oh london...

so i know what is like to be homeless in London in the middle of february when its cold and rainy.

I know, I know. What a great way to start a blog....but its true. I aint lying.

Ok, from the beginning.

So we went to London this weekend. We knew we had to leave early because our flight was in Milan Bergamo and Milan alone is a 2 1/2 hour train ride. Our flight was at 10:45. So Kim and I get out of class at 2:30 and she calls me telling me Ryan Air went on strike! So im liek great, I had just gotten to our street from Accademia, so I go running back to the computer lab, and of course every student wants to go on a computer right then. lol. So I found one of my housemates cousins and I asked her to check the site. It didnt say anything about a strike, so i take the number down and go running back to the apartment. We get there and I call the Italy number, and of course its all in Italian. So we decide to run to our advisor, Margherita. so we get there, and she calls and finally gets to liek an operator, who wants our flight number, so we confirmed the flight, so we are all happy cuz we can still go to london. so she asks us where we are flight flies out of, and she is like, you gotta hurry, so she tells us how to get the bus to the city where our flight actually is! Which is another hour away, so its 3:15 now.

So we sprint to the trainstation and buy our tickets and wait for maybe 40 minutes. So we're now on the train headed to Milan, and we're like ok. its all good. But of course we have some problems and our train starts running late! And we only have a half an hour gap with the buses if we want to make it to the airport on time! So we get to the trainstation with 20 minutes to buy the tickets for the bus and to find the bus. I seriously ran and spoke to every single person that worked in that train station asking wher eI buy the stinkin tickets and where the bus was, and they all sent me to the wrong place (Yea, i was speaking in Italian with all of them too!!!). So we get to the information booth and he is like the biggest jerk ever, and im trying to understand his italian, and he tells us that we buy the tickets on the bus, so we run out. and ask some people at one of those magazine stands and they tell us where the bus is. So we're RUNNING. and we find the bus station and we ask every single bus driver where the one to bergamo is as we're running in the direction they are pointing us, and we're yelling GRazie! as we're going. IT was great. so we get there, and he is like, si, bergamo. biglietti (tickets)? and was like WHAT?! so i tell him in really broken italian that the guy at the information booth told us we buy them on the bus, and i showed him what time our flight was, so he let us on for free! thank God for nice italians!

So we get to the airport, thru the checkin, onto the plane. no problems. We actually ended up sitting behind the two funniest people ever. These guys - they're laugh was hysterical. Talk about contagious. Cuz I started laughing, and Kim is like what? and i was like crying, I couldnt tell her, so she listens and hears them laugh, and she starts laughing so hard she's crying. So all these people are looking at these two guys, and then at us behind them laughing so hard we're crying, and they're all like, what? But seriously. about 10 rows of people around us ended up laughing on this flight for a good 10 mintues because these two guys (i think they might have been drunk, but whatever) were laughing so hard. so we landed in london two hours later. so its like 11:30 or so.

And we finally find the bus there, because that airport was an hour outside of central london too! So we're on this bus, and hes like where do you want to go? and we were like, um...are friends are in hyde park, we want to go there, hes like thats huge, so i'll just drop you off at hyde park corner. So we try calling our friends. The ones phone wasnt working...it wouldnt go thru, and the other one just kept going to the voicemail, so we were like oh no! So we start just walking, and it starts raining. So we took some cover under the Irish Embassy's awning. then thought that maybe we should find somehwere else to stand. we didnt want to look toom uch like sketchballs. So we're wandering. its like 2 in the morning midn you, and London goes to bed very early. So finally we're like, lets jus ttry to get to the hostel we have booked for Friday night. So we knock on the door to some building, i dont even know. Cuz we could see the night guard sitting at the desk. So he comes out and we tell him our dilemma, and he's like. Oh no! do NOT go to that hostel. and we were like what? He proceeds to let us come in and tells us that he used to live there and that he would not even go back there. That its full of crime, drugs, and prostitutes. He was the nicest man ever. Tried to help us find a hostel or a hotel. Let us use their "toilet" and offered coffee and tea. So finally, they walk us to the trainstation nearby cuz there is a 24 hour cafe there. and we had a place to sit out of the rain. So we're sitting there, and we eat the 4 kitkats kim had a both had about 10 m&ms. lol. So we buy a donut and some tea. and we both took 20 minute naps at separate times cuz we didnt want to both fall asleep....so at about 5:30 mcdonalds opens and we get bagels and hashbrowns, so by 6 we decide that we might as well walk to buckingham palace which was down the street. So we got there, and its still raining. but I gotta say. ITs pretty cool to be at buckingham palace when there is not a soul around.

