trip from hell

So, to end my Euro-adventures, the flight was lovely. Right. Actually , the flight was fine, but the preceeding events were all shitty. Here is my story: I got up at 4 AM, Florence time. Waited for an hour to check in, and once we got up there, Lindsey and I got rejected because our ticket was from Paris to Florence, not Florence to Paris; in January they pulled the opposite ticket. (notice the use of the semi-colon, how smart am i). However, last week we were approved to still use it, and they apparently didn't communicate this to the check in people. so we waited in the ticket re-issue line for half an hour and then got to check in. BUT lindsey's bag was 3 kilos over so they made her unpack and carry 6 plastic bags of stuff onboard. Going through security they saw her brooch she bought in Venice for her grandma, thought it was a knife, and searched her til she started sobbing so they let us go. Then our flight left 45 minutes early, so they came on the loudspeaker 15 minutes outside of paris and said, "We're sorry, but the flight to San Fransisco has already started boarding." So then they started giving us our options for overnighting in Paris. Not that I would bitch about spending the night in Paris, but all of us had connecting flights out of San Fran that we would have lost. So we all threw a big fit, which was pretty fun, and they convinced AirFrance to hold our flight. It was fairly uneventful after that--AirFrance actually has really good food, free wine and liquor, and free sandwiches and Haagen-Daaz ice cream between meals if you are hungry. And we got to watch Bridget Jone's Diary 2. Good flight! The weird part was eating lunch at noon, dinner at 8, landing in San Fran, getting off the plane at 9 and suddenly my life rewound and it was noon again. Good thing i don't do trans-Atlantic flights very often because I ate two lunches and two dinners in one day, a girl could gain 20 pounds doing that!! Anyways, I am here, in Seattle, still speaking Italian to poor unsuspecting people. That habit could take awhile to break. I go to Walla Walla tomorrow, so more adventures soon to come! Goodbye, Italian period of my life.

Finished!

I am DONE with my Italian final, and i think i did good. Now I leave tomorrow! crazy! goodbye italy, it's been fun. The weather is beautiful now, go figure. It's been shitty for weeks. Oh well. Well, I guess my next update will be from seattle. I leave Paris at 10:15 tomorrow morning and get to San Fran at 12:50. And it is a 13 hour flight. Figure that one out. Sweet huh, I get an extra half a day in my life!

Hot weather, two days

i leave Italy in TWO days!! that is SO CRAZY! it finally feels like my life, not just an extended vacation. And, of course, it got really nice and actually really hot out today. Figures, two days before i leave. But at least i am FINALLY not hungover anymore! I am off to get my sunglasses fixed, they broke like two days after i bought them, and then go wander around somemore. I bought some cute earrings today, for those of you who care...hmm that is about all. I also bought my grandma some olive oil with pepper flavoring. Successful shopping day, as you can see.

I missed a day!!

I'm sorry! I missed a day in my plan to blog everyday! But here I am, what a relief, right. So here is my excuse: I could barely move yesterday cause i was so hungover. Still feeling it today, and this is from saturday night. I wish I could say that I drank like four bottles of wine, but in all honestly i am pretty sure it was about not even one, but i really couldn't tell you for sure. My tolerance for alcohol has PLUMMETED since being here. We had "wine kilometer" saturday night to replace "beer mile" which we will miss at whitman this year. So now I am going to go get some food to keep up the fight against my stomach, which doesn't want food in it. In other news, I have gigantic hole in my back molar, I think an old filling fell out. Dr. Beardslee, I am coming to see you the minute i get home.

Italian Oral

I finished my italian oral! it was fine...i was a little nervous but started with "non mi piace quando io devo svegliarsi troppo presto, e otto e troppo presto per mi" so they knew i was tired...so it all worked out. and I knew how to answer everything they asked so it was all good. now i am going to go for a run, and go to lunch with marya and caroline who are here from france and austria, and we are going to drink lots of wine. WOOHOO. then go shopping. wait, that could be dangerous, drunken shopping...

FINISHED!

Em and i just finished our hardest final, art history. it wasn't really that bad! i passed, at least. so we will now go eat massive amounts of gelato and find Caro and Marya who got here this morning. YAY! only two (easy) finals to go--Italian oral and written, and those aren't hard. woohooo home free.

Leaving Italy...

is not what i want to do next week! one week from today i am out of here, to spend a week and a half in Washington and go home the 10th of may (i expect a parade, petersburg). I am excited to see people but I really love Italy and want to stay here longer! I'm coming back with Emily to live here for 6 months, sometime in my life, after college. Plus I told Venise (my cuz) that i'd live in Mexico with her for 4 months so I have that coming too. Nothing against the states, but it's pretty cool over here.

