually that's really not true, i like when professors are proud of me. haha. i just said "i don't know. i am studying so many things. we'll see." i felt bad. trust me, domenico, id love to continue to learn italian! id love to do a lot of things though..

tonight is going to be an all-nighter... or a whenever i give up-er. ive been working on my money and banking problem set all week and it's eating me for breakfast. i spent five hours on one problem and i still dont think i have it. the TA taught that chapter last week and doesnt speak any english, and for the first time, surprisingly, the textbook is completely useless. there are five of these... and theyre not a huge part of our grade, but it really scares me about the final. im going to have to talk to prof gallo about this junk because i cant figure out how to learn it. we're legitimately getting into the banking part of this course (whaaa?), and it's kinda a foreign language to me...but this one isn't similar to spanish.

as for that, finishing up 1984, which im giving a presentation on tomorrow. it is amazing how memorized i have it. i mean we did spend almost an entire semester on it with Carstenn (i wonder how he's doing...). but it's just insane. like i cant tell you prior, but once i read it, i remember it instantly, and not only do i remember it instantly, i remember it by word. by quote "where extinct animals walked." "we are the dead."...not to mention the language of Newspeak.

other than that, doing italian assignments like crazy, but i will tell you, i am excellent at memorizing things. I wrote out what i wanted to say in my writing composition test today. ten minutes before class I read it consistently until class started. I think i got it word for word on the exam. pretty impressive: up next i have to write domenico a letter from the future and make a presentation about anything i want (i think im going to do what im excited about going home for).

Becca! work!

ciao

ps kyle and i talked for one whole hour yesterday and it was pretty glorious. ha.

Catch a boat to England, baby, maybe to Spain..

I realized today that I'm pretty sick of my classes. Surprisingly, I'm not stressed out about all the work i have to do (you'd be super surprised if you took a look at my to-do list), but mostly just annoyed... this is the point when i feel like school gets int he way of me getting the work done.... add in all of my theories i've developed lately and you just have an annoyed Becca trying to get back to the library so she can be alone with her work and thoughts.

Granted, I'm still not entirely sure how everything is going to get done this week.

As for my theories, trust me, I'm dying to share... Unfortunately, I'm not sure I want all of this posted on the internet (never know where this stuff might pop up when I'm rich and famous, hehe), but I've learned a lot this semester... Kyle and I talked about it forever ago... Learning abroad vs learning in study abroad... it's still developing obvi, and may be for the rest of my life, but I feel like I have enough rubbish stuffed in my head right now that I could write a book on them. The theories of Becca. Catherine and I realized we've come up with a whole lot of really good ideas about the ways things should be run, too. The Ideas of Becca and Catherine.

My theories are mostly about people.... students, in particular... and then europeans. Then i have theories about europe in general, studying abroad, studying, myself, life, being young.

Once I came up with a theory about NYU students it continued to develop right before my very eyes. It was like, as soon as I thought it, I started seeing it everywhere, and saw it take on complex forms that made me reevaluate my theory, adjust it, and encompass more into it. And then of course, college students in general... and then college students who decide to study abroad.

europe theories are about different types of people and then probably the way things are run, overall. It was very interesting to see that you could take a train for a few hours and be in a completely different place run completely differently. I want to be like "dude, have you seen how theyre doing it five hours from here?" but mostly i think my ideas will remain in my head.

I guess that's okay though. I can't decide how I've changed, or how I've grown, or any of that has even grown. Mostly that will be for you all to determine, I suppose.

Mostly I feel like the same ole' me, in a place that has opened by mind to so many new things that I don't really know what to do with all, but write... and i can't have this stuff on the internet...

So I think I'll do my Money and Banking Problem Set instead.

hehe, Bec

ps i dont know how people eat the croissants from the cafe without making a mess and getting them all over themselves because i sure do..... so flaky and delicious though! :)

Where did our loyal friend go?

"...who really wasn't all that loyal.....or our friend, either."

This was an extreme weekend for me. Catherine and I termed it that because it was extremely amazing and awesome and wonderful, and had an extremely bad part. Extreme ends of things...which made it pretty emotional, but also made it a time to refresh myself for the first time in awhile and....inhale.

As for the bad part, I'll leave details out, but I successfully (and surprisingly) outmaneuvered what I consider to have been a poor decision (for many logical and well-thought reasons), only prolonging the inevitable, but giving me enough time to deal with it later. Although it left me pretty upset, I was comforted by amazing friends (old and new), beautiful Paris, and the rest and relaxation that came with staying in a house, rather than a hostel.

over it.

this weekend was awesome. we got to Paris thursday night, taking a bus from charles de gaulle airport into paris (CDG is one of the biggest airports i have ever been to...and ive been to a lot)...nicole and bri picked us up and walked us back to nicole's apartment (which is so close to the arc de triomphe). she lives on the sixth floor...technically she lives in a homestay right now, since she's studying in france. but we all stayed at her parents apartment for the weekend. we chatted with her parents and little sister (named Danielle, easy to remember). The apartment was adorable and very nice. cute little french kitchen big living room and dining room with slanted ceilings. three bedrooms, 2.5 bath. our bathroom was huge too. Nicoles mom fed us pizza and soup and little pumpkin pies. and that was my thanksgiving haha.

friday catherine and i got up early and did the louvre (main parts), starbucks, musee d'orsay (which is completely under construction right now and looked nothing like it did the last time i was there, but still had beautiful art), sante-chapelle, a tiny little chapel which outrageously tall stained glass windows that were beautiful, though the front alter was under restoration and we couldnt see any of it (go figure), we were also harassed by a jerk waiting in line who tried to convince us we had no idea why were there. I gave him a piece of my mind, but when he wouldnt lay off, we just left.

