Where do you get your skies from, Florence?

picasa to follow along as you read about rome. :)

and RG for a new blog coming soon.... and then you can also click on my profile to read new reviews.... also, something cool, i dunno if you can see it, but there's a map on my profile on RG, and it shows where all ive been... based on the reviews i make and where my blogs take place... just kinda cool because it shows that ive been all over italy, which is kinda cool. :) also, on the main site of RG, http://www.rollinglobe.com/RGWeb/default.aspx, i havent been featured or anything yet, but underneath recent articles. two of my blogs are in the top three under food and dining. :) michael actually controls the "recent articles" that arent really recent, but more like top stories, minus those featured above. anyway, kinda cool. :)

this week to be honest has been a real blur, since rome it feels like two days have passed, but thursday is over and im off on another field trip tomorrow. This one is with Family and Gender to Bagno Vignoni and Pienza, Italy, in case you wanna Google Map it. I'm excited to see both, but Pienza sounds interesting because it was designed and created to be an "ideal Renaissance town" and apparently still maintains that in a lot of ways, so that'll be interesting. I also found out the baths (bagno) we're going to see were still publicly used until like 15 years ago. Weird,...but kinda cool.

Anyway that's tomorrow.

Today I broke my Venetian ring. :( I have no one to blame but myself either, but I'm bummed because I'd fallen in love with that 5 euro thing. I missed the bus I wanted to catch this morning and ended up having to take the one at 8:24 am. The reason that was an issue was because my Problem Set for Econ was due no later than 9 am at the Reception desk in Villa Ulivi and had to be signed and stamped by them, and I hadn't printed it out yet. 15 minute bus ride.... I decided to go to the computer lab in Villa Natalia because the one in Villa ulivi is always crowded in the morning and I just wanted to have my problem set before i walked over there and all the computers were taken (you go by natalia, then through this huge whole in campus and then climb a hill to ulivi). the problem is the computer lab is on the -1 floor, and there are no stairs downstairs, just a single elevator. I got down there, printed it, and as i waited for the single elevator, i got angry at the wall for the elevator taking a good solid five minutes. My problem set was going to be late because i was stuck underneath Villa Natalia. With a broken ring I head over to Ulivi, turned my problem set in, and realized i didnt have my wallet.... ended up going back underneath natalia....and that was the start of the day.

the middle of the day would consist of my european fascism teacher getting frustrated with us for not reading Bread and Wine. Grand total.... I think i was the only one who finished it. two other people completed the majority of it. GRRRRR. anyway, it was a great book if anyone is into the style of 1984.... and i cried at the end. pretty much the same message as 1984, there's no hope....dictatorship will win.... you just ....die. i loved it.

then my afternoon consisted of a quiz in italian that had things on it we hadnt been taught. when i talked to domenico about it he said it was to make the quiz hard, otherwise it'd be really easy. and i was like "soooo you make it hard by putting things on there you havent taught us yet?" and he was like "yes, but if you study." UHHHH domenico....my middle name is I-study-like-mad-crazy-so-shut-it. if somethings on a quiz that we havent covered, i know. not because i dont study and im dumb, but because ive studied so much i would recognize anything i havent been taught yet.

thennnn a kid in my italian class showed me his band's cd. pretty good stuff....though rock/alternative isnt really my thing, i thought he had a great voice, way different that his speaking voice.

thennnn i had a great rehearsal.... which is a little unusual for rehearsals thus far, haha. anyway, my second scene (i'm in..... four. two of which i have one line. two big ones. one much larger than the other). anyway.... this one ROCKS. Cleanthis is such a mess. anyway, she's angry at her husbadn and pretty much rants, cries, curses doctors, and seduces her husband in the scene. it's interesting, and also an incredible complicated and fun character to play. the director asked me if i was having as much fun as she is coming off as. she has such mood swings. and is so complex in her motives and the way she tries to manipulate people with what she's saying. it's really fun to play female roles with such complexities. usually my characters are either exaggerated Becca's in some way, or flat females.

two of my lines:

I expressed to you a tender, wifely love.

But to all i said you were as cold as stone

and you never spoke one syllable of

affection in answer to my own.

and so extreme was that cold mood of yours

that you wouldnt even join me in our bed.

In vain you try to appease and palliate.

Your lame excuse won't do, in any way

and, sooner or later, i'll retaliate

For the cold contempt you show me every day.

I've not forgotten what you've said of late.

and I mean to profit, my perfidious mate,

from your most kind permission, to go astray.

uh uh uh GIIRRRRRLLLLLL.

show's in a week in a half! crazy huh?

another fun fact: moliere actually played sosia (cleanthis's husband) and one of his lovers, who was apparently extremely talented, played Cleanthis. You can definitely see the chemistry and complexities of their relationship coming through the lines by themselves. pretty cool.

after that i went to the library and did a little more research for my paper due tuesday bleh.

and that was my day!!! hooray. on my way home i saw one of the prettiest sunsets ever. I say that a lot though. Italy has gorgeous sunsets. like the best. anyway, today's was solely of purple and yellow. i'm serious, who gets sunsets of only purple and yellow against mediterranean trees? yeah, this chick does.

ROOOOOMAAAAAAA

we left for rome friday night after my field trip to the american cemetery (see a couple posts below). It was our first carriage train which was interesting. I was pumped for Rome, because it's ROME. Liiiiiike the beginning of the world. SO much history, so much to do and see, people dream of seeing this place.

After our three hour train, we checked into our hostel before doing anything else. The Yellow. Yellow was interesting because it was definitely a youth hostel. We walked in to American pop songs BLASTING from the bar in the hostel and kids running around drunk. Check in went smoothly though and we found our room, which consisted of three bunk beds and a bathroom (in the room, which was nice, no hallway, just split between the six of us). Catherine and I were starving so we headed back out almost immediately. After walking around for a bit, we ended up settling on a restaurant after seeing one of the pizzas, haha. Little did we know it'd be the worst mistake ever.

Probably 20-30 minutes went by before anyone came over to our table to take our order. In the meantime, an adult threw a tantrum stood up and yelled "THAT's IT" and the italian waiter was like "sit down. sit down. be quiet. be quiet. here is your food." the table was two older couples, obvi american on vacation. The whole restaurant was silent. Catherine and I debated if we should love or not.... but finally got the guy's attention and ordered before he could get away.... The food came fast which was actually one good thing about it, but it was the most okay food i'd had in italy. anyway, i was so happy to get out of there. I wish i remembered the name of it so i could review it on RG, but i hated it so much, i cant even remember it. i had to literally make myself erase it out of my memory haha. See picture on picasa of me doing a thumbs down next to an italian chef statue thing holding a thumbs up.

after that we were like... well....let's get some gelato to make this night go better. we saw down the street there was an ice cream sign lit up. we got in there and a guy immediately was like "sera sera sera sit down! sit down! Sit down." anyway.... we ended up paying EIGHT EUROS each for crappy ice cream. it was awful. We returned to Yellow, exhausted, awkwardly laughing, but trying to pretend that night didnt happen haha. We met one of our roommates, who was from holland and invited us down to the bar with her, but then when we went down there we couldnt find her anywhere and just came back up and went to bed, i was exhausted anyway. We also met two other girls in our room who had pretty interesting stories... One is teaching english in bosnia (like as a career) and a friend was visiting her and they were traveling-ish (that's what i can remember of their story at least). they were very nice, prob mid-late-twenties, and both catherine and i couldnt help but wonder if the people we were going to meet in this hostel were going to be people we'd rather have at school with us, than the kids in our program. ....which ended up being true, haha.

Overall, i slept fine that night, but the British girl sleeping above me was an oochy-scoochy sleeper and would shake the whole bed. i slept great, but every time i woke up because she was moving so much i just wanted to yell "lay still!!!"

saturday

Saturday we got up way early, showered and headed over to the colosseum area... we stopped in to get coffee...which took forever because the baristas were way to busy to look at us (generally attitude towards tourists) which made me angry and the cappuccino wasnt that good. then we headed over to palatine hill to find out that it was a national italian holiday and the entire pass to do all three (colosseum, palatine hill, roman forum) was FREE. this was cool for a couple reasons.... it was supposed to be 12 euro is the main thing... the other cool this is that there was this gigantically long line at the colosseum but we went to the palatine hill first to get the FREE pass to do all three and then later would walk right into the colosseum.. Catherine said it felt something like stealing history because we were getting to do it all for free, which was a great way of putting it. but we would more than make up for line waiting on sunday.