So we decided to take a video of the place with no one around, and its pretty funny...i must say. Then we walked across the street to this garden and walked around, and the sun was just starting to come up and it wasnt really raining anymore and we walked around this little lake with ducks and swans on it...it was beautiful. So we get tot eh street, and we're like BIG BEN! so we got to see big ben when he was chiming at 7oclock in the morning and nobody was around. So we walk around and we see westminister abbey and parliament and all that.

Then we decided to walk all the way down the Thames, which Kim touched. lol it was cold apparently. And, she almost slipped and fell right into it, it was pretty funny. So we walked across this random bridge and the sun was rising, and it was gorgeous, and we saw the London Eye. Then we kept walking and saw the Globe Theatre and the London Bridge, and we finally got to that Bridge with the Towers. The London Tower Bridge, or something, I dont remember what its called. But I absolutely loved it. So then we finally got in touch with our friends. They had just woke up from their lovely slumber in beds (or even on the floor) in a nice dry warm building, while we were now going on about 26 hours without sleep (unless you really want to count the 20 minute naps lol). Oh, how lovely. lol. Craziness. I still cant believe this all happened to us.

So then we start walking back, and we foudn a bagel place for a reasonable price. So I had a cheese bagel with chicken ceasar on it! SO GOOD. I hadnt realized how much i missed ceasar dressing and bagels (they're bagels arent as good as the US, but still...it was a bagel!). So we walk back to the train station and go to lastminute.com for a new hotel for Friday night. The guy was awesome. We told him our entire story and he got us two beds in a girls dorm style hostel. and he told us where to go on the Tube and things. So we mastered the tube and went to the hostel. slept for about 2 1/2 hours. then bought some flip flops cuz we reazlied we forgot them. then went to visit our friends. for maybe half an hour and on the way back we got KFC. the only sides they have in london are corn, beans, cole slaw, or gravy ? what is that? so we decide, lets get the family feast. So we each had 4 pieces of chicken, a corn on the cob, 2 things of fries, and beans. for 5 bucks each. It was awesome! Then we went to the hostel, showered, and past out.

Ok. So now we're onto Saturday morning. We get up and have our free continental breakfast, wasnt too bad. Then we checked out, and continued on our journey with all of our stuff once again (my back kinda hurts lol). We walked over to abbey road since our hostel was closeby...took some pics...then we decide to go to the National Gallery. So we get there and we saw like everything. It was awesome! We saw Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks, and some Raffael, and Michelangelo, and Monet, and Manet, and Picasso, and Van Gogh, and a ton of stuff I had studied in WEstern Art 2 freshman year. We were there seriously, like for hours. So we walked out of the museum, directly into a war protest. IT was like. an anti-american cult. Very interesting. I took some pictures for my black and white class cuz i thought it was an interesting topic to pick. Some of the stuff started to make kim and I mad. They had signs there that said something like : Bush. World's Number one terrorist. and then other ones that wer elike, tell the truth about 9/11 - inside job. and we were like, EXCUSE ME? Im surprised we didnt get killed. lol. no, we werent in danger, we just hung near the cops the whole time. lol. But one guy did give us dirty looks cuz we wouldnt sign some petition, but we're like, our signatures wont count here....and hewas like mean. But then we had some double cheeseburgers and hot chocolate (cadbury hot chocolate!) and it was soo good. We sat across the street from the protest an dsang America the Beautiful and the Star spangeled banner lol. but apparently, in London. They have a condiment...its said something liek...america sauce. its basically liek ketchup and mayo in one or something. lol. but it was gooood.

Oh, then we went to Hamley's...6 floors of toys! It was crazy. I bought a gift for someone...heheh. and so did kim.