Then we went and did Notre Dame, which was huge and gothic, etc. we also did the treasury which apparently has part of the cross (yeah, Jesus's cross) and part of the crown of thorns (yeah, Jesus's crown of thorns). but im kinda tired of every church claiming to have some saint's bones, etc.

then we met Nicole there and she took us through this adorable little shopping area, with nice shops and cute shops, of all sorts of stuff... then it started snowing!!!!!! it was actually the only day it snowed... but it snowed pretty heavily... and happened to be right when we were picking up a 10 lb turkey.

There's a store in paris called The Thanksgiving Store.. Nicole ordered a stuffed turkey for our thanksgiving dinner (friday night)... uber expensive... but it was quite fun transporting the turkey back to the apartment in the snow. Catherine and I were the body guards and Nicole was the First Lady of the Turkey and Catherine and I practice fire drills in case Nicole slipped in the snow. (tactic: throw the turkey straight up into the air. Catherine and I lock arms and catch turkey.)

then we just went back to the apartment and gotttt ready. Catherine and I did dishes, and got sent out for wine. Then Bri and Katherine got sent out for baguettes (soooo many baguettes hahahaha) and more potatoes... Nicole spent all morning making mashed potatoes... haha

we made an appetizer (sunita and nicole's work)... cleaned the apartment, got everything ready and then the guests arrived!!! they were all friends from Nicole's paris program (some from duke, emory, cornell, etc) and were all super nice. They brought food too (more baguette, a vegetarian dish, stuffing, and dessert). we also ordered filipino food (spring rolls and noodles). Nicole tried to make gravy (along with my advice) but it was a big fail. We just did buffet style and every ate like crazy and it was fun to watch Nicole carve the turkey (she even got the wishbone out later!) and we did toasts and talked and overall just had an amazing time. Definitely a thanksgiving unlike any other. I definitely missed my family, and things were rough that night (for me), but i had a really great time sticking it out anyway. nicole did a great job too.

saturday. we were gonna get up early (but that was a fail). we went to montmartre and got lunch at the Amelie Cafe (The Two Windmills!) it was quite an experience: it was soooo crowded (i guess it's popularity has risen).... i thought our waitress wasn't very nice....there was a mouse in the restaurant (yeah....)... and then i accidentally ordered beef hahahahaha. nicole amazingly took my meal, but i felt terrible. overall... i love amelie... the cafe was super cute (though it didnt really look like it did in the movie), so i was happy to be there... but i think our experience couldve been a little better, haha

then we headed up to Sacre-coeur (the church on top...i think it used to be a convent right?) it was super cold but we roughed through it. it was pretty much getting dark after that so we headed back into town.

We went to the original Laduree (definitely missed my fam hardcore right then). Catherine and I bought Nicole her box as a thank-you for everything over the weekend. They were amazing as always and didnt last long enough.

Then we proceeded down the Christmas Market, which runs down Champs Elysses. It was Awesome!!! but so crowded. just tons of venders selling junka nd everything is all lit up and pretty for christmas. we got chocolate and banana crepes which were SUPERB and then we got hot wine... which was the weirdest thing i've ever drunk in my life... i dont think there was alcohol in it because alcohol burns out when you cook it. it had the consistency of apple cider... but was kinda like grape/wine cider...pretty much. you kinda kept wanting it to just be apple cider though, haha. anyway, interesting experience. Catherine and I raced each other to finish it (since we were saying we werent going to finish it because it was so weird and then challenged each other) which was probably a bad idea, haha.

then we climbed the arc de triomphe, which i hadnt done with my family...we timed it just right and were up there when the eiffel tower was twinkling... it was so cold but a lot of fun.

then we went back to nicoles house and had an amazing evening: we reheated up leftovers... i made garlic bread...and we ate macaroons and pumpkin pie and watched the duke/oregon game... which was a joke but a lot of fun to watch altogether. it was a great night.

this morning we got up early (and by early i mean like 8:30 haha) and did the eiffel tower.... im pretty sure it was the coldest i have ever been in my life. nevertheless, i forgot how high the eiffel tower is... it made the arc de triomphe look so smalll and we were so happy the night before to be on top of it!! but i couldnt handle it for very long... it was soooo coollllllllddddddd. i thought i was going to ddiiiiiieeeee.

