Sunday, March 27, 2011

adventures in backpacking!

So, I want to preface this blog by saying I will never, EVER, backpack, ANYWHERE again. Don't get me wrong, I had a hilarious spring break but I have never felt so gross and disgusting than I did all last week. It's not like we couldn't find showers or anything, but living out of a backpack reallly took it's toll on me. Backpacking through France and Ireland also solidified my absolute and complete appreciation for AMERICA. I LOVE BEING AMERICAN! When I decided to come abroad, I was convinced I'd be one of those people who fell in love with Europe and never wanted to leave, but slowly more and more every day I miss America. Of course I miss my family and friends, but I honestly miss America culture. At first I thought that Italy was just completely different than the US, the people walk extremely slow, stores are open at sporadic times, shop owners aren't always the friendliest. But venturing to two other countries this past break made me realize that most of Europe is that way. Granted the Irish are so friendly, but the Irish youth are freaking psycho! Meg said that they have this weird obsession with breaking glass, like bottles and light bulbs...? Also the style here (and there) gets me. No one ever seems to wash their hair or apply makeup normally. I never thought I was an overly-hygenic person or a crazy neat freak until I came abroad and ALWAYS feel dirty. I find myself craving my shower at home or in Providence with real shampoo and conditioner that makes my hair smooth. Oh well. Don't take this the wrong way, my spring break made me realize that I made the best choice of cities to study abroad in. Florence is beautiful and I think I feel the most at home here than any of the places I've traveled to!


ANYWAY- spring break was, all in all, hilarious. Here's an outline of my trip. I went to Paris with Meg and Nathalie and we met up with Rachel from Friday to very, veryyy early Monday morning. Then on Monday (my birthday!) we flew to Dublin and spent the day there. Then we took a bus to Galway and stayed with my fave twiinnny, Meg O'Neill! On Friday we bussed back to Dublin and flew home Saturday morning. Like I mentioned we live 100% out of our backpacks since we flew Ryanair, the extremely cheap European airline that makes you pay extra for any type of amenity such as 30 euro for checking on bag. We also bounced from hostel to hostel, some definitely better and cleaner than others. 


Our first half-day and night and Paris were, for lack of a better word, AWFUL. When we got off the plane, we had to take an hour and a half long bus into the city center (Ryanair is so cheap because it flies into obscure airports, so we flew from Pisa to Paris-Beauvais for like 10 euro- about 15 dollars). When we got off the bus it was downpouring and we had no idea where in Paris we were. We found a grocery store and got these disgusting premade sandwiches, which tasted gourmet since we were so ravenous, and wandered in the rain until we found a Metro station. Then we took a hour metro ride to Chelles-Gournay, only to wander around in the rain for another TWO HOURS looking for our hostel because apparently no one in the WHOLE town, even with my seemingly fluent French (compared to my terribly broken Italian), knew where our street was. When we finally arrived, after just manning-up and taking a sketchy taxi, I think the only taxi in the whole town, we were soaking wet and our backs felt like they were about to break in half. Most of my clothes were damp since the rain seeped into my backpack and I was completely miserable. None of us could fall asleep and in the morning all we wanted to do was get the HELL out of there. That's when our luck started to turn around. Instead of charging us a cancellation fee for checking out two days early, the receptionist gave us directions back to the metro and only charged us for one night. THEN, Rach had met this America student studying in Florence on the train over who was staying in this hole-in-the-wall hostel in the center of Paris. We had really no trouble finding the hostel and there were enough openings that we could stay, for only 18 euro a night!


Now, when I say hole in the wall- I mean complete hole-in-the-wall hostel. The outside door was so run down that it looked like a hostel was there twenty years ago, but not now. Once inside we had to climb three flights of stairs and enter into an apartment-like door which opened up into an Alice in Wonderland looking hostel. The walls were plastered with bright colors and life-size movie posters- it was hilarious.
Nat, myself and Rachel posing outside our hostel.

Me on my bed, next to the Over the Hedge posters...
So after we unloaded all our backpacks, we walked around Paris. It was overcast, but we went to the Eiffel Tour and saw the Seine. It was nice but I was happy I had already been there, cause I was way to exhausted to appreciate anything. I was so excited to because our hostel was located only a few blocks from the bar that Laurent had told me to meet him at if I was in Paris. So after, we napped and got changed into normal clothes, we wandered over to O'Malley's Pub to find Laurent. He had told me he had a huge rugby tournament that day and would be celebrating afterwards with his teammates at this pub. And we found him!! It was so fun! Their team had won and all his teammates were taking over the bar, they were all hilarious and I loved seeing Laurent!
After our night out in Paris, we woke up early and went to the Louvre and ate at a classic French cafe! Then Nat, Meg and I took the bus back to Paris-Beauvais and stayed in a hotel near the airport since our flight was so early in the morning.