So then we went over to the London Eye and we went on it. It was like 7 o'clock by now - the view was beautiful, but i would not pay as much as i did to go on that thing again...a bit of a rip off. So then we went to Harrods...but it was closed. But we walked down the street, and I had kim take a picture of like every window of every store that we passed because I loved the outfits (Jess i need you to make me a few lol!) and we walked aroun the stores there. we wanted to get starbucks, but they closed too...it wasnt even that late! stinkin London. so then we went and bought some postcards, and some cadbury eggs. I really wanted to buy the bag of th emini eggs from the vending machines, but most were empty and then the one ate my pound :-(

So we went back to the lastminute.com guy and asked where the bus was to go back to the airport, cuz it was like maybe 11 by the time we were there, and he asked how the hostel was and stuff, and he asked when our flight was...6:30 in the morning, so he's like, your gonna be so bored at the airport for 6 hours. So he calls his friend and we got to go to a dance club on a boat for free! so we killed a few hours there, then got the bus. And its really weird. wiht the steering wheel on the right side, and driving on the left side of the street. Freaked me out. I couldnt get used to it. I kept looking the wrong way when I crossed the streets, even though it tells you which way to look on the ground lol!

So we got to the airport and london's airports stink and made us check our backpacks, cuz apparently your purse counts as a bag for them...even though it didnt on the way to london. so that was a lovely 7 pounds, which is double in american cash. But the flight was fine. Then we got the bus back to milan, and ran to catch a train to florence. turns out we didnt have to run cuz it was 40 minutes late in going...but we got back here safely. (PS, ryan air is cheap, but flies out of small airports, so it took us 12 hours to get into london from florence even though the flight was only two hours...just incase you ever are traveling the way i am! haha).

but all in all it was a good trip, a few tears, a little ranting and raving, very sore backs and blisters on the feet, but it was quite an experience (cant say i would do it the same way i did this weekend, but i would go back to london). and we did laugh a lot. and its probably gonna be one of those stories that yo u tell the grandkids one day :-) oh...and thank God they speak English in london.

So this weekend....France (but its with the shcool, so it should be fine). And Lewis and Luciana (two of the professors from the digital media department) are coming in on wed and want to have lunch with us digital kids....and i believe Paul and Dar (the couple that does the college group up at school) will be here from Wed to Fri as well, so I gotta see about getting together with them...yay for friends coming to visit!

oh, and less than a month for the fam to come...cant wait for that ;-)

alright. Im gonna go eat something..im starved. Hope you enjoyed the adventures that was london.

oh london...

La fotografia.

So...photography. is. awesome. We developed the negatives of our second role of film today. I must say it went a lot smoother this time than it did last time, and the negatives look pretty darn good if i do say so myself. But today we also went and did a few prints. I have prints of all of my negatives so I can see what they'll look like so I can decide what I want to print, and I did two prints today. There are about 5 other pictures on that one role that i definitely want to print, but the first one I did today came out amazingly. Its the coolest. The second one was the lone picture I took when I was in venice because it was too crazy with Carnevale I didnt want to have to worry about having two cameras out in the open, so I only took one. It came out ok, a little dark - not the clearest either, but she said that she would teach me some other printing techniques so that I can print it out better. but i still love it.
by far my favorite class. and im getting better at the dark room. like the real one, not the one where you print the pictures cuz thats the room that has those red lights. the pitch black room where you have to open the role of film and put it into this canister on this round spirally thing. took me about 20 minutes last week and probably 5 this week. oh yea.

ok, just wanted to share my excitement about my photography class. i have to go study for an italian quiz tomorrow morning....bleh. but my art history class is going to Accademia to see the David and a bunch of michelangelo's other sculptures, so the day shouldnt be too bad....heh, of course it wont...cuz we're going to London! ok, i really gotta go cuz i gotta pack too.

Ciao!

More Italy...

So...whats new in Italy? hmm...classes are going along as usual. they're pretty good. Wednesday my italian professor came in with Chocolates for Valentines day (yea 10 years Mom!) and we developed our first role of film in my photography class! We get to print them this wedndesday, but it was really cool. um....Wed night, stef, danielle, kim and I went out to eat for Vday. Had some good pizza. but apparently at the restaurant we were at...later they were having a magic show, and the magician was eating while we were, so when he kinda finished, and we kinda finished. he came over and was doing a little show for us. Had stef and danielle doign allt his stuff, and kim was completely consumed by these ring-type things he gave her to get apart. she never did it. lol. even though he showed her how to do it about 5 times. it was so funny. Stef and I were crying we were laughing so hard. It was just so random.

