First Few Days of Florence
Florence is a city unlike most that I have seen. In a way, it was a bit "similar" to NYC and Tokyo in the sense that you see lots of people on the streets except that in Florence there seems to always be lots of people on most of its streets (unlike Tokyo which usually has certain streets/areas that are populated with people). The city is very much a vibrant "living" city. Also, the city isn't ethnically homogenous as one would think; there's many kinds of immigrants mostly from Asia and a few from Latin-America.
The city is walkable but it's not "perfect" in this aspect as other European cities might be due to cars passing roads that one would expect to block off vehicles.
My apartment is pretty nice, located close to the LdM facilities. The only problem is that there's no air-conditioning (but there's "heaters" for some reason...does Florence ever get cold enough to require their use?) Although my roommates are a different case; they are pretty gadje. This element, besides trying to sleep without cold air, somewhat makes things into some form of "purgotory" where I'm being somewhat forces to resist their "marime" influence. Although it's not as if I didn't have those moments where I could be getting a bit closer to the hummus. One point, after passing Ponte Vecchio, I sat down in an alcove of a store window. I just sat there for sometime, seeing people do their thing and in a sense I was awed: Here's a city that people are in movement and you can see that it's "alive" unlike "cities" of Ft. Myers, Naples, even Miami and most of metropolitan Puerto Rico, etc.
Talking about gadje, alledgedly there are gypsies in Florence and they are a threat since they can be possible thieves (i.e. pick-pockets). Although perhaps some are just beggars (and I ignore beggars; one difference of beggars in Italy from those in Puerto Rico/U.S. is that sometimes they prostrate themselves in a Japanese-styled bow and silently stay that way while holding out their alms cup or whatever). All I know is that the tourist areas at a specific time (i.e. the times they are filled with tons of tourists) turn into a hot-bed for hustlers/etc. Once I was passing by Il Doumo and this woman dressed in white with a white face-paint came up to me (I did not allowed her to get too close though, ever since I got to Italy I avoided much body contact with strangers) and while holding out a basket for donations made this "kissing motion" with her lips. It was quite strange, but anyway to get her away quickly I dropped some change and walked away.
Besides my roommates, most of the people at LdM seem to come from private universities and in some sense "have cash". There are a few pretty girls but most of the girls, even though in a way they're pretty, I don't find so attractive (I have a somewhat selectiveness in determining attractiveness; perhaps if I sense too much marime then I lose, or never gain, attraction towards that person). There's more women in LdM then men but that is to be expected if you think statistically and use a little bit of common assumptions (i.e. more women in universities and mostly women are interested in studying abroad in Italy). In Italy, the women are quite charming (quite similar to certain kinds of Southern American women and to Spaniards) and many of them are attractive, although I already had a similar perception before. I came to the conclusion that Southern European (i.e. Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians) women, as a group in comparison to other groups, are very attractive. Italians in general are similar to certain kinds of South Americans, although perhaps this could be regional. Possibly, the Northern Italians are not as "charming/simpatico" as the rest. However, despite this I haven't really seen any Italian that could be said to be in touch with the/their hummus (although there's not many gadje italians either).
Talking about hummus, in Italy in just a few days I realized 2 things: The Americans as a whole group are usually made up of "extremes", you meet people who are very in touch with the hummus, such as the founder of hummism, and you also meet very gadje people.
Another thing was I began to think, while lying on my bed on saturday, about many things. What did I wanted out of life? Will I ever find love, what kind of people would I love, do I really love anyone, about people who care about me. I realized that Sam Pancakes does seem to be one of the few, perhaps the only person, who very honestly cares about me. I mean, we are not life-long childhood friends, but she really seems to be concerned about me and always looking forward to talking to me compared to my other friends. It's a little sad that currently I can not easily show a similar caring attitude due to factors such as distance, lack of internet connection, etc. I mention this because to be honest sometimes I feel some of my "friends" do not enjoy my company. Sometimes I feel like they prefered if I kept quiet or just leave them. Indeed, recently I've seemed to lose contact with my last best-friend of Puerto Rico. If this is fully confirmed then there's nothing for me in Puerto Rico. Then there's Anya, who I rarely talk to and in a sense become estranged from; perhaps later we will revive our friendship.
When it came to love I realize that I don't think I ever found a woman that in a way would be suitable for me amongst those I know that I am attracted to in some level. I mean, I might be attracted to them but in a way these girls don't seem to be a perfect combination in terms of personality with mine and in a way aren't in touch with the hummus as much as needed to make a harmonius relationship. While I don't really feel "infatuated" with Sam Pancakes I guess in a sense she does have a persona that I can get along with greatly and if a opportunity ever presents itself of us being together I might as well try and take it. What I find interesting about this is that while I might be "interested" (it's so amblivalent that it could hardly be define as such) in her I do not feel jealousy/etc towards her and Joe Pancakes as I would towards certain other pairings.