Then we went to angelina's for lunch. which was this little cafe established in 1903. it is ornate and beautiful and famous for it's hot chocolate. we ordered lunch/brunch though... i got a mushroom and cheese omelette with a side salad which was heavenly... nicole and katherine got onion soup and it hit me when they brought it out that it was French Onion Soup.... but they dont say french in france... it looked just like mom's haha.

then we all got hot chocolate... it's kinda a big deal....they bring out your cup and saucer and spoons first. they they bring you each (or between two people) a little pitcher of hot chocolate... and a then a bowl of whipped cream! so you pour the hot chocolate, add the whipped cream, and enjoy the amazing hot chocolate! :)

coming home was hard. it was such a fun weekend... but mostly i just didnt want to come back to florence when i think about what's ahead: 2 papers, 4 italian tasks, 2 econ problem sets, 3 exams (two of which are two days long), two presentations, and dont talk to me about petty hw assignments. OH MY GOODNESS. im dreading it alllllll!!!

but it was nice to come back to my apartment and be greeted by everyone... i think the twelve us are all finally starting to get along with each other... just in time to go home.. but i think we've sorta all accepted our differences....doesnt mean i dont like how nasty our kitchen is sometimes. but we all just talked about our weekends and work coming up ahead. it was nice.

via ricasoli 46 is growing mold..... hasnt in my room or bathroom yet (thank god) but is pretty bad in other rooms... too much rain and cold and then the individual heaters in our rooms is my theory. but ugh... it smells awful... isnt it dangerous to inhale that stuff?

i feel like there's nothing left to do but finish....finish everything... finish everythign i want to do and finish all my work. it's making me incredibly sad. i keep telling everyone: im excited to see everyone back home (and show them how cultured i am now, hehe)... but just the idea of not being in europe is so weird... the idea of being in the US is weird... i feel like ive lived here forever.

i also counted today that we have taken over 20 trains, 7 airplanes (10 if you count getting to florence), 11 hostels, and too many buses to count. oh my goodness.

okay... i gotta do some hw tonight. BLEGGGGGGGG

love bec

ps pics from gordon browns breakfast are available!! im going to try and go get them tomorrow ! :) and eric's little cast party is tomorrow and we're supposed to get dvds of the show! :) good news all around!

la descrizione di un attimo

had the best site visit ever today. I havent really talked about all my site visits this semester because it reached a point where I realized I was going to have a ton of them, and couldnt possibly talk about all of them. plus, some of them were not very exciting.

but today we went to a silk weaving factory outside of florence. They do traditional hand-woven textiles, with original (/restored) looms. they explained how they worked and we got to see a whole bunch of different types being made. it was really neat. is it bad that ive never really thought about how velvet is/was made before today?? anyway, they were very beautiful. we got to see some interesting designs their students made too. it was a ton of fun. and also very relevant considering how important silk was to florence in the 1400s.

my fam and gender prof told a few of us on the bus back to florence that until 1981, there was a law that made it legal for men to kill their sisters, daughters, or wives if they were acting "dishonorably" (committing adultery, acting impurely, etc). until 1981. she said it even surprised her because she was in school then and thought it had already been abolished. ...but, i thought that was really weird.

crunch time is upon us, my friends. i have three weekends left, one to be spent in paris. probably a day trip here or there to a couple places around italy (thinking about siena, san gimignano, and chianti). also HP7 on wednesday and matthew bourne's swan lake the last day of classes. but here's whats upcoming work-wise so you can pity me:

-fascism extra paper (five pages)

-fam and gender paper (ten pages)

-italian quizzes/orals/tasks: i believe three more.

-two books for fascism

-two problem sets for money and banking

-lots of chapters to catch up in money and banking

-countless articles for fam and gender

-final exam in fascism: it's two days long, omg

-final exam in money and banking: cumulative, bleh

-final exam italian: oral and written, two days long

-12 more reviews and 4 more blogs for RG, so sad.

don't pity me because it's a lot of work. pity me because i have four weeks left in italy (less than, gahhh) and will be spending the majority of it doing all that. :( haha, ntm, getting ready to go home, which the idea of is terrifying (my room kinda looks like i've lived here for years). And seeing a few last things in Firenze.

I just saw a mosquito the size of my pinky.

time for scuola.

bec

Avere in the Pasta!

Domenico made a type-o on the board today. He meant "Avere in the past." avere is the verb "to have." it made our class for probably far too long. avere in the pasta! and we sang a song about a cat to learn about the imperfect. Click on The Cat Song. The lyrics are pretty cute: "There was one time a cat that had a black spot on his mouth and an old roof next to the sea with a window to a passage to teh blue sky/heaven. If i played my guitar, the cat purred and a star descended close and smiled at me and then returned to the sky. Now I don't live there anymore. All has changed, I don't live there anymore. I have a beautiful, beautiful house, like you are. But I think about the cat that had a black spot on his mouth at the old roof next to the sea with a star, that now i don't see anymore."

haha, i think it's for five year olds. Oh the things we do in italian sometimes.

I got another italian song today. It was from an italian movie we watched in class. The music video is kinda weird, but i like the song. :) click here.

