Ignore the convenient inferno lying there at your side.
Again, never mind the titles children.
So, thus far the trip is going pretty great. Italy is everything I hoped it would be and it is very peaceful, artistic, and beautiful. We last weekend did Venice and next weekend me and two friends plan to see Rome. The weather has been just perfect here, not too hot, but basically perfectly sunny summer weather, with sweet warm breezes and little humidity, which I loathe. There are minor moments of stress, mostly linked to me having to get over an awful cold (and earned the new nickname 'Typhoid Mary.') and everyone else being randomly ill, the common stresses of all commutes abroad where one isn't familiar with the language or the area, and having one here unnamed roommate who while being generally a friendly very intelligent beautiful person is a downright perfect Aries (yes I do follow astrology rather closely, think what you will of me.) and has a tendency to butt heads with everybody for little reason every now and then, and she is a bit overly energetic, loud, and spoiled at times. But, as I said, she is not a bad person, and for the most part we all get along quite nicely with her, and considering some of the drama she's been just through I somewhat understand. Such minor circumstances are all fairly unavoidable either way when you are dorming abroad, and are easily put aside once you just accept them. I enjoy my classes and love all the museums, food and archictecture. Asides not seeing Marcus and Penny who I miss at times, and having the hostel's kinda lousy internet server instead of the only slightly lousy server I have back home, I honestly can't say that I am in any way homesick at all. Frankly I could live here for the rest of my life if I wanted. Anyways, in case you're interested, I'll list down here what are the biggest pros and cons about all of Italy so far, if ever you would someday like to see it for yourself:
-CONS-
* Italy + Summer = Mosquitos. MOTHER. FUCKING. MOSQUITOS. Tiger mosquitos to be exact, who unlike American ones, or at least the kind of ones my area gets, will get frisky with you, no matter where you sleep, what you wear, what repellents you buy, or what temperature the room is. They will bite you and they will bite you in the most annoying weirdest places, like on the palms of your hands, your face, and inside of your nose and on your upper legs nearby your crotch, any place really where if you try to scratch it looks awkward or unsightful. No thighs or shoulders for these guys. Somehow they still get you, even when you are not constantly aware of them, and squishing dozens of them dead with your bare hands. The bites are severly itchy for 1-3 days, and then they feel fine, but you will look like an acne covered freak like me, and still have the huge welts long after the bite's redness and itch has stopped.
* The train stations. It may just have been the particular people who were there these past times we came by, or maybe it is simply the season or something keeping everyone so busy they just don't focus. But I swear, if I did not choose to take Italian 111 as a course, I'd have been in serious trouble, and double that had my roommates not been somewhat native speakers of Spanish and Italian already themselves. I mean, SERIOUS trouble. For some reason, when we went to the train station, none of the conductors, information office staff, baggage holding staff, conductors, or most signs were in English. The waiters and city folk I have met knew more English and even when not still always gave me lots more help than they ever did. For me it was fairly still okay, but for anyone who did not know the language I could understand them being completely frustrated and pissed by the way they are disregarded when they need assistance. Trains do not here let you get on most of them with any ticket at any time and simply pick your seat, you are just like a plane ride assigned a specific seat, and if you do not make your specific time's train, or cannot find your seat, too bad. You are stuck. You are never told that before getting on a train you must 'authorize' and have it stamped in a little machine too and this is just another extra step that while simple adds stress when you realize at the last minute you must need do it at all and you don't understand what you're supposed to do or where to find them cos there were no signs pointing to them. Train numbers are called on platforms over an hour before they even arrive, so you think the current train sitting there is yours, when it isn't, and noowhere does it say so. All the staff seem like very slow and laidback people who don't seem to know much about what is going on with the schedules or know where any of the bathrooms or station offices are located half the time. Such is generally alright with me, I have patience enough to wait an extra 2 minutes for my coffee or put up with someone in Home Depot not knowing where the hammers are and just finding them by myself. I can NOT wait an extra two minutes or wander aimlessly in a foreign country station if my train is possibly about to leave and I haven't got a working cellphone, and frankly it annoys me when such a place is so full of tourists who all look lost and confused, it should you think obviously cater to them. I heard more English and other languages than Italian, yet that was all most staff knew. A place that oughta be concerned about dealing primarily with foreigners, being a target for terrorism or robbers, or children getting lost, places its faith more in cameras and technology instead of common sense and having people who are just ontop of things. Tickets are extremely expensive and difficult to exchange in case of errors too, if you go on the wrong train or you just missed your stop and need to make a transfer to a different line, there isn't usually much sympathy for you, you still gotta pay another ticket and you have to go to the top if you wanna avoid that and beg your heart out. (It's totally sexist, but it seriously helps to be a young pretty girl whenever this happens, so ham it up ladies.) And if you somehow make it onto a train which isn't your assigned ticket's time, and hence you do not have your own assigned seat, not only are you forced to stand for the whole trip, you must pay a fee of 8 extra euro too. If you try to sit in an empty chair you still will eventually have to move when either the assigned passenger finally arrives or if the conductor is a mean jerk who makes you when he sees your ticket is different.
