Spring Break Adventures

This is going to be a long entry because I will cover the last week, and a lot has happened then...so brace yourselves.

Okay I will start with Saturday. Instead of going to some crazy country, and exploring crazy lands, I decided to further my education and take a spring break course known as "Italian Folktales." This class is only a week long, so that I could use other weeks to do some crazy exploring. Saturday was the day we had our orientation and I planned to take a nice shower, and clean the house, and do some grocery shopping before I had to go. God had other plans. As I was about to take a shower, the pressure happened to be a trickle. (this happens a lot, the shower decides when we shower not the other way around.) As I went to the kitchen to check the pressure, the machine that controls everything was spewing water and flooding the kitchen. This has never happened before, so you know I was flipping shit, and my roommates just left for Spain. So I turned off the water, and ended up reading for the rest of the day. We got it fixed later thankfully and hopefully this won't happen again.

So orientation was dandy, and the dinner was dandy as well. After dinner, I walked to the train station to pick up my friend Clay who was visiting from the states for a week. He is the only friend who thought "This will be my only chance to go to Italy, and not pay for food and room and board." We got to my apartment, and he had a whole suitcase full of goodies for me from my loving and awesome parents. There were boxes of girl scout cookies, skittles, nerds, laffy taffys, sweet tarts, two jars of peanut butter, taco seasoning, hot sauce, my hat, my true blood books, some of my treasured movies, and a thing of mascara. Needless to say I was overjoyed and very very happy.

Sunday was class day. I stopped by our professor's apartment (aka classroom) ready to learn. A Palm and Sue Sha are awesome! They gave us delicious coffee and pastries and time to converse before class!!!! I feel if that happened every class, I would never leave school. After class, Clay and I hopped on a train to Florence and decided to walk around. Since it was Sunday not much was open so we didn't do too much. But we did find a delicious place that sold ravioli with broccoli sauce.

Monday was Siena day! I love Siena! We did our thing for class, and then we all went to find lunch. We stumbled on this quaint place and had some good quiche and some good wine and unlimited bread. We then found this awesome gelato place, with the best gelato I have ever had. Then on the bus back home, Kayla and I (the two people who don't think Italians are the hottest people ever) were seriously having some eye candy to the front of us. Too bad he left early. : (

Tuesday: Clay and I decided to hit up Pisa. On the train to Pisa we at first sat next to a bunch of school children who were gawking at us while Clay and I spoke English. We decided to move because the noise was a bit too much. We moved to a car where a little girl was being the biggest brat. I don't approve of children being smacked around but this one deserved it. She would not shutup or sit down until her mother forced her to sit. And then the God awful crying. This child would not stop crying and complaining when finally her mother just smacked her. Thank the lord. When we got to Pisa, we decided to climb the tower. Last time I was there I didn't climb it, and it would be something fun to do. Damn was that a trippy stair climb. Luckily it wasn't as brutal as the cupola, but it was definitely an odd climb. We finally made it to the top and it was so beautiful during the sunset. Pisa has redeemed itself...kind of. I still think it isn't that great, but definitely see it once. As we were ready go back down the stairs, this American lady and her husband were huffing and puffing, while Clay and I were giving her moral support. As we climbed down the stairs we overheard her being a mega bitch to her husband. She was like "No that is such a crappy picture, you delete this right now and do it right...DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND??!!" It was embarrassing. On the train ride back our car had been invaded by annoying sixteen year old boys. They were creeping on Clay's solitaire game on his ipod, one was blasting his music on his ipod speakers, and apparently one was checking me out. Thankfully they weren't there for long. I like to listen to my own music thanks. Then on our way back to Arezzo, this lady was screaming at the top of her lungs bitching the ticket guy out. Like literally screaming and calling him a dick, and that he should go fuck himself and everything. It was slightly funny. The ticket guy walked in our car smiling, and someone asked him in Italian what happened. The ticket guy was just like I just punch tickets, and continued on his way.

Wednesday: Assisi day! I loved Assisi. My whole life I've been spelling is Asissi. Oops. Just as I think views can't get any better, I stand corrected. Assisi is absolutely beautiful. We only went to St. Francis but it was so beautiful. After learning about the art, we visited St. Francis's grave. I didn't really know what to pray for so I decided to pray for my dog Jingles, who passed away last October. St. Francis is the patron saint of animals so I decided he would be the one to talk to. I just asked him to take care of her. After I left I saw five brittany spaniels (Jingles's breed) that day. It was pretty weird. After lunch, the group of us decided stupidly to walk down the hill instead of taking the bus back to the train station. Needless to say we missed our train and had to wait in a train station for two hours with a man barking at us. Unfortunately Sue Sha broke her arm in Assisi, so she had to leave sooner than expected.

