popes, peronies and potato pizza

So I've been really lazy about writing about Rome, so I'm just gonna suck it up and do a really quick post. Last weekend I went to Rome with Meg, Kelly, Kelly, Emily and Betty. We stayed at the Yellow Hostel which I highly recommend to anyone. It was the craziest few days. On Friday after we checked into our hostel, we made our way to the Colosseum. It was unbelievably beautiful and we just couldn't get over the fact that we were standing in front of the COLOSSEUM! Unfortunately it was too late to actually go inside so we just walked around the perimeter and looked through the other ruins. Then we checked out the Trevi Fountain. By the time we got back to the hostel we were exhausted (we walked all this way btw and got a little lost) After having some pizza we went to the Yellow Bar for their "lock and key party". We met some interesting characters (Benny? Steven?) but also some pretty cool people. The next day we did the Vatican. One of the guys we met the night before, Ben, asked if he could tag along since he was traveling alone. As we were about to walk into the Basilica, this woman was offering a free tour, so we decided to go with her. Our guide's name was Jennifer and she was so incredibly cool and smart. Her life story basically goes like this: she was an elementary school teacher, she got married and had kids. At some point she traveled to Rome, saw the Sistine Chapel, and it changed her life. She decided to move to Rome and is completely self-taught. Anyway, there was so much she knew that I never would have had any idea about without her. After the Basilica, she was offering a tour of the Vatican Museum, but there was a charge for that. We eventually caved and decided to take her tour. Before hitting the museum we hit up this pizza place for lunch and I fell in love with potato pizza. Anyway, so the museum was beautiful, and the Sistine Chapel literally took my breath away. Having Jennifer explain everything made it so much more meaningful. I could go on for hours about the Vatican, but this is supposed to be a quick post. Anyway after the museum, we had more pizza and some AMAZING gelato (you could say it was a fat weekend). I had a bit of a breakdown because the gelato was so big and cold and took so long to eat and it was so cold outside. After the gelato was done, we made our way to the Pantheon (none of these sites are very close together). After the Pantheon we hit the Spanish steps. Then we took the subway back to the hostel, had some pizza and peronies and hit up the Yellow Bar again. Emily didn't come because she was sick, and Kelly and I decided to head back early because we were so exhausted. So the next morning, we checked out and made our way back to the Colosseum. This time we went inside. We paid for this tour so we could cut the line, but ditched the group and just wandered on our own. It was so incredible, and those stairs could kill someone. So we checked out some more ruins and then made a mad dash back to the hostel to grab our luggage which we stored there and then had to run to the train station to make our train. We literally got on the train and it started moving. It was insane. Rome was fantastic, but the whole experience made me so happy I chose to study in Florence. As amazing as Rome is, its a pretty overwhelming city. Florence is so much smaller and I really feel like I'm getting to know the whole city, not just the area I'm living. Anyway, that was the weekend, just writing about it made me tired. Pictures should be up sometime this week (hopefully) and I'll post again about this weekend....ah craziness, there's just so much going on! I love this city, I love Europe, I'm not coming home lol!

<3 Alli

the beatles in florence!

So i've been meaning to post about the Beatles cover band i saw on tuesday, lemme just say PHENOMINAL! seriously, everybody should see them! its the most fun i've had, and it was completely and utterly FREE! (unless you feel the need to spend 7 euro on a drink) i have to take everyone i know!