* Street signs and traffic. So far I do not see street signs here as I am used to in the states, instead of being large brightly colored things on poles on every corner of every sidewalk so that you can from a good distance see what you are heading towards, there are no street signs at all, and instead there are tiny little plaques with tiny faded carved in writing of long complicated Italian names of the streets or 'Via's implanted on the sides of the buildings, much like home addresses are. These plaques blend in real well with most of the stone facades and if you do not see well or constantly look around for little details like these, heaven help you. Roads zigzag all over the place, and a lot of the buildings look the same after a while, and its very easy to get disoriented. The best thing to do is to memorize big landmarks, such as museums or bridges or plazas, and bring a map anywhere you go obviously, cos you will need one. Also, while there are some street lights and cross lights for pedestrians, they are few and basically ignored both by drivers and walkers alike, much like New York City. Every time I come to a street, I space out and just don't cross until I see no cars/motorcycles coming, or cross my fingers, cos they just don't seem to ever stop, and even though they naturally probably will at some point, cos they have to of course, it seems like they do it on a dime in mid-speed and it scares the pants off me, and then always makes me feel like a stupid tourist holding up fast traffic, like a deer crossing a freeway. Thankfully at least the majority of vehicles here are mopeds and motorbikes, and most cars/trucks here are really, really, really small, so maybe at least if someone hits you, you'll only suffer a broken ribcage and not death. I mean, these guys are so ridonkously cute and small, they look genuinely like the Playskool cars toddlers run about inside of, or seats from the kiddie coaster caterpillar rides.
That makes the idea of being hit by one pretty embarassing. '~'
* Gypsies and pickpockets. Thus far, I have not been pickpocketed or seen anyone try to pickpocket anybody, only lots of gypsy beggars, and one crazy drunk ranter, and being from New York its not new to me. But my professor has been giving us so many stories I just wanted to give the knowledge out as fair warning, maybe times have changed, maybe I just been only to alright places or just been watchful or not American looking/speaking enough to not get much attention. Frankly I think I had more paranoia for thieves taking my pocketbook a bit more than I think was really necessary here, but you should always be attentive abroad anyways. If you are going to give to charity, best to donate to either Doctors Without Borders, Unicef or the church funds for the poor or if you see the guy is a cripple with no legs or something who definitely needs help and can't likely chase after you. Because apparently many of these people will reach out for your handbag while you fish for their pity money. Some people supposedly do something like throwing coffee on your lap or drop something on purpose so you will bend over to help them or clean off and while they distract you another one steals money from your wallet. I didn't see it, just saying what he said happened before. Keep a moneybelt on you to hold your passport/bills, and only 20 something in your pockets or purse.
* Sitdown fees in restarants and cafe's. This one really screwed us over for a while at the beginning, cos we had no idea about this. I do not know if this is Italy alone or all Europe. Instead of the way we yankees go into coffee shops to sit and have a cup and then when you leave you are supposed to leave a nice (yet still optional) tip after the sum plus tax is paid, they here charge you double or even triple sometimes the whole price for just sitting inside the cafe or restaurant, no matter how plain or nice the place or whatever you get, and nobody expects (a still optional) tip at all. So, a 2 dollar cup of coffee becomes a 4 dollar or sometimes 8 dollar cup. It grows really expensive and tiresome when you really wanna sit down out of the summer heat, and they do not seem to offer you paper cups that you could just take with you anywhere but glass mugs all the time. This isn't a big deal for things like grabbing a pastry or tea, cos they do not give you ever very much to drink, and you can swig it all down in one bite and swallow and be on your way, but for when you want to actually EAT eat, and sit down to a dinner or a big lunch and not carry a course's worth of food and beverage outside with you, this at times is a problem.
