Almost forgot....
I remembered as the week was ending that I haven't posted yet, so here goes.
It's storming right now and the Piazza della Signoria is empty for the first time since I've been here. It's also the first storm we've had. The thunder is wonderous.
Okay, so last weekend I went to Germany! Frankfurt, to be exact, and as much as no one ever thinks of going there, it's really not that bad of a town. It was a little odd when we got there because our hostel was RIGHT next door to a sex shop and on the same street as several others, but for some reason it wasn't a sketchy area. Just really immoral. Or something.
We went to the Jewish museum, which was both fascinating because I learned a good deal of history that I hadn't known before, and depressing because they had a wall where all of the Jews killed in concentration camps were written as their last name, first name, date of birth I think, date of death, and location of the camp where they died. It was a long wall and the print was miniscule. *shudder*
We wandered along the Main and saw all the Fall colors, visited a little church and then the Cathedral, both of which were neatly gothic and full of graphic crucifixes. Their piazzas are really cute and so different from the ones in Italy. For one, you can walk without hitting someone, and two, everything isn't made out of marble, stone, or cement. We also visited a couple of art museums, one of which had a huge photo exhibition that an American artist had done about the "hidden and unknown" things in the U.S. Among the photos were the heads of the KKK in their headquarters, a decaying body in the woods in Tennessee where they study the forensics of decay, the storeroom of Star Wars props, and an inbred (and thus deformed) white tiger from Eureka Springs, AR, bred in Bentonville. That one sent chills up my spine.
Friday night Azusa and I went to the opera to see two one-act operas, A Florentine Tragedy and The Dwarf. They were in German and the subtitles were in German, but we followed it and picked up a few words along the way. The cool thing was, we had gotten some of the worst seats in the house because they were cheaper, but then they hadn't filled all the lower-level seats, so they moved us down!! We had a choice between rows 3-8 and we chose 8 so as not to be too close to the orchestra, but wow. That was so cool.
Saturday the others went to Heidleberg to see the ruins of a castle, and I decided against it because the train ticket was out of this world expensive and I hadn't seen all that I wanted to in Frankfurt. I can always go back through during Christmas break because I'll have my rail pass. Basically we just had a lot of beer and meat while we were in Germany, and I hadn't realized how much I like heavy food like mashed potatoes and roasted chicken until I ate it after almost 2 months eating Italian food. *Homer Simpson drool face*
Back in Italy, I was EXTREMELY happy to be able to read the signs and speak to strangers again (it was funny when we got to Germany because we all kept trying to talk to strangers in Italian becuase we're used to doing it, and we got some really amusing looks), but then I checked my email and found out my cat had died last week. The rest of the week was somewhat of a bummer, just because things have been going wrong a lot, but there were some highlights.
Swimming twice a week, while not quite enough for me, feels so good. Our admirer was there again on Monday...we're not sure if we should be amused or sketched out, but he's nice enough, I guess. Sarah's birthday was Wednesday so Deanna and I organized a little party for her during lunch and surprised the heck out of her. We also had cake and fizzy wine at dinner, and then we all went out to the "shot café" and had cocktails. Deanna and Sarah got free massages, and I think I'm going to go back another Wednesday and get one myself. Apparently the lady has "magic hands".
As part of my Art History class I got to see the Tornabuoni and Strozzi chapels in Santa Maria Novella this week, as well as the Brancacci chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine. Both were just FANTASTIC. I love getting to see the art I've studied. It makes it so much more real to me.
I guess that's it. My host mom and I had a little disagreement today, reminding me that I've been really independent for the last five years and how much I enjoy it. Not living with my mom for more than about a month at a time has probably saved our relationship because I HATE depending on other people, and the fact that now I have a signora who does my grocery shopping, cooks my meals, insists on putting the soap in and starting the washer for me, cleans my room for me...*shakes head* I hope I can deal with this for the next 7 months or I'm going to end up flipping out. I know it might sound like I'm whining about nothing, and most people would love to have someone do all of that for them, but I REALLY LIKE doing it all myself. GAR. Hopefully it'll be fine.
Today's a strike of all the workers of the state, so right now none of the buses are running and I think the train strike just ended, but it's the perfect end to my week of frustrations because I need to get to Pisa today so I can leave for England, but in order to get to Pisa I have to take a train. After a strike, good luck. So I'm going to go in about an hour and catch the first one I can find so that I don't end up having to miss my flight. (my flight's not until 10, but I don't want to take chances) As gripey as this post sounds, I'm really chipper and bouncy today. Now I'm off to run some errands before skipping the country. Buon finesettimana!