Palatine hill was cool to the extent that there was a TON of roman ruins, and i really didnt think it was going to be that big. the only frustrating thing was that nothing was really clearly labelled and the map was confusing, so it was frustrating looking at ruins and not really knowing what they were ruins of. our guide books explained a few things (see ruins with actual captions on them on picasa haha), but i was sad. I decided that the people excavating the areas (and they still are today, which i didnt know...there was a ton of excavation sites fenced off... there is SO MUCH preserved back to the roman times, it's so whack)...even though i'm not really a huge fan of roman history, you had to appreciate it. Anyway, i decided that those people have absolutely no idea what any of the buildings were used for, so i started doing a commentary on the site. "Sooo this is where they held parties. this was a bathroom. this was a mall. this was a bedroom." and it made the whole thing a lot more hilarious.

Then we went to the Colosseum. goodness i cant get over how large things are here. jsut huge. it was kinda chilling thinking about people getting ripped to shreds in front of 50,000 people in there too. Catherine and I talked about how bad it mustve smelled too haha. it was really weird, but awesome at the same time. catherine also told me she'd learned in one of her classes that people later on ould have no qualms about taking stuff from roman ruins to use as building materials for new buildings (such as the marble seats in the colosseum) so that was interesting thinking about too. Anyway, definitely glad i got to see that.

Roman forum was again a lot of guide book reading and then becca making up stuff about what we were looking at. there were a couple cool chapels and stuff. when you see all that stuff, you really cant help but think about how advanced they were....2000 years ago. it's kind interesting in comparison to other societies that were so.... haha i was about to say 'medieval' but i guess that doesnt work in this case, .....behind. anyway, romans, gotta hand it to you, you were pretty legit.

after that we went to capitoline hill, which was actually a pain in the butt to find, but we finally found it and did the museum there... the museum was MASSIVE, and they were even doing an exhibit on roman statues and stuff. anyway for 4.50 euro, you got a ton and by the end catherine and I just had to leave because it was so much overload.

Then we headed towards the place we wanted to go to for lunch, which took quite a while to find too but ended up being soooo good. L'insalata Ricca (see review on RG for info on that. :) )

but before that we saw the Pantheon. the Pantheon was super cool and very pretty. it is apparently the most complete ancient Roman structure in the city. the diameter of it (it's completely round) is equal to it's height, and it actually felt funny being inside it. there's also a huge hole in the ceiling, which was funny because the first thing i said was "what happens if it rains?" and catherine saw a sign right then that asked and answered the same question in Italian. haha.

After lunch we went to the Trevi Fountain, but got smoothies along the way that were delicious (see review on RG). Trevi fountain was actually way cool, and i didnt really know what to expect because my priorities were mainly with the colosseum and the sistine chapel. it was just really beautiful to look at. we threw coins in that back in the day meant you would one day return to the Eternal City of rome (meaning you'd be alive), but today go to the red cross.

Then we made quite a trek over to the opera theater to try and get tickets, but turned out shows started MONDAY, after left, which kinda sucked. but anyway, neither of us were very hungry, but went to a famous little coffee shop on the way to piazza navona for the evening. Catherine doesn't like coffee, but i was dying to go to this little place "Bar Sant'Eustachio" the guide book says there's secret ingredients in their coffee (which they think is a bit of bi-carbonate of soda). It was really cute, but very like....legit.... like we're a legit italian coffee shop... catherine and i were a little confused about what to do at first, surrounded by high class italian business men. anyway, i saw a photo of the coffee shop in the 1930s (right in middle of fascism) and i thought it was really cool. I got a cappuccino which was fabulous and catherine got almond milk which was really good, really rich, and really weird. you just dont expect milk to have a flavor (except that of milk) and then it did....but it was really good. then we went to piazza navona.

By then it was twilight, evening-y... and the piazza was adorable and beautiful. I told catherine that when i had pictured italy in my mind, this is exactly what it looked like. a huge fountain, lights strung along bushes of restaurants, a group of three men playing music, artists selling artwork, etc. beautiful sky. it felt very italian, which ive sorta decided, isn't really italian, but more of something concocted in my mind of what i perceived italy was based on childhood memories as Bella Luna, the best italian restaurant in ocala before it closed down. :(

anyway, the fountain in piazza navona was really good.... done by bernini, the four figures in it represetn one of the four great rivers of the world: nile, danube, ganges, and plate. it was a reallllly neat fountain (see picasa pics).

finally on our way back to Yellow we stopped in for gelato at Il Gelato di San Crispino. the gelato was delicious, but both of us thought the guy was a little rude. anyway i got Ginger and Cinnamon and something with Honey in it. my favorite was definitely the ginger and cinnamon. Catherine got dark chocolate chip and grape, we both thought the grape was great. I hate grape flavored stuff because it always tastes like cough syrup, but this grape gelato tasted literally like grapes. we were both taken aback by the alcohol flavored gelatos the place had. I guess my vino e crema gelato from Grom isnt that unusual.

finally back to grom. we were really hyper that night, i cant remember why. but i remember laughing hysterically. we talked to the british girl who slept above me for a little while, talked about going to london and how she's coming to the US. she's going to NYC, boston, chicago, LA and San Fran and asked us what she should do. it's funny that you can grow up in a country but have no idea what to tell someone about what to do in a city like Chicago. I was like "uhhh i havent even been to chicago." it's just kinda funny thinking about how there are parts of your own country that you know pretty much nothing about. she seemed surprised though when i told her theater in london was so much better. we also talked about how the revolutionary war is like a huge deal in the US and they barely talk about it in school in britain and all three of us got a good laugh out of that. i mean i took a class last semester "Views of freedom from the Rev War to the Civil war." haha...and to sleep we went.

back up again at 7:30 on sunday. and off to the vatican we went. we took a bus ride, i got a coffee (common component of my diet now, if you cant tell). and we got in line to do the vatican museums. Turns out at the vatican, the last sunday of each month is free. soooo we got to do all that for free.

Here's my thing about the Vatican museums though. .....

-we waited two hours.

-people in line think it's appropriate to touch you. i swear i shoved a lady who wouldnt take her boobs off my back. please stop touching me. (see side story below). "I see you're dealing with sexual assault right now. can i help you?"

-the museums are gorgeous, but there are so many people that it sorta moves like floating down a lazy river... you go from room to room with teh flow of movement and only seeing what you see as you pass through.

-Every room is gorgeous, so it is actually confusing about why the sistine chapel is so famous over any other particular room. yeah i get it, michelangelo the god/man thing, blah blah. dont get me wrong, i was dying to see it. but every single room was filled with gorgeous art, gorgeous statues, gorgeous detail, even the gift shop.