*Hospitals, thank god I have not been to one, apparently suck balls here, really badly. Aforementioned roommate had a bad trouble with her foot, and some severe cold infection, and had to have xrays of it to make sure it wasn't seriously damaged, she waited I hear 4-6 hours for something that took 2 seconds, and the staff do not give a shit about you, or keep very cleanly. Professor says this is because of universally free insurance, which on some levels I guess is good but I see why there are negative consequences for it, and why everyone here tries to protest that (albeit mostly for the wrong dumb reasons.) But even so irregardless, she HAD health insurance that was paying for her, and she not only paid up the wazoo she still was treated like this.
-PROS-
* The weather here is beautiful, the natural landscapes and beaches are beautiful, and the buildings are all beautiful, and they are all covered with beautiful works of art. And ontop of it, everything is kept clean. Beautiful country. It's obvious. Go now.
*Despite all that ranting I did against the Italian train stations we've visited, I gotta say they are still in a lot of ways better than Penn Station (although most any other stations are) and their TRAINS are like something from the future utopia paradise that we all oughta be living in whenever humanity learns to evolve beyond things like fossil fuel and cancer, yknow, in the year 2005 when we'll be expecting those moon colonies and flying cars...Being coach class is like being 1st class, you get comfortable spacious seats, folding tables, clean bathrooms, a CAFETERIA where you can order sandwiches, beer, pastries, juice etc, charge your iPod and other devices, no bad jittery shake or train groans, when you change cars there are automatic doors and they are light to push aside so u do not need to lunge them open, and inbetween cars is a nice rubbery shield that doesn't let you feel like James Bond on the verge of death seeing the tracks fly beneath you when the train is moving and u have to go pee...it's a gorgeous view of the mountains and farmer's fields for cows and sheep and its really a nice thing to do and relax on when you aren't stuck on there for 6 hours...~___~
*Italian beer vs. American beer is no contest, same goes for fruit, milk, vending machines, candy, pastries, cheese, wine and coffee. And comic books.
*Did I mention the comic books?? Seriously, they have such awesome comics here, and they are not 'underground', these are just mainstream big titles alone. And it pains me not being able to buy/read most of them so badly. If u like comics/good art and storytelling, u'll flip.
*MAGIC THE GATHERING IS STILL POPULAR HERE. :D *does nerd dance*
*Always stuff to do, just like NYC, museums, parks, clubs, beaches, carriage rides, plazas, monuments, cafes, art shows, gay porn festivals, vampire/serial killer museums...wait, what?
*Italian food is great obviously, but even their AMERICAN food is better. Go into an Italian Mcdonalds or 'American themed' diner, you realize you never had food this good most of the time at such places and they are really not accurate.
*Music is wonderful for me here (i like almost any kind of foreign music though) but also in terms of what choices of american music is played here. For some reason back home always the same 11 songs keep playing anywhere i go out, and they all bore me to tears. They will play top recent hits but they'll also many times play 90s music or the doors or jazz or hendrix or some more underground artist from the states just as frequently in any supermarket/bookstore/common shop you go here. Its just refreshing to hear so much stuff of ours from ALL eras/genres getting publicly appreciated and not just what is Disney Channel approved.
* Fashion. Clothes here are great. I am not a clothes shopper and I still love it here. The clothes and window displays are so unique and always awesome, and every legend of the fashion world is right here. They've got high prices but theres many awesome vintage shoppes and cheap places to go to and some of the lovliest jewlery and shoes and accessories I ever saw. It's definitely something for any FIT student to cream over. More importantly, from what i can tell, most clothes stuff isn't made by sweatshop labor (at least not from abroad anyways) it looks like everything here says 'Made in Italy', and more important, it is made WELL. I hate it when you see deisgners making you pay lots of money for crap you see coming already apart loose at the buttons or the sleeves. Everything seems comfortable and really beautiful, and I dunno obviously about all the recent trends here but there's nobody to my sight walking about in stupid Uggs and cloggs and nonense fads like that we can't seem to shake off. Young people seem to dress sexy not slutty here, gothic, not emo, and elegant, not preppy. People all dress very cool here but more importantly, they dress sophisticated. (Yes, that's not the same thing.)