More on the Pope

I hear more and more bad things about this guy...in favor of no condoms, and someone connected him to keeping condoms out of Africa, resulting in 75% of the population there having AIDS. I don't know how much of that is true but this is my Italian gossip. And he was in Hitler Youth in 1940-41, but even so I hear that the Hitler Youth was comparable to Boy and Girl Scouts, in that everyone did it, so maybe that's not so unusual...anyways, just more info for you.

Calcio!

that means soccer in italian. I went to my first game last night! It was really fun but they tied, and they are in the bottom of their division right now so they had to win in order to stay in division A. now they will have to move to division B so florence isn't happy with their team. But it was fun! They really are as crazy as I'd heard, they are obsessed with soccer there. There was quite a bit of profanity being screamed. I'm late for class so i will update more later. Oh, I just saw the David! Amazing. 18 feet tall marble statue.

Pope Problem?

So I have heard all sorts of bad things about the new choice of pope...not that he's a terrible guy but that he is SUPER conservative...my host mom is NOT happy (she's divorced, she obviously doesn't follow hard-core Italian Catholism) and a bunch of teachers here are worried about what this pope could bring. It will be interesting to see, I suppose. Manuela said that women's rights and contraception are in danger...

New Pope!

Well there is a NEW POPE!! White smoke has appeared! How exciting. Our new pope (wait, maybe not OUR, i'm not even catholic...) ok THE new pope is German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. If his last name is any indication, he's a cool guy. In reality i have no idea, but RATZINGER? I kind of wish that was my last name, williams is so plain...

Half Done

In two paragraphs I will be done with half of my finals (the take-home exams half), then i only have an art history exam friday, an italian oral saturday and a written italian exam next wednesday. Half done!! I am SO pumped to be done with school--not ready to leave italy but SO ready to quit going to stupid classes. Going to a school like this--and i can't even say "State school" cause i think syracuse is private (and i might offend a lot of you with my state-school bashing) makes me appreciate whitman WAY more, because it is actually HARD and i do real work there, unlike these joke schools...ok, gonna lose readership if i keep bashing non-private institutions, i'll quit now. But, anyways, I am half done, congratulations to me.

Don't read this if you are a minor

So we got flashed again yesterday, WAY worse than the first time. And in the piazza right in front of school. There was a creepy guy in the bushes and we didn't know why but all of a sudden he whipped it out and started swinging it in circles like a baton. we didn't give him the satisfaction of a reaction so we thought he left, but suddenly he appeared RIGHT behind us and whipped it out again, probably, oh, 12 inches from our faces, and started swinging it around again. GROSS. So sarah started screaming "pervert" really loud and he got scared, cause apparently you can get in a lot of trouble for that in Italy, and he ran away. Had we been thinking fast enough, we would have chucked my apple at his head (either one). Plus, on top of everything, sorry if this is too graphic but i NEED to vent cause i am damaged forever, it was the biggest one I've ever seen. He should be making millions in the porn industry, not flashing poor american girls. what the hell. I am ready to go home now.

Rain

So, it's pouring here. And yesterday we were roasting to death it was so hot. I don't understand this. I just registered for classes but realized that i am still going to need 14 credits second semester of senior year, that's about 4 classes, which is almost a full load which SUCKS cause I know a couple girls who will only have to take ONE class second semester. I want to be a slacker too! Oh well. Maybe I can take a summer class or two so I can take less classes next spring...we'll see. Or maybe I will quit bitching and just take 4 classes like normal college students do.

Smoking

I figured out why it is so hard to run here somedays. I have been running everyday, but some days are considerably easier than others. Apparently Florence has some of the worst pollution in, like, the world, making it hard to breathe (my Italian teacher has to go to the mountains every six months just to clean out his lungs--his doctor said he is "allergic to Florence"). Also, everybody and their dog smokes, so I am constantly running through a haze of cigarette smoke. I definetly agree now with how everyone says that smoking greatly effects your athletic ability. I think, for all practical purposes, I have become a smoker since I've been here, and I have not even touched a cigarette. Sad. But, running should be really easy at home because of this, right?

Italian Women

are the most judgemental people i've ever been around. Granted, I have only been to five countries, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Holland and Italy, well six if you count my three hours in the Paris airport in January. But still, they are all so bitchy. If you wear anything but leather boots you are looked at like you are worse than dog shit, seriously. Today Sarah and I wore flip flops cause it's DAMN hot out, and yesterday, God forbid, I wore tennis shoes. Both days women looked like me like, "oh, that dumn girl, she is going straight to hell for wearing shoes like that." Just an observation I thought I'd share.

sick

i hate being sick, and for some reason in the middle of dinner i started feeling like crap and proceeded to spend the next three hours throwing up. that sucked. for absolutely no reason either. just out of nowhere. my stomach felt like it was going to cramp itself into a tiny little knot and then snap. yep, it sucked. this morning i was fine again. what the hell. well, at least it only lasted last night, i would hate to get sick my last two weeks! WHOA knock on wood after that statement!