It's storming right now and the Piazza della Signoria is empty for the first time since I've been here. It's also the first storm we've had. The thunder is wonderous.
Okay, so last weekend I went to Germany! Frankfurt, to be exact, and as much as no one ever thinks of going there, it's really not that bad of a town. It was a little odd when we got there because our hostel was RIGHT next door to a sex shop and on the same street as several others, but for some reason it wasn't a sketchy area. Just really immoral. Or something.
We went to the Jewish museum, which was both fascinating because I learned a good deal of history that I hadn't known before, and depressing because they had a wall where all of the Jews killed in concentration camps were written as their last name, first name, date of birth I think, date of death, and location of the camp where they died. It was a long wall and the print was miniscule. *shudder*
We wandered along the Main and saw all the Fall colors, visited a little church and then the Cathedral, both of which were neatly gothic and full of graphic crucifixes. Their piazzas are really cute and so different from the ones in Italy. For one, you can walk without hitting someone, and two, everything isn't made out of marble, stone, or cement. We also visited a couple of art museums, one of which had a huge photo exhibition that an American artist had done about the "hidden and unknown" things in the U.S. Among the photos were the heads of the KKK in their headquarters, a decaying body in the woods in Tennessee where they study the forensics of decay, the storeroom of Star Wars props, and an inbred (and thus deformed) white tiger from Eureka Springs, AR, bred in Bentonville. That one sent chills up my spine.
Friday night Azusa and I went to the opera to see two one-act operas, A Florentine Tragedy and The Dwarf. They were in German and the subtitles were in German, but we followed it and picked up a few words along the way. The cool thing was, we had gotten some of the worst seats in the house because they were cheaper, but then they hadn't filled all the lower-level seats, so they moved us down!! We had a choice between rows 3-8 and we chose 8 so as not to be too close to the orchestra, but wow. That was so cool.
Saturday the others went to Heidleberg to see the ruins of a castle, and I decided against it because the train ticket was out of this world expensive and I hadn't seen all that I wanted to in Frankfurt. I can always go back through during Christmas break because I'll have my rail pass. Basically we just had a lot of beer and meat while we were in Germany, and I hadn't realized how much I like heavy food like mashed potatoes and roasted chicken until I ate it after almost 2 months eating Italian food. *Homer Simpson drool face*
Back in Italy, I was EXTREMELY happy to be able to read the signs and speak to strangers again (it was funny when we got to Germany because we all kept trying to talk to strangers in Italian becuase we're used to doing it, and we got some really amusing looks), but then I checked my email and found out my cat had died last week. The rest of the week was somewhat of a bummer, just because things have been going wrong a lot, but there were some highlights.
Swimming twice a week, while not quite enough for me, feels so good. Our admirer was there again on Monday...we're not sure if we should be amused or sketched out, but he's nice enough, I guess. Sarah's birthday was Wednesday so Deanna and I organized a little party for her during lunch and surprised the heck out of her. We also had cake and fizzy wine at dinner, and then we all went out to the "shot café" and had cocktails. Deanna and Sarah got free massages, and I think I'm going to go back another Wednesday and get one myself. Apparently the lady has "magic hands".
As part of my Art History class I got to see the Tornabuoni and Strozzi chapels in Santa Maria Novella this week, as well as the Brancacci chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine. Both were just FANTASTIC. I love getting to see the art I've studied. It makes it so much more real to me.
I guess that's it. My host mom and I had a little disagreement today, reminding me that I've been really independent for the last five years and how much I enjoy it. Not living with my mom for more than about a month at a time has probably saved our relationship because I HATE depending on other people, and the fact that now I have a signora who does my grocery shopping, cooks my meals, insists on putting the soap in and starting the washer for me, cleans my room for me...*shakes head* I hope I can deal with this for the next 7 months or I'm going to end up flipping out. I know it might sound like I'm whining about nothing, and most people would love to have someone do all of that for them, but I REALLY LIKE doing it all myself. GAR. Hopefully it'll be fine.
Today's a strike of all the workers of the state, so right now none of the buses are running and I think the train strike just ended, but it's the perfect end to my week of frustrations because I need to get to Pisa today so I can leave for England, but in order to get to Pisa I have to take a train. After a strike, good luck. So I'm going to go in about an hour and catch the first one I can find so that I don't end up having to miss my flight. (my flight's not until 10, but I don't want to take chances) As gripey as this post sounds, I'm really chipper and bouncy today. Now I'm off to run some errands before skipping the country. Buon finesettimana!