*Health. American media I think secretly wants to be Italian, because not only is the fashion more attractive but there are also no ugly people. I don't mean there are no plain looking, or rare handicapped/disfigured people, or obviously old looking people, but everyone here looks for the most part overall healthy, and fairly well looking to really attractive, regardless of class, race, height, etc. Everybody looks ALIVE, and has this kinda elegance or just characteristic realness to them that people back home as a majority seem to lack, or try to recreate with makeup and hairdye and fake tans and boob jobs and that doesn't work. There are so many grogeous young men and women here its kinda insane, and its driving me and my roommates delusional. Above all, there are I swear on the Easter Bunny NO FAT PEOPLE. No fat people, I am not kidding! Not a single one! If they're fat, it is cos they are a tourist, and 9 out of 10 an American tourist. Note when I say fat I do not mean husky, or people who are kinda short and just a bit voluptous or round looking, I mean FAT people, who you plainly know on sight do not ever exercise at all, and eat only fast food and drink coke every day, people with sagging double chins, or turkey necks, or legs you can wrap a belt around like a waist. It hurts to realize that what they say about us and our diet portions and junkfood/weight problems abroad is probably 200% right. Even me and roommates have all noticed since coming here we all have lost considerable weight. So, if you wanna drop 30 lbs and you don't wanna deal with calorie charts and fitness classes, apparently all you need do is visit Italy for a month. Go figure.
*People as a whole seem very polite and helpful and especially if you at least attempt Italian, you may not get the right info each time, but rarely I ever had to worry someone was a grouch or would not stop to help me or tease me. Florence is a tourist area, but I think most of Italy is probably like this too, and I think its nice that they have manners considering all the bullshit they probably deal with from tourists.
*Stupid typical tourist souvenirs from New York you see everywhere: I <3 NY tshirt, crappy snowglobe, a baseball hat with the twin towers on it. Stupid typical tourist souvenirs from Italy you see everywhere: Handmade Pinochio wood marionettes, quill pen with ink bottle, handmade Venetian masks, silk boxer shorts with photograph of the penis from Michealangelo's 'David' statue emblazoned on it. You decide which you prefer.
Anywho, think thats enough to give you the idea. Drop me a line you guys. I miss yous.
So, thus far the trip is going pretty great. Italy is everything I hoped it would be and it is very peaceful, artistic, and beautiful. We last weekend did Venice and next weekend me and two friends plan to see Rome. The weather has been just perfect here, not too hot, but basically perfectly sunny summer weather, with sweet warm breezes and little humidity, which I loathe. There are minor moments of stress, mostly linked to me having to get over an awful cold (and earned the new nickname 'Typhoid Mary.') and everyone else being randomly ill, the common stresses of all commutes abroad where one isn't familiar with the language or the area, and having one here unnamed roommate who while being generally a friendly very intelligent beautiful person is a downright perfect Aries (yes I do follow astrology rather closely, think what you will of me.) and has a tendency to butt heads with everybody for little reason every now and then, and she is a bit overly energetic, loud, and spoiled at times. But, as I said, she is not a bad person, and for the most part we all get along quite nicely with her, and considering some of the drama she's been just through I somewhat understand. Such minor circumstances are all fairly unavoidable either way when you are dorming abroad, and are easily put aside once you just accept them. I enjoy my classes and love all the museums, food and archictecture. Asides not seeing Marcus and Penny who I miss at times, and having the hostel's kinda lousy internet server instead of the only slightly lousy server I have back home, I honestly can't say that I am in any way homesick at all. Frankly I could live here for the rest of my life if I wanted. Anyways, in case you're interested, I'll list down here what are the biggest pros and cons about all of Italy so far, if ever you would someday like to see it for yourself:
-CONS-
* Italy + Summer = Mosquitos. MOTHER. FUCKING. MOSQUITOS. Tiger mosquitos to be exact, who unlike American ones, or at least the kind of ones my area gets, will get frisky with you, no matter where you sleep, what you wear, what repellents you buy, or what temperature the room is. They will bite you and they will bite you in the most annoying weirdest places, like on the palms of your hands, your face, and inside of your nose and on your upper legs nearby your crotch, any place really where if you try to scratch it looks awkward or unsightful. No thighs or shoulders for these guys. Somehow they still get you, even when you are not constantly aware of them, and squishing dozens of them dead with your bare hands. The bites are severly itchy for 1-3 days, and then they feel fine, but you will look like an acne covered freak like me, and still have the huge welts long after the bite's redness and itch has stopped.
