hey love
Let's see... so school is terribly boring. 6pm to about 730pm, even though it is supposed to go to 830pm, Mon. to Thurs. Luckily we get let out way early. The prof. pretty much goes through a book chapter by chapter. In class in looks at a chapter & skims through it, lecturing the main points, so it is like not even he is knowledgeable about the material. Unprepared teachers suck, but I guess at least it is easy?
School & Florence is already half way done! It is really hard to believe, since it has been flying by. The days are spent pretty lazily. Today I woke up 9PM, went to a museum, went shopping, went grocery shopping, made & ate lunch, hand washed some laundry, sat around, went to class, etc.
Nights are often filled with wine & sometimes bar outtings. I seriously have not been handling my alcohol here well at all. Hmm.. so top things I am trying to avoid here:
1) Shopping - yes crazy I know, but I seriously do not have space & if I did, I don't want to lug all the extra stuff around Europe after we leave Florence. I have like 3 tops, yes 3! I am wearing the same things over, & over & over.. It hasn't bothered me yet. I don't even remember what my clothes at home look like anymore. So we went to these designer outlets outside Florence, where they had Gucci, Burberry, Marni, Salvatore Ferragamo, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent、Emilio Pucci, etc.! We actually paid a shuttle to take us there because it is located outside Florence, like in the middle of no where in the country. I did indulge & purchased a pair of black suede round toed Fendi pumps. They're going to be my grown up shoes! I just couldn't leave Italy without Italian leather shoes.
2) Excessive drinking & mixing alcohol types. Sickness is not cool.
3) Spending toooooo much money. Good thing this one is strongly tied to the upper 2 avoidances!
The World Cup madness is finally over. It was the craziest thing.. we watched the final in a huge square that had a big screen up. I was standing the whole game.. 2ish hours trying to avoid getting stepped on, bumping into other sweaty people there were everywhere, & avoiding second hand smoke. In the end, these things were inavoidable. Yes, Italy won. Woohoo. If you became "champion of the world" imagine how crazy you'd get. That whole night was endless celebration, singing, & riot like behavior.
This weekend we went to Venice, which was absolutely AMAZING & totally NOT overrated. It was seriously the most beautiful place I've seen. Everyone has to go there. There are no cars, not motorcycles, no bikes.. just streets for walking & lots of bridges to get over canals. It was erie at first how quiet it was because of the the lack of loud cars & transportation, but I got used to it. The place is so serene & relaxing. I can't imagine anyone being stressed out there. Even with all the tourists, the buildings seem untouched by the need to modernize. It is somewhere you should go with someone you love. Yes, we rode a gondola (at twilight no less) & yes, he sang. Corny has it sounds, the place is really magical. As I was standing in St. Mark's Square at night with all the lights & live orchestra music, I thought what a nice place this would be for a marriage proposal. The whole place is just dripping with romance & love!
There were a lot of Chinese people running Italian restaurants there, which was pretty amusing.. We accidentally ended up eating at one. I don't want Italian food from Chinese people!! Weird.. Maybe when Marco Polo went to China on his excursion, he brought some people back too.