-the sistine chapel is rectangular in an a museum of a bunch of museums.... i had also kinda thought of it as a free standing ....round....chapel. it's definitely rectangular. still beautiful though.

st peter's basilica....

the line for that was a little long, but it moved and we talked to some women from australia who had been traveling for a month (who gets to do that??? honestly....two friends...jsut goooo traveling for a month. they'd been in greece for the majority of it.) anyway, it was cool for catherine to talk to them about her summer there.

st peter's basilica is BEAUTIFUL. i mean.... we were in the catholic capital of the world, haha. anyway it was incredible and definitely difficult to take in every detail. shout outs to some of the memorials for popes that were really cool and michelangelo's pieta. overall i think im going to be a serious church critic, like i became of theater after Duke in London, like i became of Creme Brulee after having it literally everywhere i've ever been. haha. anyway, soooo many churches, they kinda blend together. but i think so far my favorites were this one and the one in Venice. ..... Duomo in florence is pretty great too. MEH. theyre all great. haha

after that we climbed to the top of the basilica!!! it cost 7 euros but was a lot of fun... you first took an elevator that just went into the top of the dome... and then you climbed 320 more steps to get to on top the dome. it was weird sometimes we were walking up stairs with walls so slanted because they were leaning over the dome (hard to visualize id imagine). then at one point we were climbing a spiral staircase that was so sharply spiraled that there was a rope hanging down the center of it just for people to hold on to. haha. the view was magnificent, but soooo crowded, so i peaced after taking a few pics.

catherine stayed to go to mass at st peter's basilica... im pretty sure that's the thing to do.

i peaced and went back the Spanish Steps (cool, but way more crowded than it's worth) went back this vintage market and got a cute little magnet of a little girl with rome in the background, went by castel s. angelo and the palazzo di guistizia and the ara pacis. the ara pacis is a altar thing built in 13 bc to celebrate Augustus's victory over Spain and gaul. it is masssive and kept in this huge glass room designed by an American architect, woot.

i headed uphill to villa borghese to check out this art gallery kyle told me about. turns out you need reservations to go this museum (whack) the guy was a real jerk to me too. that being said the park of villa borghese is GORGEOUS. just tons of mediterranean trees and green grass and statues mixed in. tons of families and couples were there enjoying the beautiful italian day. i walked around the park for awhile. it was the weirdest thing ever. I thought about so much. I was so extremely happy, but at the same time incredibly sad and lonely. I think it's the closest to homesick i've ever been. but probably just wanting people there with me. i loved the park. the vibe it gave off. and the way it made me think. after that i went over to one edge of the park that overlooks all of room, right from the park. tons of italian teenage couples were there and i definitely fellllttt out of place. so i took a picture and left, headed down to Piazza del Popolo and went to the church there. Santa maria del Popolo. had two GORGEOUS paintings, which are on picasa. done by Caravaggio, The Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter. they looked like photographs. but were done in the renaissance, crazy.

finally i met catherine back at yellow to get our stuff and head over to the train station. on my way i stopped into this little pizza place because i was hungry and just got a slice to go real quickly. it was the most politely id been treated in Rome. the guy was very kind, and even reheated my pizza up for me. it was good too.

and back on the train we went. it was kinda interesting because we didnt have seat assignments and both got moved a couple times. i ended up by a guy who loved that we were american and said he was working in cincinnati. both catherine and i talked to each other later about what we'd thought about saying to him and both decided against it because we didnt want to talk to him. me: oh cool, my boyfriend is from there. catherine: why are you on a train from rome to florence then? haha.

annnnd THAT, my friends, was Rome.

what i took away from Rome

-baller sights

-tooooo mannnny peopllllle

-way too tourist-y.

-every Italian was rude or too busy for us.

-Florence is way better. haha.

anyway, i know im such a brat because anyone would kill to see rome, and im so glad that i was able to....definitely a dream of mine. but so glad my study abroad program is based in a town that is quieter, prettier and nicer. haha

SIDE STORY

during orientation we had to go to stupid events like Dicey Decisions in Italy. At this info session we learned proper responses to certain situations in italy. which came out as .... if you think someone is being sexually assaulted, you should try to help them immediately.... you should say "Excuse me, are you dealing with sexual assault right now?" And then if you are sexually assaulted yourself. one of the scenarios on the powerpoint slide said. "you get out a crowded bus. You realize after a few minutes that you think you're being sexually assaulted." Makes for huge hilarity. ....You realize after a few minutes that you're being assaulted.... hahahhahahahaha.

this weekend, minus the field trip i want to write a paper, catch up on work and maybe see a museum or too in florence.... and try a couple restaurants ive been meaning to try or cook. i found this week that the grocery store closest to us does Panini (think Publix subs on baghettes) for 2.50 euro, which is great on the way to school. i also need to renew my bus pass (it's october!!!!), get passport photos (see paragraph below), and sleep.

on wednesday i have my Permesso meeting.... im not really sure what it is but it has something to do with me being here for four months, minus the fact that ive already been here for one. anyway, i need FOUR dang passport photos, and ive already had to get them done once here for my bus pass. i wish they woulda said, oh bring 85 passport photos with you when you come... im also supposed to have some paper that i havent really seen in awhile... so hopefully i find that, haha.

school was pretty intense this week, but at the same time i love it. it gives me purpose. and i still am in this mixed state of euphoria regarding the fact that this is my life... i think every evening when im on my way home i feel that way. my life is in italy. i am 5000 miles away from everything i used to know.

this blog is long. and it's late.

buonanotte

becca

things i can already tell i'm going to miss about italy:

-my bedroom

-grom

-fernando (barista on campus)

-coffee

-thick hot chocolate, as weird as it is

-kinder and bueno bars

-dark chocolate twix bars

-cornetto con cioccolata (chocolate croissant)

-The' di Limone e The' di Pesca (lemon tea and peach tea)

-campus

-Panini for 2.50 euro from il centro

-italian sunsets.

things i cant wait to be done with:

-the girls screaming in my apartment right now. oh wait, i think theyre singing.

ps ive found some girls i like!!! we've all signed up to go to Perugia in a couple weeks for a HUGE chocolate festival on saturday. apparently we get a chocolate card that gets us free chocolate at all the booths. UGH. alexa (works in OSL said theres chocolate everything... even chocolate aspirin!! why cant i take that every night dad?? should be AWESOME. and i cant wait to see amanda knox! ....just kidding.

pps reading mein kampf this week. pretty stoked.

ppps I got all my train tickets for fall break!!!! Germany, Austria, switzerland here i come!!! :) three weeks!!!

aight, im leaving I promise. night!

florentine life.

today was one of the craziest days i've had in italy. not because of any sort of occurrence or event, mostly because of logistics and scheduling.

This morning I had fam and gender at the Galleria, right next door, to visit the Virtu d'amore exhibit that's been going on the past couple months. my teacher likes to lecture outside at 9 am, which is freezing cold in florence, so i wanted to die. the good news is, i got an A on my paper, so off to a good start with that class. then we finally headed inside. we checked out the exhibit, which i had already seen with Catherine, but it was still interesting to hear her talk about some stuff, that i otherwise might not have known. women came with marriage chests in addition to dowries that had gorgeous paintings on them that symbolized different things, but mostly that they should be submissive and obedient "ye be warned" kinda messages.

i had to leave early in order to make it to campus (bus ride 1) for rehearsal at noon. sosia (character) showed up 45 min late, so we only go to run our scene once (lame). then i had fascism. fascism is baller. mussolini is such a character. i never thought he was interesting before i came here. i almost want to laugh out loud, just learning about everything he got away with. he tore down a whole bunch of buildings in rome in order to pave this huge road from the colosseum/roman forum to the capital hill so he and his troops could march there with the colosseum and roman forum in teh background. and people loved him for it. haha. i also learned about these paintings on the side of that road that show the development of the roman empire. Catherine and I walked along this road in Rome and thought "Wow. that's cool. That was nice of them to put up pictures showing how big the Roman empire got." It was incredible learning that Musso (my nickname for him) put those up during his dictatorship as a symbol of Italy's potential for expansionism, and fascist domination. baha.

after that, back to the Duomo for Italian (bus 2). it was raining. I couldn't find my class. the girl's number I had went straight to voice mail. I booked a hostel with Catherine (Fall trip is completely official: All trains and hostels booked for Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Bern, and Geneva. Blowing my mind right now. this all happens four weekends from now [technically the Thursday before] and also marks the halfway mark, which is whack.) then I headed back to school (Bus 3). Telefono a mi mamma blew all my minutes, and then went up to the library, read some junk about Musso. and then had rehearsal again until seven. Finally worked hardcore on my big scene. It's tough, Cleanthis is all over the place (angry, sexual, confused, aggressive, sad, desperate, low) sometimes within single sentences, so it's fun piecing her together. I found out theyre going to be greying my hair for the show, hehe, cant wait to take pictures. :)

Finally I headed home (bus number 4 for the day). As i jumped off the bus, it was twilight, and even though the rain had cleared, the clouds left created a beautiful sunset. I darted across Piazza San Marco and into a Cafe for Dinner. I think I have finally, after a month, gotten the coffee shop system down perfectly.