* The train stations. It may just have been the particular people who were there these past times we came by, or maybe it is simply the season or something keeping everyone so busy they just don't focus. But I swear, if I did not choose to take Italian 111 as a course, I'd have been in serious trouble, and double that had my roommates not been somewhat native speakers of Spanish and Italian already themselves. I mean, SERIOUS trouble. For some reason, when we went to the train station, none of the conductors, information office staff, baggage holding staff, conductors, or most signs were in English. The waiters and city folk I have met knew more English and even when not still always gave me lots more help than they ever did. For me it was fairly still okay, but for anyone who did not know the language I could understand them being completely frustrated and pissed by the way they are disregarded when they need assistance. Trains do not here let you get on most of them with any ticket at any time and simply pick your seat, you are just like a plane ride assigned a specific seat, and if you do not make your specific time's train, or cannot find your seat, too bad. You are stuck. You are never told that before getting on a train you must 'authorize' and have it stamped in a little machine too and this is just another extra step that while simple adds stress when you realize at the last minute you must need do it at all and you don't understand what you're supposed to do or where to find them cos there were no signs pointing to them. Train numbers are called on platforms over an hour before they even arrive, so you think the current train sitting there is yours, when it isn't, and noowhere does it say so. All the staff seem like very slow and laidback people who don't seem to know much about what is going on with the schedules or know where any of the bathrooms or station offices are located half the time. Such is generally alright with me, I have patience enough to wait an extra 2 minutes for my coffee or put up with someone in Home Depot not knowing where the hammers are and just finding them by myself. I can NOT wait an extra two minutes or wander aimlessly in a foreign country station if my train is possibly about to leave and I haven't got a working cellphone, and frankly it annoys me when such a place is so full of tourists who all look lost and confused, it should you think obviously cater to them. I heard more English and other languages than Italian, yet that was all most staff knew. A place that oughta be concerned about dealing primarily with foreigners, being a target for terrorism or robbers, or children getting lost, places its faith more in cameras and technology instead of common sense and having people who are just ontop of things. Tickets are extremely expensive and difficult to exchange in case of errors too, if you go on the wrong train or you just missed your stop and need to make a transfer to a different line, there isn't usually much sympathy for you, you still gotta pay another ticket and you have to go to the top if you wanna avoid that and beg your heart out. (It's totally sexist, but it seriously helps to be a young pretty girl whenever this happens, so ham it up ladies.) And if you somehow make it onto a train which isn't your assigned ticket's time, and hence you do not have your own assigned seat, not only are you forced to stand for the whole trip, you must pay a fee of 8 extra euro too. If you try to sit in an empty chair you still will eventually have to move when either the assigned passenger finally arrives or if the conductor is a mean jerk who makes you when he sees your ticket is different.
* Street signs and traffic. So far I do not see street signs here as I am used to in the states, instead of being large brightly colored things on poles on every corner of every sidewalk so that you can from a good distance see what you are heading towards, there are no street signs at all, and instead there are tiny little plaques with tiny faded carved in writing of long complicated Italian names of the streets or 'Via's implanted on the sides of the buildings, much like home addresses are. These plaques blend in real well with most of the stone facades and if you do not see well or constantly look around for little details like these, heaven help you. Roads zigzag all over the place, and a lot of the buildings look the same after a while, and its very easy to get disoriented. The best thing to do is to memorize big landmarks, such as museums or bridges or plazas, and bring a map anywhere you go obviously, cos you will need one. Also, while there are some street lights and cross lights for pedestrians, they are few and basically ignored both by drivers and walkers alike, much like New York City. Every time I come to a street, I space out and just don't cross until I see no cars/motorcycles coming, or cross my fingers, cos they just don't seem to ever stop, and even though they naturally probably will at some point, cos they have to of course, it seems like they do it on a dime in mid-speed and it scares the pants off me, and then always makes me feel like a stupid tourist holding up fast traffic, like a deer crossing a freeway. Thankfully at least the majority of vehicles here are mopeds and motorbikes, and most cars/trucks here are really, really, really small, so maybe at least if someone hits you, you'll only suffer a broken ribcage and not death. I mean, these guys are so ridonkously cute and small, they look genuinely like the Playskool cars toddlers run about inside of, or seats from the kiddie coaster caterpillar rides.