On towards to more mudane things, I always have a constant worry about my money. Do I have enough to survive and also enough to buy a few "souvenirs", etc? I wonder what my parents will feel about me asking for money down the road...
The city is walkable but it's not "perfect" in this aspect as other European cities might be due to cars passing roads that one would expect to block off vehicles.
My apartment is pretty nice, located close to the LdM facilities. The only problem is that there's no air-conditioning (but there's "heaters" for some reason...does Florence ever get cold enough to require their use?) Although my roommates are a different case; they are pretty gadje. This element, besides trying to sleep without cold air, somewhat makes things into some form of "purgotory" where I'm being somewhat forces to resist their "marime" influence. Although it's not as if I didn't have those moments where I could be getting a bit closer to the hummus. One point, after passing Ponte Vecchio, I sat down in an alcove of a store window. I just sat there for sometime, seeing people do their thing and in a sense I was awed: Here's a city that people are in movement and you can see that it's "alive" unlike "cities" of Ft. Myers, Naples, even Miami and most of metropolitan Puerto Rico, etc.
Talking about gadje, alledgedly there are gypsies in Florence and they are a threat since they can be possible thieves (i.e. pick-pockets). Although perhaps some are just beggars (and I ignore beggars; one difference of beggars in Italy from those in Puerto Rico/U.S. is that sometimes they prostrate themselves in a Japanese-styled bow and silently stay that way while holding out their alms cup or whatever). All I know is that the tourist areas at a specific time (i.e. the times they are filled with tons of tourists) turn into a hot-bed for hustlers/etc. Once I was passing by Il Doumo and this woman dressed in white with a white face-paint came up to me (I did not allowed her to get too close though, ever since I got to Italy I avoided much body contact with strangers) and while holding out a basket for donations made this "kissing motion" with her lips. It was quite strange, but anyway to get her away quickly I dropped some change and walked away.
Besides my roommates, most of the people at LdM seem to come from private universities and in some sense "have cash". There are a few pretty girls but most of the girls, even though in a way they're pretty, I don't find so attractive (I have a somewhat selectiveness in determining attractiveness; perhaps if I sense too much marime then I lose, or never gain, attraction towards that person). There's more women in LdM then men but that is to be expected if you think statistically and use a little bit of common assumptions (i.e. more women in universities and mostly women are interested in studying abroad in Italy). In Italy, the women are quite charming (quite similar to certain kinds of Southern American women and to Spaniards) and many of them are attractive, although I already had a similar perception before. I came to the conclusion that Southern European (i.e. Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians) women, as a group in comparison to other groups, are very attractive. Italians in general are similar to certain kinds of South Americans, although perhaps this could be regional. Possibly, the Northern Italians are not as "charming/simpatico" as the rest. However, despite this I haven't really seen any Italian that could be said to be in touch with the/their hummus (although there's not many gadje italians either).
Talking about hummus, in Italy in just a few days I realized 2 things: The Americans as a whole group are usually made up of "extremes", you meet people who are very in touch with the hummus, such as the founder of hummism, and you also meet very gadje people.
Another thing was I began to think, while lying on my bed on saturday, about many things. What did I wanted out of life? Will I ever find love, what kind of people would I love, do I really love anyone, about people who care about me. I realized that Sam Pancakes does seem to be one of the few, perhaps the only person, who very honestly cares about me. I mean, we are not life-long childhood friends, but she really seems to be concerned about me and always looking forward to talking to me compared to my other friends. It's a little sad that currently I can not easily show a similar caring attitude due to factors such as distance, lack of internet connection, etc. I mention this because to be honest sometimes I feel some of my "friends" do not enjoy my company. Sometimes I feel like they prefered if I kept quiet or just leave them. Indeed, recently I've seemed to lose contact with my last best-friend of Puerto Rico. If this is fully confirmed then there's nothing for me in Puerto Rico. Then there's Anya, who I rarely talk to and in a sense become estranged from; perhaps later we will revive our friendship.
When it came to love I realize that I don't think I ever found a woman that in a way would be suitable for me amongst those I know that I am attracted to in some level. I mean, I might be attracted to them but in a way these girls don't seem to be a perfect combination in terms of personality with mine and in a way aren't in touch with the hummus as much as needed to make a harmonius relationship. While I don't really feel "infatuated" with Sam Pancakes I guess in a sense she does have a persona that I can get along with greatly and if a opportunity ever presents itself of us being together I might as well try and take it. What I find interesting about this is that while I might be "interested" (it's so amblivalent that it could hardly be define as such) in her I do not feel jealousy/etc towards her and Joe Pancakes as I would towards certain other pairings.
On towards to more mudane things, I always have a constant worry about my money. Do I have enough to survive and also enough to buy a few "souvenirs", etc? I wonder what my parents will feel about me asking for money down the road...