It comes and goes in waves.

[edit: there are tons of new photos up on Picasa. Check them out! http://picasaweb.google.com/117760715011314376547/Florence?feat=directlink#]

I'm pretty sure I'm stealing internet right now from someone on my block. Oh well, it's hard to get anything done! and I want to blog, but now it's midnight and i'm dead. i'll try and be quick, because apparently my blogs are too long anyway. ;-)

Lucca, Sunday Sept 12th, 2010

I was pretty excited for Lucca because it was an NYU sponsored trip. I wasn't sure what to expect though. I was glad to find out that it was a tour in the morning and then we were free from lunch until we had to leave. Catherine and I shared my ipod headphones and had a mini dance party on the bus with ourselves to katy perry, michael p. (yeaaahhh), and a new band i got recently, jukebox the ghost. twas fun

we get to lucca after maybe an hour. we're split into tour groups (catherine and i tried to stand close to some guys to not end up with girls which worked, but in the end was pointless). Our tour guide lady was a funny little woman who is a Lucca local and grew up there, which was kinda cool. At first I thought she was kinda weird, she was wearing a purple dress, purple glasses, purple shoes, purple jewelry, and purple lipliner and had spiky blonde hair, but by the end i thought she was very sweet.

anyway, here's what i learned on the tour:

-Lucca, comes from 'luk,' meaning mud, named by etruscans

-it was actually completely independent for 500 years until 1719 (dont quote me on dates), and has a whole lot of roman remains.

-it has one of the few remaining layouts of a roman town, two main streets, one running N to S and one running E to W in the form of a cross with the town walls making a circle around it.

-the outer walls are now sort of a park where people can run, walk, bike around on top of them, the first part of our tour was spent walking along the walls of the town and then you can go down into the town. theyre HUGE walls, i thought that was pretty cool. They still have remnants of these triangle shaped hills jsut outside the walls that were places where people could spot enemies, etc. pretty neat

-we came two days before a major Luccan holiday (Holy Cross? meh, i dunno and I don't feel like googling it); There was a complete medieval fair, with italians all dressed up in medieval attire, selling old looking clothes, swords, shoes, chickens, food, etc. a medieval marching band marched around lucca all day that day, sometimes with some people dressed up in royal medieval attire walking behind them. it was adorable and you could tell something every luccan is involved in. They also are having a parade (today i think, since today is the actual holiday) at night, and every building in town on the line of the parade puts up towns of lightbulbs to light up the streets. it was really cute.

-Lucca was majorly religious, deep in Catholocism. there are 84 churches within 2.5 miles in the town (the town is 2.5 miles across)

-one of their favorite remains is this girl, Santa Zita, this girl who decided to not get married but dedicate her life to staying at home and working, taking care of poor and sick. there's this myth that she was accused of stealing bread to give to the poor, and when the authorities caught her and she opened her apron, the leftovers had turned to flowers (history bologna, love it), apparently she died of lead poisoning in old age from all the medicines she was taking from being old or whatever... soooooo, some archaeologists were digging around and found her and she was pretty much preserved like a mummy (guessing the lead?) and soooo Luccans put her in a glass case in this church for everyone to come and look at her. Yeah, i saw a mummy. Check picasa for pics of her. I got goosebumps like whoa. I did not like looking at her. Nor do i think Zita wants me looking at her 500 years later either. Yuck.

-Lucca had an amphitheater 45 AD, 25 years before the Rome Coliseum, which is kinda cool, the whole thing is underground now and instead they have this super cool piazza that's huge and circular. it was really neat to look at (see pics)

-originally it was a hardcore silk place but not since the 17th century, when it became a paper place. even today there's paper industries just outside of lucca.

-Lucca was Puccini's birthplace! that didn't mean anything to me at first, but then I learned that he's the dude who wrote Madame Butterfly, and a whole bunch of operas, but I saw Madame Butterfly with the Duke in London crew, so that was kind of a cool connection and made me miss them. Catherine and I tried to go to the Puccini museum later that day, but it was closed. Anyway, he was born and raised in Lucca. apparently he was the first guy in lucca to own a car, because he thought they were cool.