And Ive got up new pictures on picasa!!! Barcelona/Montserrat, soon to be dublin/london. and ive added some play pictures that emily took of me to the original Florence album, that I thought you might enjoy. Director Eric emailed us, we're having our cast party next week with refreshments and watching the movie. should be cute. Click Spain for spain pics, and Florence for show pics and go check out all the new ones, and i'll slowly but surely get up captions so you know what everything is. There will also be a new album for dublin/london soon, and more pics in Fall break, haha... im catching up, slowly but surely.

today was insane... we got up at 3:45 am, caught a cab to the airport, 1.5 hr flight, caught a 1 hr bus to the train station, 1.5 hr train ride to florence, to arrive to POURING rain. I hate rain. i hate everything about rain. and it provides no motivation to go to school. florence needs to calm down. it's so sad all the time.

other crazy thought: I have three more weeks. that's three more saturdays and three more sundays. one of those weekends I'll be in paris (wooooot). but....oh my god... i can't take this. where did this semester go? how come everyone thinks thats a rhetorical question when i ask it? the idea...of not being here.... is foreign. check that out. being here isn't foreign. not being here is. im sad now.

hw time, sorry this was mostly informational. checking out an all vegetarian restaurant tonight with emily!

bec

best day evverrrrrrr

today was great. but i can only give sparknotes, because i have to talk about yesterday and i have to get up attttt 3:45 tomorrow. omg.

yesterday we did la sagrada familia, which is this crazy cathedral church thats still being worked on and apparantly wont be done until the middle of the century. it was incredible, unlike anything ive ever seen before, incorporated modern art into religious themese, etc, with gorgeous stained glass windows and naturistic elements (the columsn looked like tree trunks). anyway, thats the famous church that everyone sees in pics of barcelona... it was weird and awesome at the same time and you could never get tired of looking at it.

then we went to L´economic for lunch, which wasnt very economical (harhar), but had delciious food, adorable service and very spanish decorations (the walsl were tiled hafl way up), i got a spinach salad with nuts and goat cheese, and chipped my friggin front tooth. fortunately you cant tell, but it still bothers me. i cant believe i did that!

before that we did the a chocolate museum...i never really realized how crucial spain was in the development of chocolate in europe, but i guess when you think of the timeline of america being discovered and where the cacao plants were, it kinda makes sense

after that we we to the foundacion joan miro, which was a ton a modern art by joan miro..... my favorite (sarcasm) was a white canvas with a black quadrilateral of paint entitled "patience." Catherine said "if you have patience, the meaning of this painting will come to you" and then everything made sense! hahaha... modern art is not my thing. another was a white canvas with a blue dot on the right side..... and i dont understand why modern artists think its cool to put boobs random on places and then call the painting "female nude." over it.

thennn we took a cable car up to the top of the hill for some great views of barcelona, a castle!!! (shaped like the st augustine fort, but a million times bigger) and watched an amazing sunset. for dinner we ate at Gran Cafe, whcih was ridiculously difficult to find, but was amazingly delicous: i got seafood paella!!!! and even ate the junk out of the clam shells...though i didnt enjoy it. ...but it was amazing to have paella. and yummy bread.

TODAYYYYY today was incredible. today was one of my favorite days of my semester. not only did i do something incredible, it was breathtaking, but i also felt the most carefree and happy. ... I was also on top of the world, so that kinda makes sense.

i took a train outside of barcelona to montserrat. on the train I met a girl named Gwyn who is from west palm beach! she went to NYU for a year, but is transfering to Western Washington (yeah far away), but took a semester off. She is doing hardcore spain for a month. She did fl state thespians in high school!!!! and knows one of my FACs, Doug Hanna, because they went to high school together. can anyone say, small world???? anyway, we swapped adventure stories and hung out all day, which was really nice.

once you get to monserrat, you take a tiny yellow cable car...directly up the mountain! it took like five minutes and we were on top of this HUGE mountain (spain style, which was INSANE, so rocky, it looked like mars). theres this monastery with a famous cathedral with a famous religious shrine of Mary and the baby jesus which used to be white but then turned black and youre supposed to rub the ball she´s holding (i guess im good then?). the cathedral was insane. we also did the museum of montserrat whcih was mostly artwork, but they had a lot of paintings that had montserrat in the background and you could really tell how important it was, spiritually and religiously to the spanish. like a gazillion people used to come there on pilgrimage... im pretty sure many still do today. the village was adorable and we got lunch in the only eatery there. and then we took a furnicular (pretty much means train that goes up sides of mountains) even HIGHER to go see these hermitages that were built into the side of the mountains in sortve cave-like features. we were so high that we could see the tops of the clouds. it was FREEZING. it was so cold, that just normal speaking you could see your breath. i was not prepared clothes wise, but it didnt matter because what we saw was incredible.... im trying to decide how best to explain it to you, but i think i might just skip it and post pics when i get back to florence. can you just trust me when i say it was one of the prettiest places i have ever been to or seen and completely different from any othe rpretty thing ive ever seen or been to before? it was breathtaking. I told gwyn that if someone proposed to me right now, up here, id probably say yes. haha. it was an adorable little village too. i could see honeymooners coming there to stay for a night or two... people were coming up for dinner as we were heading down.

i cant express myself seriously tonight. and i know i havent done this place justice. montserrat was a blurb in my guide book that said "an excellent day trip," but it was unbelievable. unnnnnbelievable. ill get pics up soon i promise.

overall, i loved spain and would love to come back some day... is there a country i havent felt that way about? negative. but at least i can read and understand spanish...unlike some other places.... and i loved barcelona. liiiike ridiculously. gwyn said she likes it better than madrid too, becuase madrid is so city... and barcelona has aspects of village (cobblestones, etc) but also big city too.

last night we saw some traditional catalan dancing in front of the cathedral, and i was like, man, spain is great.

i always wish my family could see what im seeing. its just not fair.

back to florence tomorrow at four am. oof.

love bec

How has gone this morning with Mister Brown?

currently in Barthelona (notice the pronunciation)... and loving it. It was amazing going to museums today and being able to read descriptions, if not get the gist of things. I still have trouble talking, but I always have, I can read and write it like no one´s business. But glad it´s still there inside of me, despite the strong inclination to yell "Ciao!" when I leave a store or to say "Vorrei..." when ordering something.