Prostitutes

Sarah and i went for a walk last night, which was going to be like 20, maybe 30 minutes, but then we got lost and were gone for an hour and a half. We walked straight to prostitute landm where Manuela (our host mom) specifically told us to avoid at night. oops. those were some short skirts we saw. good times! i can't believe we got lost after 5 months here, how sad.

European Life

I have decided I really enjoy European life. It is much more relaxed (the stress of right now is because of AMERICAN school) and no one is ever in a hurry. I can wear whatever I want. Seriously, things that I would be laughed right out of Petersburg for wearing are probably considered boring here. I am, as a matter of fact, slightly worried about returning to Alaska and trying to wear the clothes I now own...they are nothing to the extend of true Europeans' clothing, but pointy, stiletto boots? skirts all the time? lots of scarves and big earrings? Suede scrunchy boots? Leather jacket? So, Petersburg, will you accept me in these vestiti (that's clothes in Italian). Well, at least I have Beth to dress this way with me.

Good Quote

I just heard some guy say what will now be my motto for the next 2.5 weeks... "Join the club, everyone here has tons of shit to do. BUT we are only in Italy 3 more weeks." This was in an attempt to get someone to go do something tonight. Good motto. I think I shall adopt it.

Posting

I am going to try to post every day until i leave, except saturday cause i have no internet access. I only have two and a half weeks to keep you all entertained with my life in Europe so I cannot slack anymore. It could get boring, however, as I am doing nothing but writing papers at the moment. The weather sucks. And I have Italian class in 15 minutes, for the next two hours. Good times in Italy, let me tell you. However, I will be done with everything except my Italian final a week early so I will have ample free time to have some adventures and tell you about them. More to come, when my life gets exciting again.

Schoolwork

I actually have some. In fact, too much. I have a presentation on gelatto on tuesday, a ten page paper, and three "short answer" questions that have to be 4 pages each (since when that is short, i don't know), and then one more 3 page paper next week. I might not make it through this. On the bright side, the weather sucks extremely badly so I have nothing better to do.

Landlords suck

My landlord is a huge bitch. Hopefully she doesn't read my blog. Actually, maybe I do hope she reads it. This woman just informed us that she will be constructing something like a 6600-square foot 4-plex in our BACKYARD. yes, our BACKYARD, starting 15 feet from our backdoor. And she's making us pay more than last year, for the priviledge of having nasty sweaty construction dudes in our yard at 7 every morning all semester. So, does anyone know of a nice 2-bedroom place for rent, cause Slutty and I are moving in together. She's starting the search alone, and I will be going to help her out in about three weeks. Good times, huh?

The Vatican City

Well, I went there yesterday. It was amazing and overwhelming for sure. Hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. Amy and I decided last minute to ditch school and hop on a train yesterday morning at 6 AM. The train was full and we didn't want to stand for 3 hours so we snuck onto a sleeper car and went to bed and didn't get caught, so that was awesome. Then we waited in line for six hours to see the pope. It was worth it, though, and apparently we had it good, people after us waited for up to 10! He was green, that was strange, since I had never seen a dead body before. I have an awesome/semi-creepy picture for you I will post ASAP. Totally amazing to be IN Italy, IN Rome, and IN the Vatican City for this. I feel so lucky!

Flasher

So I was hard-core flashed the other day. Gross. Extremely gross. Especially because the guy was about 2 feet in front of me. He opened his coat way open and those jeans were definetly not buttoned, and his, uh, wee-wee was out there for all to see. Well, for me to see. Took me by total surprise, so I screamed and ran away. So of course Emily and Sarah were like "What's the matter with you?!" so I told them, and falling prey to the "car crash syndrome" they HAD to look, and they got flashed too. Nasty.

Field Trips

I went on two all-day field trips for art history this weekend, Friday to Siena and San Gimignano and Saturday to Pisa and Lucca. In Siena we saw Saint Catherine of Siena's head--apparently she was buried in Rome, which pissed the Sienese off (it's THEIR patron saint, after all) so they tried to steal her back but all they could get was her head. That was cool, maybe a little gross. Not decayed though--more about that later. In Pisa we of course saw the leaning tower--i'll post a touristy picture of me holding it up later. And in Lucca, the best of the four towns in my opinion, we saw Saint Zita, who had her full body still intact...it was pretty gross but cool at the same time. They are "incorruptables" whose bodies have mysteriously never decomposed. They really are totally still intact, skin and all, just the skin is all shriveled and dried up. Crazy. Just laying there, hanging out, all dead and dried up but besides that, normal looking.

The Pope

Well, the Pope died, after a lot of waiting. Yesterday morning the papers all had headlines saying, "Il papa e morto!" but they jumped the gun cause it didn't happen until 9:37 last (Saturday) night. I never would have thought I would be in Italy during one of the biggest events in a long time...the convention should be starting in the Vatican City soon, to choose the new pope.