The tour was very interesting and we covered a lot of ground (buh dun chh). The only annoying part was the students complaining about how hungry they were instead of paying attention to the lady giving the tour. I thought it was very disrespectful. No one made you come to lucca.

After that, catherine and i visited this market that had vintage-y things, but i didnt get anything and then we headed to lunch at a place my Time-Out book recommended. I'm going to write my rollinglobe blog this week on it, i think, so youll hear more, but let's just say it was really awkward and involved, sharing food, spilt water pitchers, bike crashes, and delicious, weird food.

after that we tried to go to puccini but it was closed so we just went to another church and looked around and then spent the rest of the time going into random shops and walking around lucca. overall, i'm very glad i went. it was kind of nice to see an Italian city that I otherwise would not have gone to if on vacation. It's sort of Ocala to Orlando like Lucca is to Florence. Lots of people take the train or bus to firenze to go shopping, or go to the city for the day. so it was nice to see the opposite of that. it was beautiful, and im glad we got to come on a day when the whole town was pretty much in celebration. it was also one of the prettiest days ive seen since being in italy. simply gorgeous.

after we got back to florence, catherine and i got Grom. Grom is a gelato place in florence that everyone talks about. that and Vivoli, but Grom probably more. Grom is also in new york and a couple other places (maybe mom and dad can go while we're there!!). anyway, we get there and the line is wrapped around the block. we decide to wait though. There are a gazillion flavors and also a Flavor of the month. I decided to get caffe and nocciola (coffee and hazelnut) since those are my favorites at Carabe, the gelato place (also recommended by my time-out book!) that is right outside my apartment, and i wanted to compare, and the flavor of the month, which i have no idea what it is because it's in italian words that i don't know. Catherine got Crema di Grom (grom's special flavor, ....i'm not really sure what it is but involves chocolate and vanilla), lampone (raspberry), and crema and mente (mint!). all three of catherines were fabulous. the mint was not as strong as i thought itd be, soft and delicious, and lampone was amaaaazing. ....mine were incredible. the flavor of the month turned out to be......drum roll...: crema e vino....vanilla and wine. i started to be like uhhhh no i cant take this, but the girl working at grom said to me "no no it's very good" and so i just said okay.... it was incredible!!! the first bite was the weirdest thing ever, but after that it was just yummy! I wish i could describe it better. ...i'm sorry. caffe tasted just like coffee... as opposed to coffee flavored ice cream, was very rich and yummy, the hazelnut was perfect....so good. i went back today actually and got lampone and crema (raspberry and vanilla)... it's too close to be healthy..... and only 2 euros!

Monday, Sept 13

Catherine and I got up early and went and got train tickets to Venice this weekend and Rome next weekend. so excited. :) it's supposed to rain in venice this weekend, which would suck. but hopefully we'll get to go for a gondola ride. Nervous about this hostel, but i guess that's part of the experience.........

getting tickets though was actually really neat because catherine and I had a little situation. we looked online at the timetables and found the train we wanted, but then when we went to buy the tickets at the self-service machine, the train wasn't there. i explained the entire situation adn what had happened to a guy at the ticket office window in italian and was very proud that i could do so. I'm still being amazed by the fact that I've been here three weeks and i can for the most part say what i need to say around town. He responded in italian and then catherine had to help me. it's much easier for me to get my words out, but much harder to understand their response or what to say next. together, we got our tickets to venice and are all set. :)

then we headed to school for a sign up for an opera. it's a Gershwin, so at least i'm familiar with that. very excited, as usual. a friend in my italian class actually invited me to go with him since he has to go for the Opera Class, but turns out i was going anyway! apparently people get dressed up to go to the opera, so i think we'll get dressed up and go out to eat somewhere a little nicer since we havent done that yet, like somewhere my time-out book recommends or the restaurant neal recommended to me. :)

monday i just had italian and then rehearsal. rehearsal was a bit of a waste of time for me because we were doing a scene where i only have one line. haha. but i have it down!!! "Shall I?" haha. but i used the time to do my italian hw and memorize my entire first scene, so i guess i made it productive...still very excited about the show.