Friday: Clay and I went to Florence to see David and do some shopping. David is amazing. Can't describe it. I pretty much love Michelangelo. On the way back this drunk old Italian man decided to bug me. He told me he's a good father, and that he's going to San Marino to see his son. When he found out we were from Texas, he was like "Bang bang...CHUCK NORRIS, GEORGE BUSH," and then proceeded to ask if I knew Bruce Springstein. I said yes, then he was like BORN IN THE USA, while I rolled my eyes. He then asked for my number, I said no, then he told me he wouldn't drive us but his dad would, and that it would be good dinner if I would come. I said no again, and he was like "It's okay I'm too strong for you and you're too young for me." Then the lady behind him told him to leave immediately because he was bothering us and he left. Fun times...

Saturday: Trip to Rome, saw everything, and then I had delicious Hard Rock Cafe. I am so sorry but I miss my American food. I had buffalo wings, onion rings, and refills of pepsi. It was heaven.

So that was my spring break!

Saturday: We decided to hit up Ro

Exchanging of words

So I am a part of a language exchange program in Arezzo where we meet with a group of Italian students to help them with whatever they need for their English exams, and of course if we need help with our Italian, they can help us with that. We are each assigned a person, and then we get together on our own accord. I was assigned to a sweet girl named Michaela, who took me to her dorm room to meet her two roommates who are also very sweet. They knew some English, but guess who got to speak in Italian for two hours? Yours truly. It was weird because yes I did have to think about it, but once I was on a subject, I just started spewing words out...and they were the ones I wanted to say! We talked about Arezzo, (they hate it because it's full of spoiled brats and it's too small...they're from other cities in Italy mainly the South), music (they're burning me a cd!), other things, I talked to one of their parents on the phone in English because they wanted me to speak English, and towards the end, we started singing Bocelli and Katy Perry. After the meeting, I celebrated by going to Blooms and ordering a cheeseburger and french fries.

I know this will be difficult to comprehend if you know my obsession with carbs, but I am sick of them. I need more meat. I'm slightly sick of pasta, bread, crackers, all of it. I need more hamburgers, and chicken sandwhiches, and tacos, and fajitas. I'm becoming a vegetarian without meaning to. At least I'm discovering this now before I develop an unhealthy veg diet. You know the one where they just eat carbs and don't take the necessary vitamins or don't eat from the other food groups, and then develop this kind of stomach thing where they kind of look preggers but it's pudgy. Calm down veggies, I'm not saying all of you have it, but I refuse. I'm going to Rome next weekend and I'm going to Hard Rock cafe. It is settled. Ok rant done. Ciao ciao!

Cortona

Yesterday, a few of us headed over to Cortona (twenty minute train ride) for a wine tasting. Since a lot of us have never been there, we decided to leave Arezzo around 12:15 to go explore and get some lunch. Cortona is the most beautiful place in Tuscany hands down. For those of you who don't know, Under the Tuscan Sun (couldn't find the underline button) by Frances Mayes took place in Cortona. The view was spectacular and we were blessed with such a gorgeous day. We took the bus up to Cortona, had a great meal (I had a mac and cheese type thing, a salad, and some vino), and took the bus back down to meet the others. Bus drivers in Cortona like to think that pushing the accelerator down a hill is how it works. We were literally careening down a very steep hill, and we all thought the brakes were out/we all thought we were going to die. But luckily the only thing damaged was his side mirror.

My first wine tasting was awesome. Benedetto, the owner's son who is in his late twenties and super handsome, gave us a tour of the vineyard, the pet falcon, and then the awesome wine tasting/olive oil tasting. We tried three different wines, all amazing (third one was the best, yes I bought a bottle, and yes I'm saving it until I go home.) Along with the wine tasting, there was awesome salami, awesome bread, and great cheese. It was just a perfect perfect day.

Pisa...not much to it.

Today we had a class trip to Pisa. Other than the leaning tower of Pisa, there is not much. I have heard from others that Pisa isn't that great but now I can confirm. The history of Pisa was interesting but there was not much to the town. We also visited Lucca, which I liked better. It's a shame it was so miserable all day. But nonetheless Lucca is very very pretty. Hopefully the rain will stop and the sun will stop by to say hi when we are all wine tasting in Cortona (Under the Tuscan Sun). A presto!

I am the next Ina Garten

Ok so even if you met me for two seconds you will know this. I do not cook. I do not spend time in the kitchen, and I could care less about cooking things. I mean for Christ sakes when I was three, my parents got me a kitchen set complete with dishes and silverware, and fake food. I only used that thing for the phone. Who knew that would be a foreshadowing of my lack of kitchen skills.

But here I really don't have a choice. If I want to live and not be broke, I have to cook. The food network website is my life. I wouldn't know what to do without it. Yesterday was a cooking day for sure. I was adamant about getting tomato soup (they don't have campbells here people and though they have every other tomato thing you can think of they don't have canned tomato soup.) So I got ingredients and made the damn soup. Not bad, I still like Campbells better, but what can you do? Then I made pancakes for dinner from scratch and my God were they good. Italy along with the rest of Europe believe breakfast is a croissant and a cappucino. Though I love both of those things, it would be nice to have a bagel or waffles or something of the sort every once in a while. I also have a recipe for ranch dip and after my sesta (what I call a nap, fiesta in Spanish translates to Festa in Italian, so I thought, as well as lots of Americans thought it would be logical to translate siesta to sesta.) But yes we'll see how that turns out.