That makes the idea of being hit by one pretty embarassing. '~'
* Gypsies and pickpockets. Thus far, I have not been pickpocketed or seen anyone try to pickpocket anybody, only lots of gypsy beggars, and one crazy drunk ranter, and being from New York its not new to me. But my professor has been giving us so many stories I just wanted to give the knowledge out as fair warning, maybe times have changed, maybe I just been only to alright places or just been watchful or not American looking/speaking enough to not get much attention. Frankly I think I had more paranoia for thieves taking my pocketbook a bit more than I think was really necessary here, but you should always be attentive abroad anyways. If you are going to give to charity, best to donate to either Doctors Without Borders, Unicef or the church funds for the poor or if you see the guy is a cripple with no legs or something who definitely needs help and can't likely chase after you. Because apparently many of these people will reach out for your handbag while you fish for their pity money. Some people supposedly do something like throwing coffee on your lap or drop something on purpose so you will bend over to help them or clean off and while they distract you another one steals money from your wallet. I didn't see it, just saying what he said happened before. Keep a moneybelt on you to hold your passport/bills, and only 20 something in your pockets or purse.
* Sitdown fees in restarants and cafe's. This one really screwed us over for a while at the beginning, cos we had no idea about this. I do not know if this is Italy alone or all Europe. Instead of the way we yankees go into coffee shops to sit and have a cup and then when you leave you are supposed to leave a nice (yet still optional) tip after the sum plus tax is paid, they here charge you double or even triple sometimes the whole price for just sitting inside the cafe or restaurant, no matter how plain or nice the place or whatever you get, and nobody expects (a still optional) tip at all. So, a 2 dollar cup of coffee becomes a 4 dollar or sometimes 8 dollar cup. It grows really expensive and tiresome when you really wanna sit down out of the summer heat, and they do not seem to offer you paper cups that you could just take with you anywhere but glass mugs all the time. This isn't a big deal for things like grabbing a pastry or tea, cos they do not give you ever very much to drink, and you can swig it all down in one bite and swallow and be on your way, but for when you want to actually EAT eat, and sit down to a dinner or a big lunch and not carry a course's worth of food and beverage outside with you, this at times is a problem.
*Hospitals, thank god I have not been to one, apparently suck balls here, really badly. Aforementioned roommate had a bad trouble with her foot, and some severe cold infection, and had to have xrays of it to make sure it wasn't seriously damaged, she waited I hear 4-6 hours for something that took 2 seconds, and the staff do not give a shit about you, or keep very cleanly. Professor says this is because of universally free insurance, which on some levels I guess is good but I see why there are negative consequences for it, and why everyone here tries to protest that (albeit mostly for the wrong dumb reasons.) But even so irregardless, she HAD health insurance that was paying for her, and she not only paid up the wazoo she still was treated like this.
-PROS-
* The weather here is beautiful, the natural landscapes and beaches are beautiful, and the buildings are all beautiful, and they are all covered with beautiful works of art. And ontop of it, everything is kept clean. Beautiful country. It's obvious. Go now.
*Despite all that ranting I did against the Italian train stations we've visited, I gotta say they are still in a lot of ways better than Penn Station (although most any other stations are) and their TRAINS are like something from the future utopia paradise that we all oughta be living in whenever humanity learns to evolve beyond things like fossil fuel and cancer, yknow, in the year 2005 when we'll be expecting those moon colonies and flying cars...Being coach class is like being 1st class, you get comfortable spacious seats, folding tables, clean bathrooms, a CAFETERIA where you can order sandwiches, beer, pastries, juice etc, charge your iPod and other devices, no bad jittery shake or train groans, when you change cars there are automatic doors and they are light to push aside so u do not need to lunge them open, and inbetween cars is a nice rubbery shield that doesn't let you feel like James Bond on the verge of death seeing the tracks fly beneath you when the train is moving and u have to go pee...it's a gorgeous view of the mountains and farmer's fields for cows and sheep and its really a nice thing to do and relax on when you aren't stuck on there for 6 hours...~___~
*Italian beer vs. American beer is no contest, same goes for fruit, milk, vending machines, candy, pastries, cheese, wine and coffee. And comic books.