So Friday, Stef and I went to Cortona (which is actually where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed, not in Orvieto). It was gorgeous. It was a cross between Tuscania and Civita di Bagnoregia (the dying city). So cute. and we got gelato at Dolce Vita (Sweet Life). From there we went to Arezzo, which was ok. I mean, it was Italy, so how can it be bad. But at times I kind of felt as if I was in the US. We were there for probably like an hour. Ate some food, took lots of pictures and left because I was suddenly feverish. So I basically laid around in bed all weekend. Did a lot of reading for classes, and the Count of Monte Cristo (the unabridged version this time). sooo good. highly recommended.

alright, well this weekend we're headed to london for a few days! So i should really go and try to get my homework done before we leave! Ciao!


hey john, i didnt use that word at all in here either!

Carnevale in Venice!

So this past weekend, I went to Venice for a night. I went with this school and it was awesome!

Carnevale is insane. We got there saturday and it was more crowded than it was the last time I was in Venice, and carnevale didnt start until sunday, but it was so hard to get thru the crowd...especially when there were 83 college students and only two leaders. So we got there, and it took us forever to get to San Marco. But we eventually did, and they are talkin to us in the piazza, but we were too busy singing along because they were playing Disney songs in Italian...its pretty funny. So we went into the Church. It was pretty cool. The view from the Balony was insane. Bella! Then we had like 40 minutes to find some food and try to make our way back to the bus, so a bunch of us found a little sandwich shop/pizzeria and ate that while we walked. It was fun.

Then we got on the boat and went to Morano and got to see this guy make some stuff out of the glass. It took him like 1 minute to blow the prettiest vase ever. and then, he made a glass horse in like 2 minutes. Insanity! So then we got to walk around their store...they have the prettiest chandeliers ever, i was bummed they didnt let you take pictures, cuz i have a weird obsession with chandeliers. But then they gave us half price off of everything, except the jewelry. So then we walked around, and I bought a necklace and a few other things. It was cute, and I had the best black and white cookie ever, and it had some filling in it. Delicious!

Then we went to Burano, which is where they make lace, and that is the place with all the really brightly colored houses. It was so cute, and i bought my mask there for carnevale! cuz it was cheaper, they werent jackin up the prices for carnivale. Its pretty. silver and white, with these huge white feathers.

Then we went back to the island our hotel was on, and drove for a while to dinner. Which was so good an dlasted for three hours. We eat so much here. Just sit down and keep eatinga nd get up 5 hours later. Its insane.

Then Kim and Brandon and I went to the beach cuz our hotel was lke a block away from it. We couldnt see anythign cuz it was like 12:30 in the morning, but we got seashells, so thats cool.

Then Sunday morning, we ate and stuff and went back to venice. Where they took us to the Duke's Palace. It was really pretty. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was amazing, and the prison was awesome. Creepy, but very cool.

Then - my favorite part - we went on a gondola ride! There were ten of us so we took two. Jess, Traci, Allison, Leeanne, and Laura in one, and then Stef, Danielle, Kim, Brandon and I in the other. It was awesome. I took like a million pictures. I seriously cant describe it to you...it was surreal. And its so funny, cuz we were so excited that we were those people that when we go under a bridge, the people on the bridge are like, GONDOLA! and take ap icture of us, and then cuz it was carnevale, we went under the bridges and people threw confetti on us. It was incredible.

Then we went to try to see the Flight of the Angel which is the start of Carnevale, but it was so crowded. Brandon gave us all numbers and kept counting us to make sure we were there. We actually made a chain cuz it was so intense. you know, like you do when your in like elementary school...hold onto the person in front of you. it was craziness. Mass chaos. We hardly got to see the flight, but it wasnt all that exciting anyway. lol. the craziness was intense though. Then we walked around and ate. And then went into a museum, and then we split up, and somehow ended up in pairs and didnt see each other until the end when we got back on the boat. Brandon and I went to get postcards and came back and two other people we were with were gone, so we tried to see some of the parade, but it wasnt all that exciting, so we started walkign along the grand canal back towards where the boat picks us up, and we stopped at every little stand looking for a certain keychain, and then we found it and brandon took 10 minutes, no joke, deciding if he wanted to buy it or not. lol. it was good though, cuz we had over an hour to kill.

