American Food?

Tonight Sarah and I are making nachos, "food from America", for our host family. We made them once while our mama italiana was gone, and she was intrigued by the leftover salsa, and asked us to make these strange "nachos, food you eat in America" for her one night for dinner. Is that wrong? Do we not have our own food in America? Is it all borrowed? Come on, hamburgers and hot dogs don't count. Besides, we had hamburgers last night, and tonight the little boys are having hot dogs. They're international, they don't count.

Homework

sucks a lot. It is beautiful and hot outside, and I am in the computer lab typing two papers. Of course, they are two of...let's see...4 papers I have all semester, and at Whitman we figured out that we have 16 per semester (four per class). And the ones here are 4 pages, 4, 4, and 10, and the ones at whitman are all 7-10 with one 25-pager last semester. So really, I should quit complaining and go write them.

Clarification

I have been getting lots of "i'm so jealous you have managed to lose weight while abroad--i've just gained it!" So, to clear things up, by "I've lost weight" I mean "I've lost all my muscle from my previous weight-room addict life and now I am weak." Just to clear things up. Muscle weighs more, remember, so as a result I am lighter and weaker. Triste.

Going Out

Going Out, originally uploaded by karnavore.

This is from the night I decided to fight with the dude at the club. See, if he had decided to be even meaner, i could have just kicked him with these pointy boots.

Corfu

Corfu, originally uploaded by karnavore.

This is Corfu, where we stayed on spring break. I know, these pictures are a little late and out of order, sorry.

Easter

Easter, originally uploaded by karnavore.

This is Easter service at the Duomo. A big fireworks display came out of that big thing on the right, lit by a flaminy (fake) dove. Then the actual service was inside. It was PACKED, but it is the second largest Catholic cathedral in the world, so I guess that's to be expected.

Karna on Beach

Karna on Beach, originally uploaded by karnavore.

This is me on the beach in Corfu, Greece. It was beautiful but cold so we couldn't go swimming.

Beth's Penis

Beth's Penis, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

This is in Amsterdam last weekend at the sex museum. Every man's dream, right?

Cast of a Person

Cast of a Person, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

This is from spring break, at Pompeii, the town that was covered when Mt. Vesuvius errupted. The ash covered people and when it hardened and they disintigrated, there was a hollow cast of their body, so excavators pumped it full of clay and came out with this cast of a body that was buried. cool, huh?

Clubbing

So, we went out to a club last night to go dancing. I hate Italian men. There were four of us girls dancing together, so that apparently presents a fun challenge and we were surrounded the entire time my nasty men trying to grind with us, which was just disgusting. Then one guy came up to me, put his face so close our noses were touching, and screamed "BELLA!!" which annoyed the shit out of me so i threw my forearm into his throat and threw him backwards. Ok, I reacted before i thought. But it was still fun. Then another guy kept groping me, so finally after 10 minutes of not taking my hints to stop, I shoved him. Apparently this guy hasn't heard the "don't hit girls" rule, cause he shoved back pretty hard. Walking away after this would have been the smart option, right? But no, I had to shove back, sending him flying into his little hoard of friends. So he shakes his fist in my face as though he is threatening to punch me. So of course I shake my fist right back, and turn the fist into flipping him off. At this point a small crowd has gathered to pretend to be dancing but actually watch this scene, and they all start laughing at him for being fought by a girl, so he finally went sliding out of sight. Good times, huh? Then we left, since I had already narrowly avoided two fights, and we figured it was about time for me to get kicked out if I didn't leave on my own. But hey, I don't like getting groped by nasty guys, ok? I almost wish he HAD hit me, so i could have been justified in punching him in the face.

Thank you.

My fears have subsided. I do have a fan club of readers. you guys rock! And I love you :) I also like the story made out of my blog titles :)
I have class soon, but tonight I am putting pictures on my iPod and then downloading (uploading?) them onto my blog for you all to see. Excited, aren't you? I can tell. The weather here is beautiful. I had to wear a skirt and shirt with no coat cause it is so warm. As a result, I got whistled at and commented at the whole walk to school, because Italian men have no tact and are generally disgusting. I've decided I much prefer the Americans on this count. Tonight, my friend Cammie is here (she is studing in Budapest) so we are actually going to go out and attempt to have a nightlife. Wish us luck, we are sorely out of practice.

is anyone there?

Is anyone there? Does anyone read my blog? Is my life too boring to comment on? Geez people! If my blog is utterly boring and unreadable these days, I'm open to suggestions to liven it up. I am not feeling the love from America anymore.

amsterdam fun

well, today was interesting. beth and i went shopping--she got some cool clothes and i got some shoes. All normal. But then tonight we went to dinner--we got Gyros and McDonalds...i know, weird combo, but whatever, and went throught the red light district. It was quite the experience. Live sex shows and prostitutes posing in windows 98% naked. We went through one row where Beth said to pay special attention to them (they don't mind if you openly stare at them) and then asked me what I thought. I thought they were the prettiest ones i had seen so far--the women were beautiful! Then she said, "They're all men." WHOA! Crazy! These were some beautiful women with really nice bodies we were checking out, who turn out to be all men! Not fair, not fair at all. Then we got propositioned about 8 times--and we were in jeans, not looking too prostitute-ish, but that didn't stop the nasty men from trying. I guess we could have made some extra money to make up for the shopping we did today, but at the time it just didn't seem appealing. Oh yeah, to finish our very odd night, we got totally flashed by a man in an Irish kilt, who was wearing it the, uh, traditional way...that was one hairy ass. Time for bed now, I need to obsorb all this. Good night. Good luck to the basketball teams, both of whom are in the championship games!