I scooted over to the cashier.

Sera.

Sera. Un caffe' per favore. [knowing full well now that caffe' doesnt mean coffee, but an espresso shot.]

i pay him.

Grazie.

i walk over to the counter/bar to speak to the barista.

Sera. Un caffe' per favore. [and i place my receipt on the counter.]

He makes my shot and places it on the counter. I add a bit of sugar. I down the shot.

Grazie.

and out the door I go. headed down Via Ricasoli, prepared for yet another night of relentlesshomework.

con amore,

becca

p.s. 200 rome pics are up on picasa. ill blog about it....... thursday night??? after my econ prob set is turned in. unless i make serious progress on it tonight.

Why Me?

I wasn't planning on writing again until I got back from Rome, but I've had an amazing day so far, and as I have some time to pack and do hw before leaving for rome in a couple hours. I thought i'd get everything out real quick.

first things first (you can click em now, i'm gaining blogging skillz!)

more pics on my Picasa.

new blog for RG

some more Reviews too. If you're gonna in the area some time soon, haha.

today was the day of my first out-of-florence field trip, which was actually just outside of florence. haha. anyway, i went with my European fascism class, which is my favorite (so far, let's see how i do grade-wise, haha) but i think the kids in it are pretty cool, and the professor is my favorite of the four i have here.

anyway, we met at the train station (see rg blog), and departed from there by bus (i sorta fudged that in my rg blog, haha). anyway, on the bus ride there, prof travis just told us some stuff about the city. here's what i learned:

-prof travis moved to italy in 1988. his wife is italian. ooh la la :)

-see RG blog for the big stuff about the train station. the only thing i didnt mention on there was the digital clock outside the train station was very revolutionary for the time too. although it's not technically digital. haha. i didnt take a pic of it, but ill be back there a gazillion times. i need a pic of that and the plaque

-During WWII every single florentine bridge was bomb by either germans or americans, except the ponte vecchio (the famous one with all the shops on it). there are some controversies over why not, considering it was lined with german bombs for awhile. but one theory is that the americans snipped the lines during the following story: Catherine taught me (she learned in one of her classes) that there's a second story on ponte vecchio that the rich people used to take across the river because it was covered, and the only covered bridge etc. this is liek forever ago. fast forward to wwii, the americans had gotten up to the Piti side of the arno (south side) and germans had the uffizi side of the arno (north side). americans just snuck across the second floor of the ponte vecchio, got in touch with the italian resistance on the other side and boom, took florence. simple as that, haha.

-now the second floor of the ponte vecchio is a portrait gallery. you can visit in small groups through the uffizi. it's probably expensive but i'm gonna look into it.

-It is CRAZY to think of this city being all damaged and destructed by war. let alone war 70 years ago. isn't that bizarre? this city is too pretty, too full of history. i dunno, it's weird thinking about all the bridges and buildings along the arno being bombed.

-florence has tried to build a tram line numerous times and no one wants it and it's too expensive. one tram design brought the 60 foot tram right in front of the duomo. that'd would made for some pretty pictures...not.

-we went through the Porta Romano which was the original gate to florence that people would take going to and from rome.

-they have these highways built between florence and bologna over the Apennine mountains. the roads were intended to handle 12,000 cars a day. today, more than 60,000 go across them every day. my prof says every time he goes to bologna he's thankful he got there alive. haha

-we also came across the largest monastery in the area, it was pretty cool looking

After about half an hour we got to the American Cemetery. I didn't really know what to expect, but it mostly just looks like a smaller version of the arlington national cemetery. with crosses for graves (or stars of david). Anyway, we headed to the top of the cemetery where there is this huge mural addressing the American warfare in italy during WWII, and Prof Travis just sorta went through the US's Brit's involvement in Italy, germany's involvement in italy, and then what was going on in italy during the war (and the downfall of mussolini. ugh i forget how gruesome his death was sometimes).

then after that he read to us some stuff out of Catch-22. I've never actually read the whole book, but i know all the literary ideas in it. Pretty much it's just a situation that can't be resolved, either way you lose. the idea was that you could get out of fighting in the war if you told them you were crazy, but if you told them you were crazy to get out of fighting in the war, you obviously weren't. Then we talked about Italian sentiment about losing in war all the time (they really only lasted legitimately 3 years in wwii), and how italians generally support no one and anyone.

then what we did for the forty-five minutes was something really powerful. We tried to answer the question, raised in catch-22, "Why Me?" in regards to the draft for WWII. We first compared it to Vietnam, and Prof Travis told us his experiences with the draft. he was a second-year college student and he and the boys in his hall sat on the floor of the hallway and listened as they called out birthdays (the order they picked boys to go). He said one of the guys on his hall, Sam, was #7. he went. Prof travis was like #102 so never got called. I told him about dad going to med school at just the right time.

Anyway, the reason we compared that was because there were so many reasons for people to not be for vietnam....and yet there werent very many reasons for people to be FOR WWII. we talked about the consideration of the holocaust, nazi germany, and the pacific front as a result of Pearl Harbor. But what we couldn't get down to was... why was there so much mass registration. .... for Italy???

We talked about patriotism, a time when propaganda may have worked more effectively, even in the US., the romantic idea of war and fighting for principles of Liberty, Democracy, etc.

But as a group, we never could pinpoint a reason. Why me? I think about boys in their twenties going off to war in europe, somewhere most of them had never been before. We're facing this huge cemetery full of graves and white crosses. All these men (boys) came to Italy. and died.

I guess you could think that way about any war, the idea of young boys, who wouldve completed college, built careers, got married, had kids, done so many things, coming 5,000 miles away to die so young. But it was really interesting how we could never really pinpoint what exactly got the US so mobilized for this. I guess it was a lot of things. but it's just strange how there weren't more people, specifically young boys, saying i don't wanna go over there and fight in a place ive never gone to before for people i dont know anything about. "Why Me?"

After lecture, he let us sort of just walk around the cemetery. I got pretty emotional. I think when i went to arlington national cemetery in elementary school and middle school i didn't really get it. it's just weird thinking about boys my age getting sent overseas to die. and i was standing in this field of young men that had happened to. bleh. talking about war in history class makes it seem so less...about people. it's so political, governmental, societal, economical etc. but man, there's nothing like standing in a cemetery full of American soldiers outside Florence in Italy. fortunately another girl in my class told me she teared up, too, so i didnt feel as silly.

Anyway, great field trip.

Homework and packing til we head out!

thanks for letting me just pour out my thoughts here

becca

Thoughts of the Day

1). Someone should've told me, "Dude, you don't really wanna take a Duke semester abroad." Being the overachiever that I am (tests have proven it), I wouldn't have listened to you. So I guess maybe someone else should've registered for me. I've heard about tons of kids who are literally doing nothing and have no work to do. Here's everything that needs to get done by next Thursday (with various due dates from tuesday to thursday), with absolutely no exaggerations:

-Four articles for fam and gender of varying lengths between 30-60 pages

-First two chapters of a novel, Giovanni and Lusanna

-One document out of the Brucker text

-Two chapters out of Gender and Society

-Start planning second paper for fam and gender due in two weeks. I just turned in my first one an hour ago.

-The book, Bread and Wine. Yes, the whole book. 280 pages.

-One chapter out of A History of Fascism

-Three Chapters out of Mussolini a Biography.

-2.5 pages in Money and Banking textbook and flashcards

-Problem set 1 for Money and Banking worth 100 points.

-Italian hw every day, but that's the least of my worries

-Italian quiz on Thursday.

This is not a slacker semester for Becca. Add in a play (1/2 my lines are memorized!), Being gone all weekend (Field trip tomorrow with European Fascism and then Rome the rest of the weekend), and sightseeing, etc. around Florence.... I think you just created a semester legitimately crazier than a Duke semester. Ya Jel'? Yeah,... I didn't think so.

Here me goes!

