Rome

I just got back from Rome! It was really cool. We saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, and the Vatican Museums in the Vatican City. Thank God the Pope lived through his tracheotomy and didn't die while I was in the Vatican City, how much would that have sucked. I will post pictures sometime in the next two days. I didn't know that the Vatican City is actually it's own nation! That's cool. It only has 400-something permanent residents, mostly nuns. Hmm. Well, I have a presentation on Baldesar Castiglione's book The Book of the Courtier to make, so I will write more later. If anyone needs to know how to be a perfect court man or court lady, I could let you know.

Iron

We just went to a blacksmith shop and I got to learn how to make a leaf out or iron. I see a career coming. Then we got to go get coffee and pastries, and by the way, "la pasta de nonna" is definetly the best pastry in the world (that's "grandma's pastry" in English). Oh yeah, pasta means both noodles and pastries in this language. All this was for my class this afternoon...life is rough. In other news, it is snowing up a storm here, which is VERY weird for Florence so the city is panicking, but it's beautiful! There was thunder and lightening here last night too.

i hate school

Italian Renaissance is seriously the most boring class I have taken in my life, and I have been in some mind-numbing classes. I just got out of an hour and half lecture and my brain is sore. And now I have to go speak Italian for two straight hours. But at least that class is fun. Ok, I am going to stop bitching about my life in EUROPE now, because it cannot possibly be that bad, I know. In other, good news, I weighed myself today and realized I have lost 4 kilos since I have been here, and one kilo equals 2.2 pounds. Must be because we walk absolutely everywhere here. Which is good since I survive off pasta, gelatto and nutella.

karna

karna
Originally uploaded by karnavore.

this is me, in europe. sorry, i had no other more exciting pictures to post...

mosaic two

ravenna
Originally uploaded by karnavore.

This is another one, also decorates an entire inside of a church.

Mosaic 1

ravenna 2
Originally uploaded by karnavore.

This is entirely a mosaic made out of tiny pieces of glass. The whole church is decorated in mosaic...must have took forever!

Being sick sucks

I have a totally bad cold and that sucks. I hate being sick. And it is raining. But we went out last night anyways, and that was fun. We drank totally cheap box wine (55 cents at the grocery store here) on the steps of the Duomo and the San Lorenzo cathedral...is that bad? Oh well. This coming weekend I am going to Rome with my art history class, so I will get to see all sorts of cool things like the Sistine Chapel, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and more. And i really am trying to figure out how to put more pictures on here, sorry for the delay.

Amsterdam!

Well, I just bought tickets to Amsterdam for March 17th to the 21st. I am going to stay with Beth for her birthday! I got tired of searching endlessly for flights so I finally just booked them. I have to take the train to Milan, a flight to Eindhoven, and a train to Amsterdam and the same thing on the way back so that is going to be a royal pain in the ass but RyanAir doesn't fly either out of Florence OR into Amsterdam. However, my ticket to Eindhoven was 4.49 Euros and back was 9.99 Euros so there isn't really much to bitch about. There were of course 40 Euros worth of taxes, but a roundtrip flight for 55 euros isn't bad....If only the dollar wasn't so shitty compared to the euro right now. I found tickets to Germany for .01 eurocent each way, yes, that is ONE CENT each way (with of course 20 euros in taxes), but what am I going to do in Germany? So i had to pass on that offer. Well, one month and I am off to the land of legal pot, i guess.

Shit

Marya, Florence can rival your town with the dog shit problem. I just caught up on Clingan's, Marya's, and Caro's blogs (Jeannie, what is your blog address?) and I read about how much dog crap is in France's streets. Well, it is just as bad here...I understand why Italians wear slippers inside and never EVER their shoes. Apparently there IS a "law" about dog poop but it is in NO way enforced...gross. Anyways, just had to comment on the disgusting streets of Europe, and let Marya know she is not alone. Clingan, we can't wait to see you tomorrow!

Kids

are really annoying. Well, my host brother is at least, specifically the older one. Last night he FREAKED OUT at dinner, yelling and screaming about how Americans always think they are right and blah blah blah. It was the worst freak-out yet. The kid needs counseling so badly. But we're afraid it will offend Manuela to suggest it, so we will suffer two and a half more months. Although she did tell us last night, after Andrea went screaming to his room, that he "just is not a nice person". At least she's not fooling herself.
P.S. The comments are slowing down, guys, come on....

Weekend Excitement

Well, not really. This last weekend I went to Ravenna on Saturday with the school to see the mosaics, which i am currently trying to show you pictures of. I can't figure out how to hook my iPod up to this DUMB P.C. I love Macs. Macs forever. Anyways the mosaics were amazing, they decorated entire insides of churches, made of tiny pieces of glass. I would never have that kind of patients. Friday night me and my roomie went out with two Italian guys to a bar and a club and didn't get home until 4:00 and we had to get up at 6:15 for that Ravenna trip, so that sucked. Plus the Italian guys were VERY annoying so we were not in the best of moods all night...but we got free drinks, a ride home, and now we never have to see them again. The beauty of the silent button on cell phones. This weekend my friend from Whitman who is in Ireland is coming here so that should be fun! Well, I am gonna go try to figure out the picture thing now.