*Did I mention the comic books?? Seriously, they have such awesome comics here, and they are not 'underground', these are just mainstream big titles alone. And it pains me not being able to buy/read most of them so badly. If u like comics/good art and storytelling, u'll flip.
*MAGIC THE GATHERING IS STILL POPULAR HERE. :D *does nerd dance*
*Always stuff to do, just like NYC, museums, parks, clubs, beaches, carriage rides, plazas, monuments, cafes, art shows, gay porn festivals, vampire/serial killer museums...wait, what?
*Italian food is great obviously, but even their AMERICAN food is better. Go into an Italian Mcdonalds or 'American themed' diner, you realize you never had food this good most of the time at such places and they are really not accurate.
*Music is wonderful for me here (i like almost any kind of foreign music though) but also in terms of what choices of american music is played here. For some reason back home always the same 11 songs keep playing anywhere i go out, and they all bore me to tears. They will play top recent hits but they'll also many times play 90s music or the doors or jazz or hendrix or some more underground artist from the states just as frequently in any supermarket/bookstore/common shop you go here. Its just refreshing to hear so much stuff of ours from ALL eras/genres getting publicly appreciated and not just what is Disney Channel approved.
* Fashion. Clothes here are great. I am not a clothes shopper and I still love it here. The clothes and window displays are so unique and always awesome, and every legend of the fashion world is right here. They've got high prices but theres many awesome vintage shoppes and cheap places to go to and some of the lovliest jewlery and shoes and accessories I ever saw. It's definitely something for any FIT student to cream over. More importantly, from what i can tell, most clothes stuff isn't made by sweatshop labor (at least not from abroad anyways) it looks like everything here says 'Made in Italy', and more important, it is made WELL. I hate it when you see deisgners making you pay lots of money for crap you see coming already apart loose at the buttons or the sleeves. Everything seems comfortable and really beautiful, and I dunno obviously about all the recent trends here but there's nobody to my sight walking about in stupid Uggs and cloggs and nonense fads like that we can't seem to shake off. Young people seem to dress sexy not slutty here, gothic, not emo, and elegant, not preppy. People all dress very cool here but more importantly, they dress sophisticated. (Yes, that's not the same thing.)
*Health. American media I think secretly wants to be Italian, because not only is the fashion more attractive but there are also no ugly people. I don't mean there are no plain looking, or rare handicapped/disfigured people, or obviously old looking people, but everyone here looks for the most part overall healthy, and fairly well looking to really attractive, regardless of class, race, height, etc. Everybody looks ALIVE, and has this kinda elegance or just characteristic realness to them that people back home as a majority seem to lack, or try to recreate with makeup and hairdye and fake tans and boob jobs and that doesn't work. There are so many grogeous young men and women here its kinda insane, and its driving me and my roommates delusional. Above all, there are I swear on the Easter Bunny NO FAT PEOPLE. No fat people, I am not kidding! Not a single one! If they're fat, it is cos they are a tourist, and 9 out of 10 an American tourist. Note when I say fat I do not mean husky, or people who are kinda short and just a bit voluptous or round looking, I mean FAT people, who you plainly know on sight do not ever exercise at all, and eat only fast food and drink coke every day, people with sagging double chins, or turkey necks, or legs you can wrap a belt around like a waist. It hurts to realize that what they say about us and our diet portions and junkfood/weight problems abroad is probably 200% right. Even me and roommates have all noticed since coming here we all have lost considerable weight. So, if you wanna drop 30 lbs and you don't wanna deal with calorie charts and fitness classes, apparently all you need do is visit Italy for a month. Go figure.
*People as a whole seem very polite and helpful and especially if you at least attempt Italian, you may not get the right info each time, but rarely I ever had to worry someone was a grouch or would not stop to help me or tease me. Florence is a tourist area, but I think most of Italy is probably like this too, and I think its nice that they have manners considering all the bullshit they probably deal with from tourists.
*Stupid typical tourist souvenirs from New York you see everywhere: I <3 NY tshirt, crappy snowglobe, a baseball hat with the twin towers on it. Stupid typical tourist souvenirs from Italy you see everywhere: Handmade Pinochio wood marionettes, quill pen with ink bottle, handmade Venetian masks, silk boxer shorts with photograph of the penis from Michealangelo's 'David' statue emblazoned on it. You decide which you prefer.
Anywho, think thats enough to give you the idea. Drop me a line you guys. I miss yous.