I love Spain. I´ve loved everywhere I´ve gone though, so you dont really have any reason to listen to me, except that I love Spain. It´s soooo .....spanish. haha. I just think when ive previously thought of the language... I think of Mexico or Nicaragua or Miami (haha)...never Spain. And i think because of that, i didnt realize Spain was going to be as pretty as it is. Barcelona is extremely modern, I think that may be the result of the war from 1950 with Franco (I love taking classes where I live and go to the places we talk about in class....everything is so pertinent and relevant). Everything is sleek and beautiful...but the architecture still has this art-deco feel to it. We saw two churches today, the main cathedral La Seu (famous `pointy one) which was under restoration, because every important building we´ve seen this semester has been under restoration. Nevertheless, it had just endless chapels of ornate, gold altars, and incredible gothic ceilings. I really liked. also...apparently some saint Euralia (sp?) is buried there, i need to look that up. the other church was santa maria del mar, which yes, is a church on the foundation of where the coastline used to be, also very beautiful, had incredible stained glass windows.

we did Museu d´Historia de la Ciutat, which had the archeological ruins of the ancient roman city of Barcino. They knew exactly where clothes were washed and dyed, where fish were prepared for eating, where the church -religious center was, and where people bathed. it was really interesting. it´s also connected to the placa del rei, which had the famous steps where Ferdinand and Isabella stood to receive columbus after he returned in 1492, from that thing he did overseas. hehehe.

we when to the top of the mirador de Colon (columbus tower thing), which had great views of the city.... it´s not as pretty from the top as other cities weve seen, but it more than makes up for it from the ground. we ate at a tapas bar for lunch which was deeeeelish: i had onion soup and fried potatoes with a spicy (it wasnt really spicy) garlic sauce on them, and then catherine and i shared fried artichokes. i got Catalan Creme Brulee for dessert.... which really wasnt any different from non-catalan creme brulee, but was increeeeddiiiibbbllleeee.

tonight we went to the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (CCCB), and im pretty sure it was one of teh coolest places ive ever been to (have i said that before?? haha). it has like contemporary exhibits all the time. but right now theres an international independent film festival going on there. there were tons of pillows all over the floor and people were just chillin and relaxing and napping. there was a bar for drinks, and a staff doing massages. great environment. the exhibits were a contemporary photography exhibit (really neat pictures about palestinians, iraq, sports, and other current events). there was this exhibit on Labyrinths!!!! it was so cool as you went through it the walls look like tall hedges, just like in mazes. I never realized that people have so many ground plans and plans for making labyrinths and they showed some mythological stuffa nd popular culture stuff. They even had the layout model of the Hatfield House labyrinth, which is what I went through with fourteen friends two summers ago with Duke in London. :) it was definitely a unique exhibit. and finally we did the exhibit on the meaning of hispanic, which was really interesting in the context of how different spain is. they had videos of students at spanish schools around the world talking abut culture and identity, together and separate from other spanish countries. twas interesting. definitely a cool museum / exhibit area.

Saw two super cute spanish boys today... they may pass english boys...we´ll have to see how the rest of the weekend goes. :)

theres this street called Las ramblas, which is awwweessssommmme. its lined with trees and theres all these street performers and there was a vender selling birds, bunnies and hamsters (a bunny was 12 euro..... not saying how much i was considering buying one). it was a realyl neat street.

finally we ended with the worst meal i think we´ve had all semester. we followed the guide book to a restaurant but it wasnt there so we just went into the restaurant that was right there.....which was just an overall baaadddd call. bad chicken salad and bad paella. and a bug crawled onto my purse. baddddd..

didnt get pickpocketed today either! catherine and i put our purses on and then our coats on top, which i think was brilliant. then i put my wallet and my camera in the zipper part inside my purse. and put my purse in front of me against my stomach. you think someones going to get under my jacket, into my purse, into the zipper, right in front of me without me noticing? HA pickpockets, take that... you may think im not paying attention, but im smarter than you (....that was prob mean...)

one other thing: Catalan is insane and should die. it looks like spanish and french and italian all at the same time, and i dont like it. it must be so annoying to live in a place where everything is constantly in two languages (add in english). anyway, i dont like it. plus i would never try to learn a language that is only in like one part of spain.

other things going on in life:

Last Tuesday morning I had breakfast with former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It took me a couple days to realize what an honor it truly was. First, I found out that only 20 students were recommended by professors (i thnk like fifteen came). so boom, im a good student. then i realized, how many people actually get a private audience with a prime minister?? probably not that many.

Gordon Brown

-politically left, but supported the war at first (under Bush). Supports education like whoa and thinks that the financial crisis is a "gobal problem" and needs to be handled on a "global level" but didnt really offer anything in terms of how to do that.

-is blind in his left eye because of a rugby accident, which apparently made him decide he wanted to go into politics, even though he became a teacher and a journalist after that...