<3>

i'll try to not make this 10 pages

ok, so I know I haven't posted in a few days, but I've been so busy, I barely have 15 minutes to sit at my computer. Firstly...I caved and now have internet in my apartment. It's pretty slow, but it works so whatever. Anyway, it was a pretty crazy weekend. On thursday after Meg and I did a little market shopping Kelly decided to cook dinner...that was probably the most delicious meal I've had. The night ran pretty late, we were basically talking for a few hours, and then Meg, Kelly and I walked Emily home, she lives a little far to walk back alone at night. Friday we did some MAJOR shopping. I got two pairs of fab shoes :) these hott boots that are so not me but still beautiful and only 20 euro and a cute pair of silver flats (yes scott...flats) which were only 10. I think shoes are gonna be my downfall here lol. Anyway we went to the Ponte Vecchio which is so beautiful, especially at night with all the lights. Meg went to Tiffany's to buy her Frank Ghery earrings, which look gorgeous. We decided to go out friday night...that itself was an experience. Some of Kelly's friends said that they were going to a cocktail lounge called Moyo's on Via de Benchi....well Moyo's was also listed in the Let's Go Europe book, but on Via de Banchi. Since both streets exist, we figured that the book must be right....how wrong we were. After wandering and realizing that Moyo's was in fact not on Via de Banchi (during this time Meg and Emily decided to sing throughout the streets and stop randomly to "admire") we decided to go with some of Kelly's other friends to this club Astris. It was a really nice place. Bar and tables upstairs and a dancefloor downstairs. My new boots, while fab, kinda hurt especially after all that walking so I sat at the table for most of the night, which was fine cuz not everyone was dancing. Anyway, Meg and I decided to head home around two I guess. As we were walking out of the club some woman (she must have been drunk) drove her car into this line of parked scooters. She just kinda got out of the car and shrugged lol.

We started out kinda early on saturday (like 11 lol) we did even more shopping, which I will never complain about. I ended up with a new leather jacket for 35 euros (real leather tho). That night we went to mass at the Duomo. It was in English which I guess means its kinda boring lol. It wasn't at the main alter and there wasn't any choir. I think I'll have to go to a Sunday mass in Italian if I want the real experience. Saturday night was pretty low key however. We were planning on going out, but as we were hanging out and talking it got pretty late and we all got tired so we figured to just call it a night.

On Sunday we had been planning to go to Pisa, but since none of us really wanted to get up early we decided to spend the day in Florence. That morning (afternoon really) we went to this vintage antique market. It was so nice just to wander around and look at all the cool stuff, it was all really beautiful. After the market we just hung around the Ponte Vecchio and enjoyed the sunlight. Eventually we made out way back to our neighborhood and were pretty starving. Even though it was only 5:30 we really wanted dinner, however, pretty much every place was closed until 7. That was the longest hour and a half of my life as we sat in Meg and Kelly's apartment just waiting for something to open. We ended up having a nice dinner at the restaurant next door, but did learn that Italian restaurants are not as willing to alter their dishes as American ones lol. The rest of the night was pretty crazy. I can only imagine what Betty must have thought when she got home from Interlochen and we were so crazed!

So that was my weekend. It was mainly comprised of wandering Florence and just learning as much about the city as I can. I will eventually post some pictures, but those really don't do everything I've seen justice. I really feel that to understand, people need to see everything for themselves.

Anyway, last night was the first meeting of the cinema club. We watched I Vitellioni, which was one of Federico Fellini's earlier films. It was really good, but the main character was such an asshole that he made Zach Braff in the Last Kiss look like an angel. Dispite his assholyness I still definitly recommend this movie.

Next weekend we're heading to Rome. I'm really excited for that, it should be an experience. Paris is all booked :) and hopefully more trips will get booked soon too. I guess that's all for now.

<3 Alli

its getting much better

So I've been pretty out of since arriving in Florence. There have been good days and bad days, but last night was the best night I've had so far and I'm ready to just enjoy this experience and not take it for granted. Last night was the school paid for everybody to have dinner at this local restaurant. The food was ok, but the wine was fab. Meg and I spent dinner talking to her roommate Kelly and her friend. After dinner, we were significantly tipsy and weren't ready for the night to end so we decided to go hang out at this bar across the street from my apartment called the Dublin Pub. It was a very chill atmosphere and there was a nice mix of people. There were some Americans (but they were just there to hang out, they weren't typical drunk assholes), Italians (and not creepy ones) and even some English people. Kelly, Meg and myself literally spent the whole night there just talking and drinking. I had like 3 glasses of spumante and a nice seabreeze. It was great just getting to hang out and talk. I've been realizing that while I felt like I must have been the only one who was depressed when I got here, that's so far from the truth. The more people I talk to, the more I hear other people say how they felt the same way. The three of us really bonded. I'm just feeling much more positive about everything. I'm so glad we got to hang out with Kelly, she's really sweet and we just had a great time. I'm ready to stop being negative and start being more social and take advantage of my time here.