Carli had a baby?

So, Beth and I hear that Carli had her baby...good work, Carli. Just sounds painful to me. We'll wait awhile. So, does that mean you got all the cool stuff they list in the paper for the first baby to be born this year? When I decide to have a kid I am going to count back exactly 9 months, or however many weeks it is exactly, and pop out a kid on January 1st to get all that loot.

Pot and Prostitutes

Well I made it to Amsterdam! Beth met me in Eindhoven and we took the train to Amsterdam. It's really pretty here, and definetly smells like pot in all the streets. I also found some damn cute shoes, four pairs, so I am going to have to narrow it down. And tomorrow, best of all, Beth is taking me to the Red Light District to see the display of available prostitutes in the legal prostitution area of town. I've never seen women posing in windows, so this should be fun! Weird what I concieve of as fun.

Leaving

I'm leaving for Amsterdam tonight, maybe I will get really stoned this weekend and write you a post. We just watched "Io non sono paura" (I am not scared) or something like that for my Italian culture class, yet another sad movie in Italian they force us to watch. There's nothing cheerful around here, geez. The kidnapped kid in the cave and the poor boy who tries to save him and gets shot...sorry, I just ruinied it for you. Wait, no I didn't....DOES HE DIE? I guess you'll have to watch it! And they made us watch "la vida e bella" the other week...great movie though, if you haven't seen it, for sure watch that one. The actor got an oscar...good stuff.

Americans are stuck up...

We really are. I have noticed with the massive amount of tourists that Americans get all pissy when an Italian can't speak perfect English to them, yet they cannot say more than "grazie" or "ciao" with a horrible horrible accent. We expect everyone to speak our language yet don't bother to learn anyone else's unless it suits our purposes, like going to mexico and being able to order a beer.

Back to School

Well school started again. Spring break was fun, but time to do some actual work now. greece was awesome, totally beautiful, i will put up pictures soon. There were only like 10 of us at our resort (it is built for 800) so we hung out with the staff a lot. that was actually pretty cool...two Australians, two Dutch guys who spoke perfect English, and a Canadian. The trip back was long but it's good to be home because the weather is awesome here! Two things happened just as the professors here said would happen: 1) the weather changed immensely in the week we were gone, and 2) there really was a tripling or quadrupling in tourists around Florence. Damn tourists are really annoying.

Greek Isles

Well, I am here in the Greek Isles, on Corfu, staying at the Pink Palace. I can see how this place would be awesome in the summer, but right now it looks very abandoned. It's really big but everything is rusted over and moldy and mildewy because there are very few guests until April. But it's still ok. I went on the "Quad Safari" today, a tour of Corfu Island on four-wheelers. It was fun! We got to see a lot, with beautiful views of mainland Greece and Albania. Tomorrow if it stays nice we are going to camp out on the beach all day--not warm enough for normal people to lay on the beach, but for us, since we've been living in 30 degree Florence. And, yet another language barrier here...but at least in Florence I can get by now, here I can't speak a word of Greek besides "Kappa Alpha Theta" (my sorority) and various other college Greek organizations :)

Random picture

DSC00595, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

This is a random picture to hold you over til tomorrow when i compose a real blog entry, cause i have 5 minutes left of internet time. i am in greece right now, just got here. This picture is diego, me and Rich, right before the bodily destruction that was my 21st birthday began.

my room

DSC00757, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

this is for teri jo...not sure why, but she wanted a picture of my room in florence. i sleep in the far bed. Maysa in the near bed...well, that is all the excitement that is my tiny bedroom...

Sistine Chapel

DSC03596, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

This is the ceiling of the Sistine...it was way smaller than i expected but still pretty cool. The God and Adam picture was way smaller..but the place looks like it took years to paint.

Colosseum

DSC03614, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

This is me with Emily (middle) and Renee at the Colosseum in Rome!

Trevi Fountain

DSC03607, originally uploaded by Karnawil.

Me at the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

Spring Break

I forgot to tell you all where I am going for spring break. First, for three days, we are taking the train to Naples (Mafia capital!!) so I can become a mob princess. ok, not really. well, we ARE going there but going through it and onto Sorrento where we will stay for three days, visiting Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, Naples, the Amalfi Coast, the Island of Capri, and whatever else we find. Then we are catching a ferry from Bridisi (south italy, east coast) to Corfu in the Greek Isles where we will stay at a student resort for three days. Then we will return to Italy, to Florence, by night train. Good times huh? Unless the weather craps out on us...cross your fingers for us.

Midterms

Well my midterms start tomorrow so these will be two fun-filled days. It is beautiful outside but freakin FREEZING. Right now I can't feel my toes. Plus I'm still sick and I have had a headache...mal de testa...for FOUR days nonstop now. I've taken way more advil than is medically recommended and now my host mom gave me some unknown substance to drink so maybe that will help. Tomorrow, for real, I will post some pictures. Oh yeah, my spring break getaway to warmer weather is flopping too...south italy is snowing, and it is supposed to rain all week in greece. The weather dude better be wrong about this.