-was born in scotland in a mining area

- has young kids

-took all of tony blairs problems when the Labour party in cotnrol was worried about losing control with the next elections and then when they lost popular support, brown got blamed for everything and kicked out of the position of prime minister. he was apparently really good as Chancellor of the Exchequer though, which he served as for ten years, the longest in british history, i think.

-i dont really know what hes doing as of late, but i know he was heading off to india after his speech.

-both my professors, prof gallo (money and banking) and Dr travis were not thrilled with his speech. apparently he didnt answer the questions he was being asked. i dont think anyone has answers to whats going on in the world, so why should he? (esp since hes not prime minister or head of the labour party so is pretty much just a MP). People can talk about healthcare and illegal immigration (david frum) and people can talk about the housing crisis and unemployment... but i dont think anyone has a clue about how to fix this. Im working on it, though. I´ll let everyone know when i figure it out. ;)

Anyway, i had a great time that tuesday. It opened my eyes about politics and really made me aware of how important my generation is... since we´re graduating from college to inherit this world when we get jobs. I also had a great time with Gordy. he´s very funny (he´s a politician after all) and i got to sit to his immediate left at the huge table of students. He cracked all his jokes to me. and told me that I will be very successful when I grow up. So i was pretty excited. he also said something: "People say ´politics is doing the possible.´well i say we need to make ´the desirable possible´" or something like that that I thought was very inspiring but then i realized that someone else probably told him to say that. i feel bad for him. i wouldnt want to be a puppet.

Anyway, it was an amazing experience that I will never forget (much like the majority of this semester) and i hope nyu gives us pics of it eventually.

We had an amazing talk on thursday in Fascism. It was going off of Kosetler´s Darkness at Noon (a book similar to 1984 about communist russia under stalin, during the stalinist purges) and regarded the idea of history (itself) and sort of the logic of dictatorships. it was mind blowing. I wanted to fall out of my seat. Fortunately, im writing my "special" paper on it, so ill go more into detaila bout it later. Although Im annoyed about more work, I cant say im not excited. Dr. Travisisnt letting me use any sources except the book, lecture notes, and an article he gave me about koestler... and said i should use "I" in it. Ive realized as of late (pretty much because of Dr. Travis) that as a history major, its so easy (at least for me) to spit out sources back out directed at a particular point. sometimes, i feel like ive never actualyl made a completely original point (my pessimistic side always says, well how could you? somone has already thought of this before, researched it, and written it down) but dr. travis challenge for me is to really make me think on my own....historically. its a little scary. to be honest, its just sort of a response paper, in that way, but im more of a "see??? this is what the sources say so this is why its true!). more on that later, i suppose though.

i had the worst italian class ever this past week. but i talked to mom about it, so im okay now. :)

well, now that ive updated you on everything im doing currently...im still behind in thngs i have done, haha. but its 11:30 so i may have to call it a night. more barthelona tomorrow!

ive been thinking a lot lately..... its still developing though... give me a few days maybe.

in other news: ill be home in less than a month, which sucks. im so excited to see everyone and share everything, but the idea of me not being in europe is weird.

buenas noches (so great to say that)

con amor,

becca

ps the title is from an email my fam and gender prof sent me. she is so sweet! : )

Do you speak English? No.

I read Catherine's blog about Vienna, and it pretty much blew my mind. Fall break was the biggest adventure I've ever been on. I have twenty minutes now... let's see how much i can talk about.

First of all, Catherine's birthday weekend was a success and now i can actually talk about it. Friday was Italian day (already talked about it) i flew home, showered, cut up vegetables and bread and parmesan and flew back to campus for a mandatory meeting about meeting Gordon Brown (TOMORROW), and then flew back to my apartment; I even chased a florentine bus down and made him stop for me. no time to waste.

I got into the kitchen and realized i'd forgotten to tell my actual friends that I needed the kitchen that night. Priya, kelsey, and new-friend Ben were chillin, eating pasta, and i was like I need the kitchen NOW!!!!! fortunately, they were awesome. they helped me clean up and get everything ready and pretty much helped set the whole thing up. i couldnt have done it without them. i made delicious crostini (see blog below) and then Nicole, Vijay, and Nicole's friend Sunita got there. They'd flown in that day to surprise catherine. Then i told catherine to come over (I'd told her we were going to cook that night, and she kept asking if there was anything she should bring. "just bring some rice. bring some rice." so Catherine showed up at my apartment with a bag of rice, and was slightly confused at first because we had all the lights off and she could only see priya but then she saw me and then she saw nicole and vijay and were very surprised. :) we caught the whole thing on film. Then we enjoyed delicious crostini and chianti classico before heading out to Coquinarius, the restaurant I'd made reservations at. Catherine and i had been wanting to try it all semester but actually couldn't find it, haha. Anyway, i called them and stopped by two locations in order to find this restaurant, but i found it and made reservations. we had a great time and i ate a yummy salad. Then we all got grom and came back to my apartment and just hung out for a bit