I've also decided not to get internet. I'm gonna use the school's internet during the day and maybe twice a week or something go to an internet cafe and skype people. It's only like a euro for an hour. If the entire population of Florence can deal with shitty internet, so can I!

I finished my only class of the day, Italian, yes I finally went lol. My professor is really sweet, but isn't very good at English. I don't really care though, I'm really getting the feeling that I can pick this up fairly quickly. I just finished getting my permit of stay done...thank god! that shit is so annoying! Meg and I are gonna do some shopping in the market today and I now get to enjoy my 3 day weekend woohoo! Ok, I'm starving now and its only 11:20...I gotta do something about that.

<3 Alli

finally apartment pics

As promised, I finally uploaded some pics of my apartment. They're not that great, but as I said earlier, the place is really big...and a sauna lol. so here they are.

So I had two more classes today. First was Lifestyle in Renaissance Florence (ugh at 9am). I think that might be my fave class so far. The professor is this little old man that just goes off on all these tangents and just seems like the happiest person in the world. He was talking about how he drives his moped all over Florence and how he was born here but teaches in California. He has all these trips planned for our class because he decided that he didnt like the classroom. I really don't think I'm gonna mind getting up early for this class. The location is perfect because we get a 15 min break, and the cafeteria is literally right outside the classroom. Later, I had my Venice Film Festival class with Meg. The professor was really sweet. It seems like a good class, and we're going to see Atonement in a few weeks :)

My classes are doing SO many trips! With 5 classes I'm doing a total of 10 trips...so cool! Not so cool...my sleeping situation. I was exhausted last night, but couldn't sleep because it sounded like there was a jack hammer ON my bed. Its ridiculous, they're basically ripping up Via Faenza, however, unlike Bingy, it seems like they're ALWAY working...I'm not sure which i worse. So I think the Paris trip is finally coming together, it looks like I found a way to get there, I just gotta make the sure hotel is right and we're good to go. ALSO, I'm finishing much earlier than I thought. My last final is on May 14th and ends at 2:30, so maybe I'll start European adventure '08 earlier :)

So Meg and I have a new fave restaurant. Its called the Wine Bar, they make the most delicious sandwiches in the entire world, and they're salads are supposed to be amazing. They're pretty cheap too...Last night I had a sandwich, a glass of wine, a capuccino, and Meg and I split a plate of bruschetta, and I only paid 8 euros! Oh man I'm starving now...free dinner tonight though, the program is paying. I still need to figure out my internt situation. It's getting pretty annoying. When I have the internet just there I use it when its convenient and to pass some down time, but seeing as I'm so limited in my internet access, I tend to spend all day in the student center on my computer. It's making me anti-social, I'mnot experiencing Florence as I should, and I can't video chat with people at home because while I'm sitting at my computer here, they're sleeping :( it's a bad situation all around.

Well that's it for now. I only have one class tmrw and then Meg and me are gonna do some shopping in the market :) woohoo, its like the palisades mall without the bad decor and crazy parking lot!

<3 Alli

so much to do!