Karna, Eva face paint

Karna, Eva face paint, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

We all got our faces painted on Saturday and it lasted til Sunday night. Sarah had an allergic reaction sunday night and her face swelled up. Oops. This is me and Eva (also from Whitman).

Maysa, Karna Masks

Maysa, Karna Masks, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

These are our super cool Carnivale masks we bought. I actually looked better in this other red one, but practically no one else in Venice had the white one and it is pretty so i got it instead.

Carnival Costumes 3

Carnival Costumes 3, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

Carnivale Costumes 2

Carnivale Costumes 2, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

These guys were so cool...

Carnivale Costumes 1

Carnivale Costumes 1, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

San Marco Basilica

San Marco Basilica, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

The San Marco Basilica in San Marco square in Venice. We didn't get to go inside because the line was hours long.

Venice

Tomorrow i am going to post pictures from Venice. Carnivale was awesome, the costumes were just like I always saw on TV...huge and elaborate and beautiful! I will show you all tomorrow. I also got a cool mask and my face painted. We went to the Academia one day, and also to Murano, the glass island, home of Venetian blown glass. All very cool and beautiful. Our hotel was pretty far away but we snuck 7 people into a 4 person room so it was also cheap. Those are some crowded sleeping quarters though, let me tell you. There were four dorm-size beds, but one went to our one guy Colin, and we pushed the other three together for six girls. We survived, though. OH funny story to hold you over til my pictures...at the bus stop in Venice this Native guy asked us where we were from and said he was from Anchorage, and when I said Petersburg, he asked if I was Tlinget or Haida...ok that doesn't have anything to do with this story. ANYways, he asked if I knew Dr. Beardslee, because Dr. Beardslee's first wife is this guy's cousin, and then I asked if they knew anyone else from Petersburg, and his wife said "oh just this one lady" in a tone like I would never know her too, and it turns out it is my aunt Terri, my dad's sister, and this lady had lunch with her last week! Crazy! Small world! Well, I will download Carnival pictures tomorrow. Tonight is the last day of Carnivale, aka Mardi Gras, but actually in Italy it is "Martedi Grasso" (Fat Tuesday), so maybe more fun pictures will be born tonight!

The Coat

DSC00859
Originally uploaded by karnavore.

Behold the new leather coat. It looks better with the tags off and my hair normal.

Church

DSC00872
Originally uploaded by karnavore.

This is a church (duh) that i can't remember the name of. It is in the Piazza de Michelagelo, where I took the picture of Florence.

Firenze

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Originally uploaded by karnavore.

This is a view of my city...the Duomo is obvious, right in the middle. Note the Arno River...and the cool old bridges. One of them is the Ponte Vecchio, the only original bridge still standing, because the Germans(?) couldn't stand to destroy it.

Boots

I promise I will post pictures SOON, hopefully tomorrow. I really don't have that great of ones right now, but I CAN show you my new leather jacket. After Venice this weekend I should have something exciting. In the meantime, I will tell you all about the boots I want. This is totally not me, because they are pointy toed and stilletto heeled, going to midcalf, black leather. I have always let my negative opinion of pointy toes be known, and my sense of balance is made for basketball shoes, not stillettos. Now I already have ankle boots and knee boots of black leather, both with thick heels. I never wear the knee boots in Petersburg for fear of being labeled a prostitute, but at school they're fine. I compare this situation to the time in like 5th grade when Teri Jo told me that her cousin Heather got her bellybutton pierced, and I thought that was disgusting. And now I have jewels dangling from my punctured navel. Now I'm pretty certain I am the only person in Europe without stilleto, pointy shoes of any kind. Therefore, I think if I am going to assimilate myself into this culture for three more months, I need these boots. Thank you for listening.

Speaking of kids...

While I am on the topic, I had a freaky dream last night that I was pregnant and about to have a kid, but I was overdue by like 5 hours (I was due on Dec. 31st before the year changed, but it was dangerously close to the new year so for some reason that was bad) so everyone was freaking out and trying all these weird things to try to make me go into labor. My half-sister was there too, which is also strange, since I haven't talked to her in like years. Plus, being pregnant is weird too, from what I can remember. Very very weird. And hopefully very very far from any amount of truth. I think it was a subconscious hint that if I don't start running more I am going to gain 20 pounds from pasta and gelatto.

Parenting...

seems really crappy. My host mom is constantly yelling at my 11 year old host brother. Last night he pushed Francesco, my 7 year old host brother, down the spriral apartment stairs. Actually, maybe it is not so much the parenting, it is the psycho possessed child. He seriously needs an exorcist or something. The kid does nothing but scream in Italian, get up during dinner about 12 times to kick the wall and throw things and try to hit his mom, immediately followed by holding her hand and trying to cuddle with her. A child psychologist would have a field day with this kid. Manuela says he has trouble with the divorce. Maybe I just better make sure I don't have kids then get divorced. But on the other hand, I think I turned out alright, and my parents are divorced. Ok, I'm convinced, he's just possessed.