My Italian class is all done! This is the last one I'll take during my college career. It's hard to believe I've been taking Italian for the past six years. We're going to Pisa and Lucca with our class tomorrow and Saturday a group of us are taking the train to Cortona for an inexpensive wine tasting. I'm very excited. A presto!

A Roma

Weekend!

Friday: Stayed in Arezzo and went out for some Mexican food! Yes there is a Mexican place in Arezzo and yes it is absolutely delicious. Brittany and I split the fajitas and they were great! ( I forgot it was Friday.) I also had my first legal libation that starts with an m and ends in argarita. Delicious as well. I'm looking forward to getting sushi and Chinese food sometime here too.

Saturday: Woke up very early to catch the 7:45 am train to Rome. We arrived at the termini and got to our hostel. I have much better faith in hostels. This one was ten times better than the one in Venice. We got some food and then headed straight to the Vatican.

Oh. my. goodness. I forgot how amazingly awesome the Vatican was. I was there ten years ago for the holy year. My parents and I were three out of the 40 million people that came to visit the Vatican. Crazzy. Ok so right as we stepped out of the metro, we found tour guides willing to take us. Cathy was our tour guide! She was awesome, and American so that was helpful. We first went to the pope's old palace which is now a museum, and saw a bunch of old statues, paintings, and tapestries. My favorite part of that museum were the Raphael paintings. Very very cool.

We then headed to the Sistine chapel where I got to see my favorite Michelangelo painting, "The Last Judgement." The guards there were Nazis, kicking people out who took pictures, and telling us to "SILENZIO." Sounds like some people had a long week.

We then headed to St. Peter's to look at the dead popes. One thing I didn't see last time was Pope John Paul II's tomb because clearly he was alive when I was there last. You can tell he has touched a lot of lives. There were a lot of people there praying in front of his tomb. And then I saw St. Peter's tomb, when I remembered last time we were there, mom dropped her sunglasses down the stairs and had to go get them. I also saw John XXIII. I have him to thank for listening to mass in English, and being able to eat meat on non lent Fridays. Lots of people were in front of his tomb as well so that was nice. The Pieta is my favorite Michelangelo sculpture so I was very happy to see that as well.

Then there was the climb to the top of the Cupola. Oh my goodness. Once again I'm praising the lord for not being fat, claustrophobic, afraid of heights, and the size of a small child. Those stairs would not end, hallways were narrow, and I am so out of shape, I was literally crawling towards the top. But it was so worth it. The view was spectacular, and we showed up right at sunset. It was absolutely beautiful.

We left St. Peters and went to find food. We found a great restaurant, and the weather was so nice, we sat outside and had a nice fun delicious meal. I had fettucine something. We then decided to go to the Trevi Fountain and I threw in a coin for Mama Kettler. Which is good because the whole saying is throw a coin once, you come back, throw a coin twice, you get married, and throw a coin three times, you get divorced. I already threw a coin when I was eleven, and getting married right now is not something enticing. But just in case I won't throw a coin in again...I'll pass on the experience of a divorce. Then we just sat there for an hour observing and talking. It was so nice. We ate some delicious gelato after then trekked to the Spanish Steps. We had a great time, but we were so exhausted, we passed out as soon as we got back to the hostel.

Sunday: We did the whole Roman ruins thing. Colesseum and all that jazz. It was cool to see, but wasn't my cup of tea. The Pantheon is awesome though. I can't believe something that old is in really good condition. Amazing. A few of us stumbled into St. Ignatious of Loyola, and that was so unbelievably beautiful. Then we got gelato, then off to Termini to head home. I had my first run in with a gypsy. He was so annoying. He literally held out his hand as if it was mandatory for me to give him money. "no...no...no...no...no...NO NO NO NO...VAI VIA!" He started to follow me and continued asking. Luckily I had an entourage of six people around me also telling him to go away. He gave up and moved on to other tourists. The end!

Fashion

Ok. So you know I would talk about this sooner or later. Italians have a very different sense of fashion at the moment. For the most part they can pull it off, because they are all skinny and know how to wear clothes, and do not pretend that they are a size smaller than what they really are. However if this ever hits the states we will all be hot messes. Here are grand examples of what I see every day in the Corso.

Metallic Jackets

Both men and women wear these.

Timberland boots, a fav of the men's

And then graphic shirts for women

Basically if one aspires to be a construction worker, but not really, or loves Clark shoes, or wants enough shiny objects of clothing to make an ADD child go mad, then Italy is the place for you at the moment.