The costumes were crazy. and the masks. some were creepy, but it was so cool.

Then we all passed out on the bus and had classes this mornin. it was a blast though. If you ever have the opportunity to go to Venice during Carnevale, do it, but be forewarned that its pure insanity.

Lorenzo de' Medici

So classes have begun. Monday I had my ceramics class. We actually went thru the full 5 hours (2.5 hours, half an hour break, then another 2.5 hours). But it was good. Theres only 8 people in the class, so we get to do a lot. We finished 3 pots already, and are in the process of working on our fourth. The professor is really cool. And there is one girl from peru, and another from new zealand, so thats cool. 3 other people dont talk, so i made friends with the remaining two. ones a double major in studio art (concentration in painting so shes never done ceramics) and teaching - from long island, goes to school about an hour away from marist. nice girl. and then this kid. computer science from illinois. lol. he really had no clue what was going on.

So my italian class is pretty sweet. Its a lot of the same people that were in my intensive language and culture class in tuscania, lot of marist people. but its small and its hard, but the professor - i love her. she's really cool. I had that yesterday morning, this morning and i have it tomorrow morning. 8-8:50. Then today I had photography - LOVE IT! We have to take at least one 36 exposure role of film a week. and we're doing everything manually..focus, aperture, and oh my goodness. i cant remember what its called. but the one dealing with the timing of the shot. it will come to me eventually. the professor had to help me figure out my camera though, and i thought she was going to tell me i had to buy a new one, so i was like, um, my sister used this here. and then she was like, i had your sister?! cuz apparently shes the only professor and has been here forever, so she wrote down her name and is going to look her up in her records. lol but i think im really gonna like that class.

so tomorrow I just have italian in the morning, some errands to run, and art history in the afternoon. I'm excited about it. yea yea yea, i know im a nerd. So friday I am just going to go to a museum to take notes and do some sketches for my ceramics class and hang out and do homework because saturday at 5:45, we have to meet the bus to leave for Venice! yay Carnivale!

Anyway, life in Florence is pretty sweet. We still dont have hot water in our bathroom, but we did figure out how to get the toilet to flush more than twice (thank God we have two bathrooms! lol) and we think we've figured out how to get the heat to work in the bathroom cuz its pretty brisk in there in the morning. lol.

so anyway, we had a welcome dinner on monday. I had a cold and couldnt really taste the food, but everybody said it was delicious. so be jealous i guess. lol.....um, Kim and I ran in to just take a quick look in the duomo yesterday, just cuz we can. lol. and we found out the times of the services....cuz we think itd be pretty sweet to go to church there....um, I also went to the food market yesterday. Its insane! well, the first floor is the nastiest thing Ive ever seen. Theres like all meat stands. and there was this whole head of a pig or boar or somethign with a roll stuffed in its mouth. D-sgusting. (we did get some ground beef to make burgers for dinner tonight, but Kim went to buy it cuz I couldnt handle it lol) But upstairs, its all fruits and vegetables. a whole head of lettuce, 2 carrots, 3 mushrooms, and a cucumber for 1.70 euro. So we went crazy. bought bananas, apples, avocado, cantalope. good stuff man. good stuff. AND, I bought the cutest coat ever last night. Its brown and tan - totally me - and its plaid! I love it. Its long with three buttons and belt. Bella!

Not much else is new though....still getting adjusted to life here and classes and everything. but its all good man. va bene.

A Day in Milan...