Italian monday was pretty funny because of the conversation you can read in the blog below this one. i enjoy the class because my teacher is really funny, but i'm glad i had mrs baker in high school for spanish to understand all these grammar rules. a lot of the kids in my class are completely lost and i only get this stuff because it's similar to spanish, give or take a couple weird things, but it's much easier to be int he mindset of the language and why it is the way it is, as opposed to going from english to italian. I didn't realize how lucky i was to have an english speaking teacher teach me spanish. I think it's the best way to learn a language, because Domenico (italian teacher) has a really hard time explaining why that word is the way it is, orwhy you use that definite article, etc. whereas mrs. baker explained in english, so we totally got it. I'm thankful for that. at the same time, it's a lot of fun learning a new language, and my notebook is full of italian words with spanish words next to them. :)

i got home to find out that my internet is out... it's still out now, as you read earlier. this is frustrating because catherine and i were trying to work out fall break and i had some hw to do on my computer. instead i made flashcards for econ and studied my european capitals. using sporcle was awesome, robert francis, and then i also came up with creative ways of remembering capitals... just to make you all laugh:

country--> capital

Albania--> ending -ania, like -ana, albania looks like Albeit, take the T in albeit and the ending --> Tirana

Lithuania--> looks like Lethal--> Villains are lethal --> Vilnius

Montenegro--> negro means black, GORillas are black, pod --> Podgorica haha

Estonia --> Stone is a russian last name, Tali on fac board is russian or ukrainian or something --> Tallinn

Netherlands --> Never kyle's been there --> Amsterdam hahahahahha

Sweden --> Sweet Stock --> Stockholm

Republic of Macedonia --> looks like macademia...cookies...Mom...mom likes Skype --> Skopje

Slovenia--> Slow talking, veins gush blood --> Ljubljana

Serbia--> ser--> Sary--> sarah worries about med school grades --> Belgrade (sorry, i love you!)

Romania --> give it a rest, AG --> Bucharest (hahahahhahaha)

Finland--> Fin, land, ocean, boat, sink, hell --> Helsinki

Croatia--> Kyle's mom went there when she studied abroad in florence, but it'd prob be one of the LAST places i'd go... last letter... Z --> Zagreb.

Moldova --> sounds like "mulled ova." Nassau has been mulled over. been there with mom (CHristine)--> Chisinau

Malta--> Mall valet --> Valleta

Bosnia/Herzegovina --> Hertz cars, sarah's car crash --> sarajevo

Cyprus --> natural resource-ish, nickel --> Nicosia

Ukraine--> all the letters are there, change the U to to a V --> Kiev

Slovakia --> becca is slow, kyle says i'm a brat --> Bratislava.

Hungary--> being hungry is such a pest --> Budapest

Belarus --> change to BelariSK... - Sk...--> Minsk

Latvia --> the weepies --> Riga (no idea, why that one works, except they have a song called Riga girls)

Iceland--> ice pick ...Trotsky... Reich (goes with all that history over there haha) --> Reykjavik

....if those made you laugh... or just made you think i'm crazy...or made no sense.... WHATEVER. you try memorizing 47 european capitals. and they all worked loverly. im going to study like that for the rest of my life, worked so well. like a charm. anyway, quiz is thursday and im ready to roll.