2) I've decided I'm not going to stress like I normally do. This is going to be an incredible semester, why would I spend the entire time stressing? So, I'll work my butt off. But I won't worry. This will be difficult for me. Most people know that I thrive on stressing. Anyway, that's my goal. I want to live. I want to breathe Italian air. And I want to work killer hard.

3). Everyone is going to Oktoberfest this weekend to get wasted, and I'm going to Rome to go to museums, see the colosseum, the Vatican, etc, and I'm so proud of it. And excited for it.

4). I have been here for a month. Well almost. But I've completed three weeks of school and one week of orientation. Can you all believe it?? Hasn't it gone so quickly?? This is both good and bad. Good for you all, because you'll get me back before you know it. ;-) Bad because..... I love it here. I strongly dislike the people. but I love it here (See Thought #5). I love Europe. I love learning things in class and then seeing them in the city. I love trying new things, seeing new places, experiencing life. I love it all. I eat it for breakfast.

5). Said statement "I love it here. I strongly dislike the people. but I love it here." reminds me of what I generally say about Duke. I love the University. Finding people I can be myself around helped a lot as well. I think it's bizarre that I'm outgoing, and generally friendly, yet for some strange reason, I'm not too much of a people person. It's a problem. But it's a problem I'm not too deeply concerned about. If I decide to care about you, I will care about you forever.

6). Thought #5 was getting really snooty so Imma change the subject. Last week and earlier this week the thought of the week was the fact that "I feel so at home at Florence." It was blowing my mind how I've only been here three weeks (at the time) and yet feel totally comfortable doing anything I want to do or going anywhere I want to go. Just feels like home. The new thought as of late though, which occurred to me on my way home from school is that I feel really comfortable going to school at La Pietra. It hit me because I've gotten accustomed to my work, my professors, my schedule. It's all my educational routine now, and it's, strange to say, but hard to remember anything else. I literally spent the entire bus ride home trying to remember all four of my classes last semester (finally got it: marketing, set design [shoot me in the face], history gateway, genetics, and ballet). But, in this really weird sort of way, I feel like I go to La Pietra in Florence. Like that's where I attend school. I spend my classes in Villa Ulivi. I go there every day. I spend time in the tiny, but adorable library. I use their computer lab because my internet sucks. I drink a coffee in the cafe almost every day and the barista knows me (such a sweetie). Duke seems so unreal right now, because this is what's real. Does that make sense?? Of course I can't wait to get back to Duke (nor am i wishing this away though), but .... I think.... in addition to feeling at home in Florence... now I feel like a student of La Pietra. Not just a visitor from duke. I have a routine, a life here, and it feels like it's all I know now. Probably none of that made sense. Maybe I'll be able to do better later.

7) All that being said, can't you all just move here and be with me so I can stay??? Am I being selfish?? You'd love it, I promise. :)

Other random things that aren't really thoughts, but just things to share:

-Today I figured out how to make it warmer in my room. Just realized my thermometer was on 16 degrees celsius. Can you do that math to Fahrenheit real quick? Yeah, it was dang freezing in here. Last night I wore sweatpants, a hoodie, socks and a hat to bed and didnt sleep at all. Got up this morning and decided it was time to make a change.

-My oral went well. He actually cut us off at 1.5 min, and I was probably about 1/2-2/3 through everything I'd memorized the twenty minutes before class. Va bene.

-I felt like crap this morning, but that may have been because i was freezing. But tonight I'm feeling a little bit better. I've been blowing my nose a lot, but my sore throat is dying down, so hopefully it's getting out of my system.

-Paper ended up being titled "Eternal as the Sexes Themselves": Honor and Gender in Renaissance Italy. I worked on it a ton, and I think I got it to a pretty good state. Or good enough for at least the first paper (I never try my very very very hardest on first papers because you never really know what the teacher wants or is looking for. always good to get feedback and then nail the rest of the papers throughout the semester. At least that's my theory). Anyway, thought it was pretty good. I emailed my prof the first paragraph and asked her if she thought i was on the right track. It was my crappy first version with tons of type-o's and was completely awful and she said it was "great!". I was like...HA. you're funny.

-I'm a nerd and I miss dancing a ton (it's generally how I get everything out of my system at duke) so I choreographed a bit of Sam Sparro's Black and Gold in my room tonight. Secret: this is actually the real reason becca loves singles. hehe. just kidding. not really.

-I've been dating Kyle six months. Weird? Yeah, I think so, too. haha.

Now, it's italian hw and bedtime. No blogging for the rest of the weekend because I'm not bringing my computer. Though apparently you can rent a computer at the hostel we're going to. But I'm probably not going to. This one is going to be a bit different. I think we're in a room with like ten other people.... Oh boy. Pray for us. haha.

Con Amore,

bec

La Mia Giornata

Tutti i giorni alle sette mi sveglio. Faccio la doccia e faccio colazione. Di solito bevo un caffe e mangio una pesca o i cereali. Alle otto vado all'universita. Prendo il autobus venticinque perche abito in Via Ricasoli quarantasei. Quando arrivo nel campus, vado a Villa Ulivi per le miei lezioni. Frequento le lezioni di storia e economia. Poi faccio una pausa alle mezzogiorno e spesso faccio uno spuntino o controllo le email. Il pomeriggio, vado a lezione di nuovo fino alle quattro e un quarto. e italiano e il mio professore e molto simpatico e intelligente. Due volte alla settimana, faccio le prove per il teatro dopo la lezione. La tragicommedia si chiama "Amphitryon's Double Trouble." Il mio ruolo si chiama Cleanthis. Alle quattro e mezzo, qualche volta, vado ad un museo in Firenze con la mia amica Catherine. La sera, torno alle sette all'appartomento. Io e Catherine cuciniamo la cena. Cuciniamo sempre la pasta con verdure. Dopo, faccio i compiti, organizzo un viaggio con Catherine, telefono mia madre o leggo un libro. Alle undici e mezzo, di solito, parlo con il mio ragazzo. Abita a Durham ed e studente all'universita di Duke. Vado a letto alla mezzanotte.

forget accents, also if you speak italian (cough Robert francis) don't tell me where i messed up because i'm turning this in before i can fix it.

My Day

Every day, at seven i wake up. I take a shower and I eat breakfast. Usually i drink a coffee and i eat a peach or cereal. At 8 o'clock i go to the university. I take bus 25 because i live on Via Ricasoli 46. When i arrive on campus, i go to Villa Ulivi for my classes. I attend classes of history and economics. Then i take a break at noon and often i eat a snack and check my email. in the afternoon, i got to class again until 4:15. It's italian and my professor is very nice and intelligent (suckin uuuuupppp). Two times a week I have rehearsal for theater after class. The tragicomedy is called Amphityon's double trouble. My role is named Cleanthis. At 4:30, sometimes i go to a museum in florence with my friend Catherine. In the evening, I return at 7:00 to the apartment. Catherine and i cook dinner. We also cook pasta and vegetables. After, I do hw, plan a trip with catherine, i call my mom or i read a book. At 11:30, sometimes I talk to my boyfriend. He lives in durham and is a student at Duke University. I go to bed at midnight.

BOOM. Che bello!!!

You mean I just paid 6 euro for supplemental music??

Internet's been sucking out my will to live these past couple days (see depressing post below). It's pretty in and out, but I've reached the point where I'm kinda meh about homework so i'll do my best to cover as much ground as I can in this post.

friday, sept 17th

that day was a lot of fun, but i was also sad because it was kyle's birthday and people were doing fun things at duke for him and ted and i wanted to be there. that being said, i decided that what i was doing (which was way fun) was in celebration of his birthday, and overall friday was great.