Allora yesterday, Kim, Stefanie, Danielle, and I took a day trip to Milan. It was great. We get to the train station at like 9:20...buy tickets for the next train at 10:14 and stand around for about an hour. Get on the train. It turned out we had assigned seats, so we're all walkin around trying to find our seats, and we're all nowhere near each other. At one point the guy across from me started talkin about something....completely in italian. I think he thought i spoke italian, cuz i just pretended like i took these trains all the time. lol. but i slept most of the ride. So we ge tto milan, and we get off the train, and we're like....now what? None of us did any research whatsoever. all we knew was that there was a duomo and shoppin cuz thats what I remembered Jess telling me once. lol. So we decide to find out what time the trains head back to florence and we bought a map. So we start headin towards the duomo. Stopped at a few places looking for som efood along the way. We were walkin along and all of a sudden danielle starts freakin out cuz we were at la scala. ..a famous theatre. so we run across the street into the piazza so we can take a picture of the building. then we ended up goin along into may favorite place in milan. Its like this covered arches thing with lots of shops. all expensive. gucci, prada, mercedes benz....so we go into gucci just so we could say we went in there, an dof course we're joking around lik estupid americans, like...i touched the railing in the gucci store in milan....anyway, so we're hungry again, of course. cuz when am i not hungry when im in italy lol....so we eat at the mcdonalds thats right next to gucci lol...it actually has a "McCafe" .... it was the nicest mcdonalds i have ever been in. so even though i just ate this sandwich and walked maybe 2 blocks. I bought a bigmac meal, and a Baci McFlurry. oh my goodness, that thing was like heaven in a cup.

But anyway. I forgot to tell you why this was my favorite place. with the shops, because clearly it wasnt for shoppin cuz i cant afford that. We walk in, and the lighting is like perfect. and there was the 4 part band. two violins and two accordians, and they were so good. Oh my goodness. we stood there for a good 15 minutes watchin them. they were young people too. probably college age. Ah-mazing. Anyway, so we get out of mcdonalds like an hou rlater.. lol. and we're right by the duomo, bu twe wanted to try to get into this museum thats across the city to see the last supper before it closes in like 40 minutes, so we decide to tackle the subway system . lol. we actually did it fairly well...i mean, we hop on it and we're like, we'll find out at the next stop if this is goin in the right direction. lol. it was. so we get there, only to find out that you have to call and make reservations to get into the museum the day before, so we didnt get to see it, which was a bummer (so now we know that we shoudl research things before we go places lol). but we walked around in the church that was right next door. Bella. an dthen we took the subway back to the duomo. Actually went in it this time. Get this. We did a day trip to milan and got to go to the service in the Duomo. lol. I mean, i couldnt understand what they were saying, but it was still awesome. the front of the duomo had scaffoldin on it still,which stunk, but we could see the top and the sides which were amazing.

so then we wen thru my favorite place - the shoppin area. made fun of some prada stuff. there were manequins tha thad like silk scarves on their heads like turbans, so kim and i had the idea to wrap our scarves around our heads, bu tshe actually did it an dstood by the window and we took pics, and people jus twlaked by and laughed at us. probably thought we were stupid americans, but va bene. lol. and then we found this thing in the place, wher eyou're supposed to put your heal and spin around for good luck, so kim di dthat. but there were tooo many people, so we just took pics of her doin it for all of us. lol. and then we took the subway back to the train station, where we rushed to buy tickets and almost missed the train. so we had to Sprint, literally, onto the train. lol. Got home an ddid some laundry. It was a fun day. We really liked Milan. and i think the fact that we just got off the train, like what now? only added to our experience.

It was a good time. Today we're gonna try to book some trips. and will just hang out cuz classes start tomorrow. I have ceramics. and then tomorrow night we have a welcome dinner. tuesday we have a predeparture meetin because we're doin the trip with the school to Venice this weekend coming up. during carnivale, so that should be awesome. And we are totally takina gondola ride. Hopefully we wont tip over or fall over, cuz all 4 of us are huge klutzes. lol...

alright, i'll write more when i have some more to write about....

ciao belli!

Welcome to Firenze...