i love european fascism by the way, i love the way he teaches most of all i think. he's just very knowledgeable and pours everything out and i just have to keep up with him. :) he complimented my typing skills though and told me at the end of the semester he'd like me to put my notes on a flashdrive for him so he can have a transcript of all of his lectures, hehe. :)

today i had a walking tour of Florence with my Family and Gender Class. I learned some pretty cool stuff, but nothing really mentioning. I think the coolest part was going to see this building and finding out it was the palace of this guy whose memoirs we read last week. just kinda full circle and strange to be standing in front of his house, when his words make him sound so far away you know? anyway, now there's a clothing store in his house, so doesn't make much of a difference i guess. the main thing i got out of this class it that it is very cold in Florence in the morning and my italian professor would rather stand in the shade of cold, historical buildings where it is absolutely freezing, than five feet over where there is sunshine and warmth. very frustrating. she's a little cooky and OCD anyway. another thing i got out of this class today is that i'm never going to be able to keep up with the readings. I blew through two 100 sheet copy cards (4 euros each, man) just making copies of all the articles i needed for prescribed readings for each week, not to mention reading out of books. and then there are these "recommended readings" each weekend in addition to what's required. but i couldn't find them anywhere online or anything. I asked her today where they were, and she was like

"Oh, theyre actual books."

"oh okay, are there certain chapters or sections that are recommended?"

"No you can just read the book. you may find them interesting and want to read the whole thing."

"uhh...okay. Then as for our papers, do we need to do outside research or are the required readings and recommended readings [which are BOOKS, not readings, keep in mind] enough research?"

"No you will need to do outside research."

....yikesabee.

lame....

then we had italian which again was fun, but not that helpful. although we did finally learn to conjugate verbs, though i'd figured it all out pretty much beforehand. i got to write on the board today to go over all the singular to plural changes and different definite articles which always makes me feel like a good little nerd student.

after that catherine and i planned fall break because i dont have internet.

another drum roll please...

Oct 21: Florence to Vienna, overnight train

Oct 23: Vienna to Munich, evening train

Oct 25: Munich to Berlin, overnight train

Oct 27: Berlin to Zurich, overnight train

Oct 29: Zurich to Bern, morning train

Oct 30: Bern to Geneva, morning train

Nov 1: Geneva to Florence, morning train

I could cry. I seriously could cry. hold on....

anyway, we found a great deal/pricing on a sort a package deal through raileurope, 10 days travel in four european countries. perfect. this semester is going to be mindblowing. especially the second half starting with fall break. Austria, Germany, Switzerland, then London/Dublin and Barcelona/Zaragoza. I can hardly believe this is my life. but here I am.

other random things:

-the guy at the coffee shop on campus knows me now. heh...

-i walked a guy across campus today because he hurt his knee running/playing soccer on the campus team. he's a funny kid. also majorly italian, but american. like his dad played professional soccer in italy before moving to New York. his last name is Tedesco, which is German in Italian, which is kinda funny. Our teacher calls him Tedesco. it's just kinda funny thinking about.. German, but he's Italian.

-Catherine met a girl she likes!

-I love europe like it's my job.

-babies and dogs are super cute here.

-im giving up on coca cola light.

-i've found dark chocolate kit-kat and white chocolate kit-kat that are better than normal kit-kats

-catherine and i had cooking class tonight!: Antipasti. we made crostini with a sort of tuna salad on it, something with meat and cream cheese that i didnt eat, but the filling was good!, and then pear, gorgonzola and mascarpone baked in these little dough-wonton thing-ys. all were delicious and the chef dude was really awkward, but funny. we also met a couple girls we liked. overall very fun. definitely got catherine's creative juices flowing with cooking and she has perfected the skill of chopping vegetables at last. :)

tomorrow game plan: finish flashcards, read-like-youre-a-history-major-in-the-wind-becca, and tomorrow night we're going out to eat on the arno. :)

pace, amore, italia

becca.

p.s. my throat hurts really bad. but im doing a good job ignoring it... hopefully sleep will help...please no beccasickness, or anything else for that matter, a couple of the girls in my apartment have already gotten strep throat since coming here...

pps also, i guess i didnt try very hard to make this one shorter ;P