saturday catherine had a field trip with a class, but i did some hw and went and picked up the cake from Sugar and Spice, an American bakery in florence. I got her a pumpkin cake, which was kind like carrot cake with buttercream frosting. :) i also picked up a brownie, because brownies don't exist in florence. then catherine got back and we all headed across the arno to Lugarno Hotel's restaurant Borgo San Jacopo, where I'd made reservations. I had no idea how good a decision this was going to be. It was super nice with white paneled walls and it was two stories and lit by candles. so beautiful. We got a table next to the window and they took our jackets and brought stools for our purses! then they immediately brought us some wine to try... which i was surprised was free... and then they brought a tuna dish for everyone to try which was free and the bread was free and was salted so it was actually delicious. Let alone the amazing service and food. I got potato dumplings in a lobster sauce with grilled vegetables and wanted to cry. I had a little adventure with the cake: Domenico had told me that italians were cool with you bringing cakes to restaurants and theyd serve it to you afterwards, but he didnt tell me you needed the receipt! anyway, i thought the whole thing was over, until i found the receipt! they served the cake with a candle for her to blow out (it said Happy 21st Birthday Caterina) and then they cut the cake into slices and decorated the plates with a gorgeous chocolate decorative sauce. Borgo San Jacopo went out of its way to make sure we had a great time. It felt like an American fancy restaurant, just because they treated us so respectably and were willing to do anything for us. not to mention all the free food! anyway, we had a great time, and i hope catherine had a good birthday, despite not having any family or anything.

hmmm i was gonna try to talk about vienna... but im out of time... ill come back and edit this tonight

Train Florence to Vienna: Overnight. Jamie and co. The Fighting Couple. "Man, I can't move my four bags." The Singing Woman. Sliding Chairs. Getting checked like five times.

Stephansdom

Jesuitenkirche

Haus der Musik

Albertina

Schatzkammer (in 30 minutes)

Siebensternbrau

Check in by 9 pm

Runnnn

The Social Network

Vienna Day 2

Schonbrunn "Are we good with the castle?"

Catherine's building(majolikahaus)/rings/starbucks!

MAK

Kleine's Cafe

Leopold Museum

Train to Munich, View of Salzburg, got in at 10:30, Euro Youth Hostel ("You guys want something from Subway?")

i think if you want an overarching view of fall break, you should really read catherine's blog haha. it does a really good job of a step by step what we did. i'm just going to talk.

starting fall break was relatively interesting because i was pretty much dead from studying for econ, like literally dead. and we were worried about getting out because there was supposed to be a train strike the night we were leaving, but then they cancelled it (italians are so lazy they're too lazy to do their own strike). so we got out just fine. it was rpetty exciting because it was our first all-night train. i feel like everyone should have an adventure like that at least once in their life. anyway, we got on the train and were in the same carriage (the only train our tickets were next to each other, thanks eurail pass). Then i bumped into Jamie form my Fascism and we were both like "whatre you doing here?" "Going to Vienna!" it was awesome because they were in our same carriage (him, christine, and The Fighting Couple), but there was a guy who was in their seat, so we got in an argument with him and he said all this junk about having too many bags to carry and that he'd been traveling for so long, and i stepped in "Sir, we're just a bunch of kids traveling together. we want to stay together. you are in the wrong seat!" eventually we got him to move and then there was only one other stranger in our carriage, but she got off at Venice. the funny part was that she acted like she was sleeping but then started singing. i have never tried to keep in laughter so hard in my life (i failed) we also got a video of her singing. it was so awkward. then jamie realized that the seats slide out into like half beds so that was hilarious playing on the sliding chairs. then we passed out. Unfortunately we got ticket checked at least four times that night (one time was at 5:30 i remember) which was pretty awful. when i woke up i felt terrible, but it was incredible waking up in a completely different world. Austria is beautiful and full of cottages that look like hanzel and gretel. It was incredible to wake up to that.

We had to not waste our day in vienna so after getting checked in at the hostel, we headed immediately back out. We stopped in at Europa, a place my book recommended for breakfast. and I got scrambled eggs and wanted to cry. they were so good. and they were cooked well, not soggy at all, and it was just amazing to have eggs. haha. we saw two main churches (stephansdom and jesuitkirche) and just walked around for a bit, admiring vienna. Vienna is gorgeous, especially the main downtown area. I think we learned a lot on this trip about how most of the original parts of each city have been preserved (except Berlin really and Bern because the whole city has remained relatively the same for 500 years), and then surrounding the city center is all modern new buildings, etc. but the centers are always so historical and beautiful. I would definitely go back to Vienna again, and could probably see myself living there too.

I think we mostly got confused and kept saying "german things." everything felt so german, but we were in austria. i would love to talk to an austrian about that. and maybe with more time we couldve seen the differences between german culture and austrian culture. but to us everything just seemed so austrian

A completely unique museum we did was the Haus Der Musik (see....german!). It covered the process of hearing, and sound waves etc, but then it also covered famous composers. it was kinda weird, but i really loved it, jsut because id never done a museum like that before. and learning about the composers was really cool too. i listened to this CD of Haydn's music remix (Re: Haydn), and it was sooooo coool, all his stuff all techno, but the cd was like 22 euro... uh no

then we did the albertina which had some great artwork, mostly by picasso (we saw so much picasso that week it was insane.... i dont like his art still haha). but also had some new guy (cant recall his name right now) which we both really like. he did just forest scenes with really interesting colors (like magenta!) and they were really cool to look at.