We went to Uffizi, which is this massive art museum next to palazzo strozzi. cool things about this museum

-it's really two huge buildings connected by a bridge on the second floor, i have no idea how we covered it all but we did

-Uffizi was originally a governmental building built int he 16th century, which is why it's named Uffizi (offices)

-there's a whole lot of artwork commissioned by Palla di Noferi Strozzi. I've been learning about the Strozzi family a lot in my fam and gender class because they were like one of the noble families of the renaissance (i read a pretty cool article about trying to marry off the strozzi sons to appropriate, honorable women), and it's interesting to learned that a lot of famous works of art, beautification of buildings, high altars of churches, were commissioned by rich families as a sign of nobility, honorability, wealth, power, awesomeness, etc. i love learning things in class and then seeing them around the city... that's probably the best thing about study abroad that you can't get anywhere else...maybe i'll blog hardcore about that later

-other cool stuff in the uffizi: lots of annunciations (mary gettin told she's gonna have a pretty legit baby), adoration of the magi (mary wearing blue and pink and holding a fat, legit baby), etc

-pretty important so read this: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera (Allegory of Spring) are here. This is legit. The Birth of Venus was a lot bigger than I realized, it's so funny how you have perceptions of famous paintings/works of art that you didn't know you had. Allegory of Spring I realized I was only really familiar with the center of it (a bit with the birth of venus too), so it was interesting to focus on what's going on on the sides and read what they had to say. At the end of the day, i sometimes think art historians are BS-ing because they have no idea what theyre talking about (sorry nina! and other art history majors!), but it's interesting to read speculations, but like they didnt even mention the figure on the far left of Primavera. Maybe i'll google it, meh. Anyway, they were beautiful and intriguing. I'd never learning about the idea the birth of venus being a "mingling of the physical world and the spiritual" so that was interesting to think about, i guess. Mostly i like the history of the birth of venus and how people thought it was so sinful to look at, etc. :)

-there was some other cool stuff by michelangelo and titian. and I saw the Madonna with the Long Neck, which ive seen before somewhere...online i guess.

-Finally the last part of the gallery was interesting because it showed some paintings that were gorgeous but got damaged by a Mafia Car Bomb that went off in May 1993 just outside gallery. I was surprisingly really angry by this. These paintings are so beautiful, and it was weird seeing them so damaged beyond repair. Mostly they were damaged by the broken glass cases they were in shattering and scratching their surface. I don't know what the mafia was trying to get across that day (other than killing five people i guess), but artwork should go on living in museums forever. I guess that's just me, though. I want to die know the Mona Lisa is in its place at the Louvre, the David is right next to my apartment when I lived on Via Ricasoli for four months, and the Birth of Venus and Primavera are all safely inside the uffizi.

After that, Catherine and I went to 'Ino, another recommendation by my Time-out book. I love my time-out book. it got Pint Mama and the Gallon Boys all over London and it's getting me and Catherine everywhere in Florence and Italy. They're great books, if anyone is travelling anywhere, i definitely recommend them.

Anywho, 'Ino was fabulous and if I ever come back with my family I'll take them there. all the tables are wooden barrels with wooden bar stools to sit on and every panini is like 6 euros and comes with a glass of house white or house red wine. It was delicious. And the sandwiches were toasted, and I couldn't be happier than with a toasted sandwich. I got gorgonzola and mostarda, which is apparently mustard in Italian, but didn't taste like French's mustard at all...more like a spicy sauce. anyway, deeeelish.

After that Catherine and I tried another Gelateria from my Book called Gold/la Carrozza (which actually means carriage, not gold), which is right on the Arno and then we came back toget some hw done. that night we cooked dinner: Lemon, basil chicken with pasta and salad which was splendid (we're great cooks, i think i have a bit of my mom's natural skillzzz in me), then we booked some hostels, talked to kyle for a few minutes (it was his birthday after all), and then went to bed.

Saturday sept 18

we got up at 5:30 am and caught a train to Venice. yeah. it was pretty intense. but I slept the whole train ride (i dont think catherine was as successful as i was). it was only 2.5 hours to venice, but by the time we got there it was already raining. Sleepy and annoyed by the rain, but not willing ot let it affect us, we trudged ten minutes from the train station until we found our hostel. Our hostel, Casa ai due leoni (house of the two lions) wasn't far from the bus boat station or train station but was kinda not in the center of town, which was good in my opinion. the lady at the reception was very sweet upon entering and gave us a map and told us that the best way to do venice is to take the ferry down to piazza san marco and work our way back up to the hostel walking. we waiting 15 min while they finished preparing the room and planned what we wanted to do and then went to our room. okay the hostel was in a tiny little piazza, but you went through a gate to another little piazza, then you went through our hallway door, then to our door which was our room. we got a double private, which i think is the only hostel we've booked that was just us, so it was nice for a starter hostel, we didnt have to worry about storage lockers or anything. it was more of a bed and breakfast hostel, without breakfast, so i guess just like a motel/hostel? anyway, it smelled funny but fortunately we just left.

we had been talking on friday about how we hadn't seen cookies anywhere in florence and suddenly were craving cookies like whoa (cant wait for bens cookies when we go to london!), then we saw some in venice!!! we bought one each immediately. turns out cookies are more like biscottis or scones to italians. megh.

we made our way to the bus boat station, got a one way ticket and enjoyed the boat ride all the way down the Grand Canal. it was freeeeeezing, crowded, and rainy. mostly the wind was what was killer. and the fact that these 8 feet tall italian dudes had the railing and i wanted to take pcitures and be able to see and they could still see everything if they stood behind me. eventually i nudged my way through.

we got to piazza san marco and were really just freezing and wanted hot chocolate. we went to cafe florian (a time out recommendation...). it was adorable. very ornate, the walls were all gilded and lined with mirrors. the people we were sitting around were very sweet, but mostly we were just happy to be out of the cold for a minute. our waiter was very nice and brought us the menu and pointed at something but both catherine and i ignored it. we ordered a vegetarian panino and a quiche and two hot chocolates con panna (with whipped cream). a band of an accordion, cello, violin, and piano played music for the people at the cafe. they played Somewhere Over the Rainbow and I sang along, finding it ironic against the awful Venetian weather of the day. then we got the bill....let's just say it's the most expensive lunch i've ever had. that being said we realized the waiter had been pointing at a part of the menu that said "musica supplementale sei euro" ....basically i paid 6 euro for that Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Thanks Cafe florian! Regardless, how could i complain? I had a lovely time and was warm for a minute.

Then we went to Basilica San Marco, which is one of the prettiest basilica's ive ever been in. that being said, im afraid all my churches are going to blend together over the semester. between england and france and italy, i feel like i've been in a gazillion. Anyway, this one was completely covered in Mosaics. it was craaaazy. Buttloads of gothic-ness and byzantine-ness. other cool stuff included the Pala D'oro, which is considered to be one of the best works of Byzantine art... it was pretty much this entire thing of gold and jewels. then upstairs there was a whole museum of original moasics they had to take down, the original four horses outside, some artwork, model histories of the basilica over time, etc, it was very neat. I downed an espresso out of the machine (fun fact about italy: There aren't really coffee places like Starbucks, but sometimes they have in public places machines for coffee, like soda machines, you give it 70 cents and it makes you a little cup of whatever you chose. and there are lots of options from macchiatos, espressos con ciocolatta, to hot chocolate, cappuccinos, and just plain milk. so i inhaled one to get over the lack of sleep)

after the basilica we kinda walked around a bit, got uber lost, it rained hardcore, got wet, but we ended up at the Teatro La Fenice and found out that there was a concert violinist that night and there were student rates, so we got tickets. then we headed to the Gallerie dell'Accademia, not to be confused with teh one right next to my apartment with the David. There were mostly Venetian works in there, which was intersting because i could actually tell a difference between teh artwork i saw there and the artwork id seen in firenze. lots of Titian's stuff, and Carpaccio's Life of St. Ursula cycle of Frescoes was interesting. I heard they had been doing some restoration, but it was the first museum id been to in italy that looked like the ceilings were falling apart. I didnt let it bother me though, art is always great. I got the hiccups really bad and some lady gave me a really evil glare. When I get hiccups they always last too long, are too long, and hurt me. but what can i do???

after that we just stopped into some restaurant i don't even know the name of. We were mostly just frozen and wanted somewhere to sit. but i got a cheese pizza that was the closest to an american pizza that ive had since ive been here, which was actually really nice and catherine got vegetable soup. oh and i got a cup of tea, so overall it was a comfort food dinner after a cold miserable day and we loved it.

then we headed back to the theater for the violinist. we were ushered into a banquet hall, which at first I was disappointed but then the banquet hall was one of the prettiest rooms ive ever been in (see picasa pictures)...do i give superlatives too often??? oh well. We saw/listened to L'arte dell'arco played by Federico Guglielmo. His bio was pretty legit. Anyway he played a Corelli, a Geminiani, a Vivaldi, a locatelli, a tartini, and a veracini, none of which i knew but were all from like the 17th or 18th century. he was INCREDIBLE. and backed up by two dudes playing cello and harpsichord who were also baller. it was amazing. like mindblowing. Catherine and I realized we were the only people not over the age of seventy (minus some pre-teen dragged there by her mom), which was kind of nice, to be the students that weren't out drinking (cough), though Catherine is pretty sure some Italian woman made a comment about her wearing a hoodie. It was freezing, get over it. anyway the show was fabulous. It was interesting because not a single word was spoken the entire time until Federico Guglielmo came back out for an encore and paused before playing, took his violin down stepped forward and looked at us and said "Bach." so we knew what he was playing next. it was hilarious. and awe-inspiring.