Allora - so - Tuesday we packed the bus and the van with all like 70 suitcases and headed out on a 3 hour bus ride to florence that was supposed to be really bad for those with motion sickness, but wasnt. i slept most of the time. So we get to Florence. Have no clue where we are, get our keys on the bus, then take all the luggage off. Turns out we were in Piazza dell'Indipendenza, which is right where I live. So Kim, Cassie, Natalie and I follow one of the people that work with the school across this huge piazza and of course I'm struggling in the back with my huge bag that probably weighed more than I do and my brand new bag that had a wheel pop off...and then the guys stops. and I couldnt believe that these doors were the ones that lead to my apartment. They're huge. Mohagony - i dont know how tall they are...but definitely at least 10 feet. and theyve got big lion head door knockers. so we walk in and its like glass and theres actually an elevator. lol. but theres like paintings on the walls and ceilings and its BEAutiful! so we go up like 5 steps cuz we're like on the floor....and theres another door. and theres this really cute old man that lives across from us. and then our door. the apartment is awesome! all wood floor, excpet the kitchen which has mosaic tile stone flooring. and we have a washer - thank God! little fridge, lots of counter space, oven, stove, really nice wooden table and benches and chairs and closet. and then across the hall from that is the HUGE dining room. nice mahogany table with like 8 chairs and a hutch and a lil chair and tv in the corner. its very open. could have a nice dance party in there...still have to get a radio though.....then there is cassie and natalies rooms. its huge. they have like 2 armours and two bookshelves and these cute little bedds and a dresser....and then theres a nice bathroom at the end of the hallway and across from natalie and cassies room is our room. Bella! we have our two little beds. a night stand with shelves in it in between them. an armour *i might be spelling this wrong, its liek a hutch/closet/dresser?. a dresser, some chairs and a table! like to do homework an dstuff at and its all decorated with flowers and thigns, and its huge, and every room has chandelliers, which i have a weird obsession with, so thats aweosme. and then ceilings are like 20 feet high. no joke. and kim and i have our own huge bathroom. cept our toilet takes forever to fill so you can only use it like twice in a day otherwise it wont flush, so its a good thing we have two bathrooms lol. and then we have a little closet with like storage. fans and an ironing board and an iron and drying racks and stuff liek that. we're still trying to figure out how to get into our gorgeous courtyard. but our apartment is in like an amazin spot. cuz we have this gorgeous court yard out one side of the house, and then a piazza on the other. and then down the street - like not even a minute away - is the food store and its on the way back from the school which is like 5 minutes away, so thats good. and there is an art store right next to the food store, how perfect!

so after we freaked out over our apartment and unpacked we got some basic foods and went out to eat for dinner with stef and danielle and allison and alex who have the worst apartment ever and are actually getting a new one because they dont have a kitchen and its all moldy and falling apart and nothing works. they were so sad.

but we went out to eat at this awesome restaurant. had a calzone with spizy sausage. and the bread, it was soo good. so then we took them to the duomo. AMAZING. an dthen we got gelato. and then palazzo vechio and piazza signorina. i love it there and there was this guy playing guitar and singing, so we just sat down and it was awesome. we were totally in italy. and then we took them to the ponte vecchio. LOVE IT. then we came back. it was late and we were tired. but they totally fell in love with florence, and kim and i fell in love with it all over again. oh, and on the way back, some tourists actually stopped kim and i and asked us for directions, on our first day there! i guess it looks like we know what we're doing already! lol.

yesterday i had a fiasco with my debit card. completely forgot my pin. so i spent all morning trying to get money. lol. and last night stefanie and danielle came over and we cooked a big feast. bought some aranciata - like an orange juice/soda....water, salad, mozerella, pasta and sauce, and gelato and we made bruschetta....sooooo good.

this morning we had orientation for like 4 hours and then we ran around getting our id cards. and now im at the school's computer lab...yay for having quick internet and not having to pay for it at a cafe!

tomorrow we're probably just going to hang out...maybe walk over across the arno...then we're goin to a meeting to sign up and pay for two more trips with the school...cinque terre and portofino....and capri pompei and sorrento.

saturday, kim and i are definitely going to milan for the day, and depending on what happens with stef and danielle's apartment, they might come too....

sunday im gonna try to get my paper done for the civilation of italy class ijust finished in tuscania so i dont have to worry about that when classes start.

monday i have ceramics forever, and we have a welcome dinner - free food, oh yea! then its just a regular schedule of classes. and next weekend we go to venice for a night, during carnivale....so that should be cool...

alrighty, well im gonna get going. talk to you all later.

ciao!