that evening was an adventure. i have no idea how we did it. we were on the way to a restaurant we wanted to try and saw a movie theater that was playing the Social Network at 8;30 in english. We both wanted to see it (id heard it was a great movie, and it did not disappoint). So we practically ran to the restaurant, siebenstrau, which was delicious. It's known because it brews it's own beer and has great german food. We got beers with walnut flavors, etc, which were superb and i got chicken schnitzel with french fries, and also wanted to cry. (you'll hear this a lot. i got food that week that i hadn't eaten since summer vacation). just having french fries was incredible. plus it was my first huge meal since before midterms (too much studying and paperwriting meh), so it was glorious. i ate everything haha.

we ran back to the hostel because you had to put your bags in your room by nine (check in wasnt until the afternoon), and then raced back to the movie theater (getting lost pretty badly) but still with time to pee and get a diet coke... and yes i said, diet coke... its just italy that doesnt know how to do diet coke. or soda really. poor things.

social network was a good movie and i thought was really accurate of...college... but not in an overly colorful sort of way, more of...this is just how it is. really intelligent people doing...stupid things. haha. but i liekd the story and it was weird seeing an actor play my neighbor. but im so glad that night worked out. it was a lot of fun. We also think that people were sturggling to understand the movie (though there were german subtitles). the characters were speaking really fast and with slang (theyre college kids after all) but even catherine and i noticed.

.....more later... gotta go get in line for HP tickets!

bec

back!

I forgot to talk about the Fighting Couple! The Fighting Couple was on our over-night train to Vienna and was composed of one of Jamie's roommates and the girl's boyfriend who was visiting for Fall Break. Apparently while trying to figure out which train was the right train. Boy walked away from Girl without telling Girl. Girl couldn't see him anywhere and had to stay with all the bags. They fought the whole train ride. They both cried. Like sobbed. Probably Boy cried more than Girl. But somehow, even though Girl was originally mad, Boy was furious and Girl just kept apologizing over and over and over again. Boy cussed at Girl hardcore which made me shudder, but it was weird to see Boy cry so hard. Anyway, they stood in the hallway of the train (outside the carriages) and I could observe them and periodically would update Jamie, Catherine and Christine. I'm pretty sure I woke up at one point in the night and could hear them still yelling at each other. It was the most insane fighting I'd ever seen. And so sad, Boy had probably spent $2000 to come see Girl for Fall break, they should be happy!!! I would be. Then again, Boy was probably tired (he had flown all night to get here), which is why he got so mad at Girl when Girl got mad at him. bahaha. Anyway, Jamie told me that after they got to Vienna, they fought in the hotel for awhile while he and Christine went around Vienna. So sad. but extremely amusing at the time.

The second day in Vienna, we took a tram for the first time, which was pretty exciting. Trams are pretty much everywhere in Europe except Florence, because it would seriously mess with Florence's roads (most roads are as wide as sidewalks). We took the tram to see a castle just outside of Vienna. We didn't go in because it cost a bunch of money but it was fun to take pictures of. It was incredibly freezing so finally I said "Are we good with the castle?" and we headed back into town. That's when something amazing happened: we passed a Starbucks!! I immediately had to get one, and was so happy. STARBUCKS. Coffee in a cup that you can carry around with you!!!! And so started our Fall Break madness of getting Starbucks and muffins wherever we could because we knew we wouldn't be able to again once we got back to Italy. Italy: No one likes to stand at a bar and scarf down coffee. We like to hold it in our hands, feel its warmth, carry it around with us for awhile, let it make us happy for a period of time longer than 3 minutes before an Italian bumps you out of the way for his espresso.

We also saw a building Catherine really wanted to see and bargained with a guy in a market right there to get some rings: 2 for 6 euro!

Then we found MAK. We thought MAK was closed but then we found another door. MAK was free, which was crazy, because there was so much stuff in there. I have no idea what MAK stands for. I think Mom wouldve really liked MAK. It was an eclectic museum, full of all sorts of stuff from china to chairs to rugs to artwork to architecture. There was a futuristic architecture section that was really cool. Some rooms dedicated completely to chairs (we actually saw quite a few exhibits on chairs), a section on a journalist and his political cartoons (which were intense) and a giant squid that took up a whole room. What I really liked was that in each room they had sheets of paper you could pick up that described different objects in the room and what the room was about (in English!) and all for free. It was a very technologically advanced museum and ....slick. We liked it.

Then we did Kleine's Cafe which was actually a bar but had hardcore vegetables for the first time in awhile which was pretty nice and took turns sitting over the heater because each of us kept getting super hot. Then we did the Leopold museum which was pretty much just art (i'm so sorry, art is awesome, and I love going to art museums, but over time, for me to tell you what was there.... uh... my guess would probably be picasso)

and we headed back to Do Stepp Inn and wen tot the train station to go to Munich that night. It was a shorter train (five hours), but it definitely cut time out of Vienna that I think we both wouldve enjoyed.

The train to munich was empty which was nice, it was also a bloody nice train. This couple next to me woke me up at one point to tell me there was about to be a pretty view of Salzburg outside the window, which I thought was very nice of them to do. And it was very pretty, even though it was nighttime and we could only see lights and the outlines of things. But that was nice of them.

Woot. Vienna Done. haha. I'm meeting Gordon Brown tomorrow!!!!! Need to get to bed early!