Our walk home to the hostel was filled with me re-enacting the violin playing by singing and pantomiming until we saw that venice has a grom and stopped in. we got crazy flavors as usual, and the lady serving us really nicely explained why they sort of whip the gelato before they put it in the cup. pretty much they like to keep no air in the gelato because it keeps the flavors in, but then they whip it before they put it in the bowl to add some air into to bring out flavors and make it softer, think like wine a little. anyway, it was really awesome and made me happy that she was so nice, not to mention fall in love with Grom a little more. such a great place.

we got back to the hostel and without computers and exhasuted from cold, rain, walking, etc. went promptly to sleep, though i laid awake for awhile feeling like there were bed bugs crawling all over me.

sunday

sunday was BEAUTIFUL. since none of the museums opened til late (sunday), we just went poking around in shops, went and took pics from the Rialto bridge, got lost a bunch, went to an incredible cioccolateria, VizioVirtu. UGH So good. fun fact: italian hot chocolate is sooo much thicker than ours. think like hot chocolate syrup. anyway we got five little chocolates each and hot chocoloate con panna and chocolate balls and sat on the steps of a canal and enjoyed them.

then we went shoppping a bit more, sat in a park and watched little italian kids play (adorable) and talked until lunch time ish when we went to Alle Oche (at/to the geese???) which is famous for its 80 different pizzas. it was a definitely a cool place and id def go back (I sound like my rollinglobe site, sorry!)

Then we went to Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, which is described as "A gloomy gothic barn" haha but seems to me like a chruch that is mostly now an art and shrine gallery. It has some rare junk, like Bellini's Madonna and Child with Saints Nicholas, Peter, Benedict and Mark (pretty, yet standard) and Titian's Assumption (mary going up)... i wish people wouldve painted more about society (that was bad, but I'm just curious!!!), Titian is buried in there too so we checked that out. There were symbols of St mark everywhere in there (A Lion with wings, generally with his paw on a book/bible), as well as some other stuff regarding the other three (matthew, mark, and luke). it was cool, glad i went and it was only like 1.50 euro for us as students.

then finally we had just enough time to take a boat ride to an island that's a part of venice but a little far away from the main part of Venice. It went by cruise ships which were funny to see, mostly european companies and one Carnival. No Royal Caribbean unfortunately, which was a bummer. then we got to Basilica San Giorgio Maggiore which is an alllll-white church, because the architect wanted to make it white to symbolize purity and closeness to God. famous for Two Tintorettos: the last supper and gathering of manna. both catherine and i liked the Last supper one because it was from a weird perspective. like you were looking at the long table from the side almost, it was cool. then we climbed the belltower and saw some incredible views of Venice.

We made our way back to the hostel to pick up our belongings and headed to the train station, sitting along the Grand Canal as we waited. I have to admit that i was glad the weather was soooo much better the second day because it helped remind me that Venice is beautiful. At the same time, there was this weird feeling in me that was excited to get back to Florence. Florence feels like home. I know my way around. It follows a grid and isn't confusing like Venice (even though venice is smaller). To be frank, i'm just glad I study abroad in Florence. Venice is also significantly colder all the time, so it was nice to get off the train to be back in my warm citta. We also were on the nicest train i've ever been on on the way home so that was kinda exciting.

Monday, sept 20th

i slept in a bit, not much, and then read like the wind for my classes, planned a bit more of my paper, and headed off to Italian. the italian dudes who clean our apartment came when i was still here. i felt awful as he cleaned our kitchen. we dont deserve it. the girls here are disgusting. i dont know why its so hard to wash your dishes after youre done using them (Kyle??).

italian was fine. i have a 1.5 min oral this thursday (oh my!) but we started working on it today and im not too worried. we had to write a short essay about this dude's schedule/day. I constructed what Domenico thought was a complex sentence and he said bravo!!! I said "Dopo alle cinque, va in palestra perche si piace la ginnastica. Dopo un'ora e mezza, alle 6:30, fa la spesa per comprare il cibo per la cena e torna a casa."

After five o'clock, he goes to the gym because he likes gymnastics (haha). After an hour and a half, at 6:30, he goes shopping in order to buy food for dinner and returns home." hahahahahahhahahaha... SO COMPLEX!!!! anyway so i gotta get ready for that.

then today i had fam and gender in the morning... she decided to have class outside on this big stone table outside... it was dang freezing. my fingers were purple. i stopped taking notes because i couldnt write. :( im also frustrated because she gave us literally no instructions for this paper due friday, whcih of course i dont like... plus she wears the same clothes every day;..... or at least every tuesday... i'm living out of two suitcases and can do better than that. i know i'm being a butt, but it's just hard to look at her. i love the material so im trying to not let it bug me. and what we talked about today was cool and interesting. .... so oh well.

fascism was baller as usual... except i forgot my computer (after class Prof Travis was like "where was your computer today???" haha). but we just talked about mussolini and he made him such an interesting character. i realize he tells history like its a huge personal story so it's so relatable. like mr. morrison... anyway, still loving that class, despite how much reading it is... starting next week we have to read one novel a week (mein kampf, etc) in addition to our course text book readings.... woooooot. i have a field trip with this class this friday and obviously im stoked. only sad part is he had to cancel our field trip to rome because of a personal issue :( he said he'll reschedule but it might be on a day that we've already planned our own personal trips and he said it'll just have to be okay if we cant do it. ...which makes me sad... i was kinda excited to do rome with a teacher... and im sure whatever weekend he puts it on is a weekend im somewhere else haha.... im probably in florence for 5 solid weekends right now... hahah....

finally internet is still whack (i started this blog post yesterday and am finishing today)... i went by the facilities office and they gave me an ethernet cord... only to find out that via ricasoli 46 (or at least my room) has no ethernet jack... BUT it does have a phone jack! so i can have a phone which i don't need at all, but i can't have internet!!! that's great (that was all sarcasm, by the way). aaaahhhhnnnoying... but im slowly getting over it.... my life is just different now. that's all.

tonight we went and saw a Concertto at the Teatro Comunale. it was called Summertime and was the first show of the season... directed by Wayne Marshall, it was a work involving an orchestra, a chorus, and four operatic singers... they did Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. I had a great time. and it was only 1 Euro for us through NYU, soooo thanks NYU. it was fabulous and beautiful. the audience clapped for like an hour afterwards. it was also funny to me because the show was in English, and there were times when the fourteen of us (That signed up through NYU) laughed out loud and no one else in the entire audience of 2,000 people did because they were Italian.... Maybe they felt for a moment how I feel every day....

Language is so interesting, by the way.

the show tonight got me in a singing and dancing mood and catherine and I spent the rest of the night singing Sweeney Todd or just singing nothing operatically and making up subtitles. Made me think of the night that we saw Madame Butterfly during Duke in London and all were so hyper afterwards. Something about opera....

tomorrow is hardcore paper writing day so i have to go to sleep. ....now.

amore,

becca

p.s. bad type-os, im sorry! i also have more videos to upload... but they take forever! meantime check picasa and RG

pps also, officially have a cold. loading up on sudafed and tylenol though, hopefully ill nip it in the bud.... now.