So I feel like there are so many annoying things I have to do, which is why I'm sitting in the student center writing on my blog. Today started out pretty bad. Last night I set my alarm to go off at 7:45 for my 9:00 class, but I forgot to hit enable, so I woke up at 10:30...I'm really annoyed, especially because it was Italian. Any way, I did manage to make it to my Greek and Roman Mythology class. The teacher's kind of a loon, but whatev. Yesterday was my first class, the Italian Grand Tour. Also a loony professor, but in a fabulous way. We're going on a bunch of trips for these classes which I'm SO excited for! Tomorrow I have the Venice Film Festival (with Meg) and my art history class, so I'll let you all know how those go. I'm done for today though, which means I'll be spending the rest of the day sitting here online :) Anyway, after class I wandered a bit through the market, tons of cool stuff that I'm sure will make me go broke. I talked to this guy who did try to sexually harass me which was a nice change. He said he could spot a New Yorker anywhere and then asked if I had an Italian background. I told him I was Indian and he said that's why I'm so beautiful. He's my new BFF lol. So after the market I managed to find my way back to my area, so I could stop by the grocery store to grab an orange for lunch. That's the one thing here that's cheap, groceries. Not to mention, the fruits and veggies are so delicious and fresh. I love it. Well I've been sitting here since then and discovering that orange soda here is significantly different from orange soda back home unfortunately. On a completely different subject (i decided not to make paragraphs today), I have some pics of my apartment, I'm just being lazy, but hopefully they'll be up sometime this week. I guess that's it. Just to show everyone how much of a procrastinator I am, here's my to do list:

-sign up online for a permit of stay (which is a complete scam)
-actually get my permit of stay
-buy my italian textbook from the library
-get my ldm id card
-pick up textbooks for my other classes
-buy my eurail pass
-plan out my semester trips

speaking of semester trips, here's what I'm hoping to do roughly in the order I'm gonna do them:
-Rome
-Nice
-Paris
-Spring break with Shannon :) (maybe Venice for a few days)
-Sevilla
-St. Petersburg
-Greece (depends on when Josh is coming to Florence though)

Our trip to Vienna isn't going to work out unfortunately because the train ride is 11 hrs each way (and for a 2 day trip its not worth it) and the cheapest flight I could find was like $400 (cheaper ones were really inconvenient, they were like Milan to Bratislava). It sucks because I really wanted to go to the Klimt museum, but I guess I'll deal. Paris is the one that I really have to work on because its the only definite one. Can't wait to see all these places. K, I guess that;s it for now.

<3 Alli

Moving in, weekend in Venice...and everything in between

So Florence is the center of the Renaissance for two reasons. The first being that Renaissance art and culture flourished here and the second being that technologically, Florence is still in the Renaissance. I'm kinda going crazy without 24/7 internet access, but hopefully I'll have a wireless plan sometime this week, although from what I've heard, they all suck. Anyway for now I'm going to have to settle for the student center wireless.

Anyway, so I moved in a few days ago. The apartment is HUGE! There are five of us living together, and I really lucked out because everyone seems really cool. We're pretty much the envy of everyone who sees the place lol. I'm basically at the center of the city which is good, but I still have a lot of exploring to do. Even though everything is so beautiful I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit homesick...ok, a lot homesick. It just kinda hit me when I got here that I left almost everyone I loved (except Meg thank god!) and everything I've ever known for 4 months. I miss everyone all the time, but its getting better. Now I'm gonna stop with all the depressing stuff and move onto something less sad. As I said both the apartment and city are beautiful, and whoever told me the I'll be cold at night needs to come check out my sauna of a room lol.

So Meg and I decided to go to Venice for Carnevale this weekend (although it was mostly because we missed Scott). The city is just gorgeous. I loved every minute of it and I definitely have to go back. The costumes were out of this world. I want to dress like that in everyday life. So I got back last night to a home cooked meal. It was my roommate's birthday and everyone in the apartment had made this delicious dinner. I'm just glad we have leftovers (although no microwave to heat it up in). After dinner we decided that we want to try and make a trip to Vienna this weekend. It would so fab if this works out. I don't know where I'm getting this money from...but its coming from somewhere. So that's what's going on at the moment. I have my first class at 3, but I have this endless list of stuff to do besides that.

Hopefully I'll be able to update more often. I miss you all, and I'll try to get on skype as much as possible.

<3 Alli