Meh.

My internet's been in and out since i got back from Venice last night. It is frustrating, infuriating, annoying, saddening and heartbreaking as it is my only means of communicating with everyone i care about back home. annnd i cant do any hw that requires it. i went to bed so sad last night. i knew there'd be a price to pay for having the best apartment in florence, but it's weird how it says i have full service and then nothing works. im missing people hardcore right now.

anyway, ill blog later about venice. this week is going to be interesting because i have my first paper to write and i have to turn it in early because the due time is at 1 pm friday, and ill be on my first european fascism field trip. then off to rome this weekend.

in the mean time, i put up 144 pictures from venice on my picasa... yeah intense i know. i had an incredible time, but it's nice to be back in florence. i love la citta dove abito.

http://picasaweb.google.com/117760715011314376547/Florence?feat=directlink#

i've made myself some earl grey tea and am reading about familial structures in Florence in sweatpants and a hoodie.

Duke-sick in florence without regular internet,

Becca

"They're not sketchy, they're Italian!"

video tonight is us hanging out on ponte vecchio. For those who don't know what that is, it's the main bridge you see in photos of Florence with all the shops on it. It's pretty much just fake jewelry stores though.

http://www.rollinglobe.com/RGWeb/blogs/viewpost.aspx?u=lastone&post=437

[new rollinglobe blog. although it is kinda annoying having to keep up with two blogs, I think i'll be really thankful for both of them at the end of my time here. I like how this is where i ramble about anything and everything. and rollinglobe is for more composed, stories, etc. bene bene]

i don't want to write much tonight. i'm exhausted. yesterday i had a ton of hw. but today was great and i dont want to forget.

i had two quizzes today. money and banking in the morning (my first actual class of that), my european geography map quiz and an italian quiz.

money and banking was cool except i was falling asleep. that wasn't his fault, that was my fault. 9 am classes here (something i wouldn't touch at duke with a 39 and a half foot pole), mean heading to the bus stop around 8 am. i checked my watch when we got to campus; it was 8:40 am. which is enough time pretty much to inhale a coffee and get into class. It's going to be weird, but if i'm not in bed before 11, I will hate myself on tuesdays and thursdays. theyre just rough, having every academic course on those days... my man, my mondays and wednesdays are nice. :) i just have italian.

anyway, next was an hour break and catherine and i just studied in the cafe (she had an italian quiz too, like all 400 people doing the program today). I nailed my european fascism geography quiz, if you didn't see my brainwaves in the blog post about memorizing european capitals, basically i just came up with insane ways of memorizing the capitals of europe and it worked beautiful. i got all 47. locations and capitals. lovely. then class was just awesome as usual. again, i cant get enough of this guy and the way he teaches. it's bizarrely engrossing. and he's so good at teaching random things too. he's like a cross between my gateway professor (meanings of freedom b/n rev war and civil war) and my high school ap us history teacher. He's goofy, strange, and tells us random details that you can't get out of books. Like Mussolini got fired from being a junior teacher for beating his students, which was a common practice, but apparently he took it too far....far enough to get fired.... (here's your sign italy....). also Futurists, some people that were Pro-Italy-entering-WWI when it was remaining neutral the first couple of years launched their campaign out of this one hang-out place in piazza della repubblica, a piazza i walk through almost daily. it's just baller to be learning things in the place they occurred.... just makes it that much more real. other cool stuff too, etc. i love that class. i sorta thought it would be my least favorite, just goes to show how much a professor can affect a course.

italian.... we reviewed at first, and i realized i was lot more prepared than everyone else (surrrprise???), so i was kinda annoyed we did review before when i just wanted to take it. there were only a couple tricky ones, but i compared with my friend anthony once we'd both turned them in and i was right on everything i was unsure about!!! im sure i made a couple stupid mistakes though, like gender endings or something. but it wasn't bad. the only bad part was that i think the majority of beginner italian kids got the same quiz (like all sections had the same quiz) and domenico (italian teacher) doesn't teach like the quiz was set up so that was annoying. there was like stuff we hadn't really gone over on there, but i was fine with it.

then we watched more of this movie we watched last week in italian that is pretty much on acid and really bizarre. i dont know if it's actually recognized as good italian acting, but they all act really weird. anyway, it's called Caterina va in citta (Caterina [catherine] goes to the city), about this little girl who moves to rome with her family. i dont like it. other things i dont like: domenico bent over and i saw my first, and hopefully my last, italian butt. let's just say that was enough to last me a lifetime and my first thought was, "Well, guess I've seen it all. I can go home now knowing I've seen all of italy i need to see." .......that was awful.

Then catherine and I came home after a long day of school and called RailEurope to confirm our train tickets. Kinda complicated about why they needed to do this, but pretty much everything is set and for $500 we get to see Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Individual tickets were $200, and since we're taking like 80 gazillion trains, i'd say we found a bargain. madre, they said they'll around in 2-3 days, so i'm guessing monday-wednesday next week? Let's just say, i'm stoked about the entire month of November, but starting October 21st. Going to be the best month EVER.

Finally, i started researching my first history paper!!!! I'm doing my paper on how gender and honor were mutually related in Renaissance society. should be baller. that's a tomorrow project though.

Tonight we went to Golden View Open Bar, recommended to me by the girl who lives next to me, my rollinglobe internship people, and the guy who ran out cooking class two nights ago used to work there. It was across the arno, which catherine and i had never walked. Turns out it's like a fifteen min walk, max, and we got to walk across ponte vecchio which was awesome. the restaurant had huge windows and our view from our table was just incredible (see picasa pictures). It was, by far, the best meal i have had in italy.... also the most expensive haha. We got assorted crostini (four cheese, one with meat on it, tomato/mozzarella, and mushrooms). you can probably guess which was my favorite. then we got Gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese, truffle oil, and spinach which was to die for. Then we got Traditional Tuscan Soup, which is actually like a stew of bread and vegetables which tasted like Fall. It reminded my of Mashed sweet potatoes at thanksgiving, but with all sorts of vegetables, eg carrots, etc. There was no liquid, so it wasn't really soup, but i loved it. then we got chicken breast with gorgonzola cheese and avocado which i also died over and then for dessert i got coffee mouse with raspberry sauce and catherine got chocolate mousse with fruit. mine was the best, but catherine would beg to differ because she doesn't like coffee :) overall, it was heaven. and I wish my family had been there because you guys would've LOVED it. Just a perfect little Stone Family restaurant with BIIIG glass windows overlooking the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio. We watch people crewing (rowing? whatever). they had a race! and watched the sunset on one of the prettiest cities in the world. We were there three hours. I had an amazing time.

After that we were walking back across Ponte Vecchio and this guy was playing guitar and tons of italians and tourists alike were sitting on the curb or walls listening and clapping and hanging out. this crazy lady was dancing and got me to dance with her (see picasa pictures). it was such an adrenaline rush, but at the same time i felt more carefree than i have in awhile, and it made me miss so many people that i love and wish were here with me. Definitely a movie scene moment for me. Then Catherine and I just sat and listened to the music until the guy was done playing for the night and finally, and sadly headed home.

Saturday we're going to venice until sunday night.... I'm not bringing my computer, just because my life will be easier. Hopefully I'll get another calling card tomorrow though, so at least my phone will work.

love to all and to all buonanotte!

becca

p.s. HAPPY TWENTIETH BIRTHDAY, KYLE GLACKIN! you actually have six more hours in the states til your bday. but you've been twenty for forty-five minutes here! I miss you tons. have a great day. muah haha.

[edit: I got clean sheets today.!!! this is a big deal because i'm supposed to get them every week and havent thus far. anyway, i wrote a note today that said "Ho bisogno di nuove lenzuoli e un asciugamano per favore! Grazie! and they gave me them!! it was amazing!!! though im pretty sure i butchered that sentence ( I have need of new sheets and a towel please thanks!) also, i can get my hair into a low ponytail now! my hair grows ridic fast. night!]