On the morning of my 21st birthday, we landed in Dublin. After we found our hostel, Citi Backpackers's, which was wayyy nicer than our other hostels, we found a Irish pub to eat at and get my first drink as a 21 year old! We got beef burgers and I got a Bulmer's (my favorite Irish) drink and we chowed down. After our huge meal, we took a four hour nap (haha) which felt so good and woke up just in time to go out an get a drink for my birthday! We walked down to Temple Bar and found this great pub with live music called the Old Storehouse. I got another Bulmer's and when the performer asked for requests, Meg and Nat started screaming "PLAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY," which of course caught the attention of all the Irish guys next to us and the singer sang me Happy Birthday. I was wicked embarassed but one of the Irish guys then proceeded to buy us Tequila shots and when I later went to buy a Guinness, the bartender asked me if I was the Birthday Girl and gave it to me on the house! I love Ireland!
The next morning we woke up early and took a bus to Galway to see Meg! It was so great to see her (even though she had class and we were exhausted). We stayed in the first night just catching up. The next morning when she went to class, we walked around Galway just appreciating the beautiful weather and scenery! We ended up walking down Salthill and just basking in the sun for a few hours. It was nice to finally relax and not have to rush to catch a train or have our thousand pound backpacks weighing us down. That night Meg took us out in Galway! It was a blast and I missed going out with her so much! We met up with some of her friends there but mostly just danced with each other all night, some much needed twin time!
Just loving my twinnie in Galway!
The next morning O'Neill had more classes :( but Meg and Nat and I woke early and hopped on the Aran Islands tour. The weather was beyond beautiful, even at 8 in the morning and we took the scenic bus and the ferry over to the islands. We decided to rent bikes and just soak up the sun. It was so nice out that I got sunburnt and the islands were stunning. When I think of Ireland in my head, I picture the Aran Islands. Not a lot of houses but just vast green pastures with horses, cows and sheep, surrounded by stone walls, all enclosed with Caribbean-clear blue water. We literally spent the entire day biking around taking pictures, it was the most relaxing and cleansing day. City living is another thing that's taken its toll on me. I miss fresh air and the ocean breeze! I'm sick of breathing in fumes and dust. The Islands were just what we needed!
Biker chick!

Nathalie and I with the cows, mooo.



I want this as my new vacation home!

Perfection!
The next day we bussed back to Dublin, relaxed that night and flew back to Florence in the morning. I immediately showered and threw all my clothes in the wash. I threw out all the socks I wore and was really tempted to throw out my boots and some shirts, but I decided a good thorough washing was good enough! I'm happy to be back and Florence and I actually felt at home in my apartment last night. After this trip I've decided I definitely made the right decision coming here and even though I miss America a lot, I'm definitely going to miss Florence when I'm home.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

La Settimana di Esami!

Ciaoo! Today is a great day, I have finally completed all my exams, it's St. Patty's Day and 150th anniversary celebration of the Unification of Italy. Parties all around! Haha. Yesterday I finally completed my exams, which I surprisingly stressed a lot about. It's common knowledge that the classes abroad are easier than our home institutions- so coming here I knew I wouldn't have to put much effort to do well. When we got here we found out that not only do Providence and Fairfield's classes transfer for direct credit but our grades are factored into our GPAs. So, my roomies (who I still love a lot! Hey Steph and Shira!) get to take lots of fun classes like Food and Wine Appreciation and Italian Fashion, and then can essentially  get any grade above a 70 to be able to pass. Providence didn't allow this for us. We had to take pre-approved classes (that's why I'm taking Chemistry and Ethics, eck) and if I get a 70 as my final grade, I have a 70 into my Providence GPA- which I've worked so hard to keep high and clean. So of course, as midterms are coming up and my roomies are galavanting around the city, all us Providence students actually had to study... a LOT. 


Let me tell you that I absolutely hated scheduled exam weeks more than anything. Normally, the only scheduled exams we have are Finals Week, and midterms are spread out according to the teacher, so they usually never fall in the same week. So, this adds to the stress of everything. Not to mention that midterms are going to be my first graded assignments, cause I don't really have tangible homework here AND I have no idea how my teachers will format or grade their exams. So needless to say, I had to paint another coat on my nails to keep me from knawing them off, I was stressed.


On Monday, I had two midterms: Chemistry and Intermediate Italian. I studied a lot for Chem which was a little disappointing since it turned out to be really easy (or maybe all my studying paid off). Italian was pretty simple too, especially considering that I didn't really study much for it at all. So all in all, Monday's tests were successful and got me feeling confident. Tuesday wasn't too bad either. I only had one exam, History of Photography. My teacher had previously given us a list of 30 photographs and told us for the exam she would randomly choose 10 of those and ask us to list the artist, title, date and type of photograph (heliograph, gelatin silver print, albumen print, etc). So all I did was made flashcards and studying for that was a sinch. I was still feeling pretty good, so good in fact that I decided to go for a longg run on Tuesday afternoon to clear my head before I started to study for Wednesday's exams. It was sunny and beautiful and I ran in only a tee shirt- no jacket! I was definitely feeling good. Then I sat down to start work on my two next, and last, exams- Ethics and Gender Relations in Italian Society. I wasn't too worried about Gender since I've studied so much about American Gender Relations, but Ethics was starting to worry me. I had already typed up all the notes from class as my study guide but thought it would be a good idea to go through his powerpoint presentations. I logged on to the email he gave us for class and almost passed out when I read the latest posting. At 5 PM the night before the exam, I see "Possible Essay Questions for the Midterm," I read on further and the email said he was going to randomly choose 4 of these essays for us to write about, and this would account for 60% of the exam grade. I almost vomited. I like to be extremely prepared for exams so the fact that I was just seeing this email the night before, when I had another exam to study for, freaked me out. Luckily I had some good ideas for some of the questions and my friend Meg came over and we collaborated on ideas for the other ones. Throughout the rest of the night I was continually writing the essays in my head to keep my ideas fresh, and I barely got to study for Gender.


The next day, I woke up early (930 AM!) and studied a little more before my exam at noon. We got to class and you could tell we were all nervous. Some girls hadn't even seen the possible essay questions and a lot of people were asking eachother for ideas. He passed out the exam and drew cards to determine which questions each row would be assigned. I ended up getting two that I liked and two that I HATED. He then tells us that the essay portion is worth 60%, so if you choose to only write one essay elaborately, he will grade that from the 60%, but you could also write two essays- each from 30%, or three, or four respectively. I choose to write three of them and was overall pretty satisfied with my answers. After that I went straight to my next exam, Gender, for which I hadn't really studied for. We were all a little shocked when she passed out the exam- 6 short answer questions regarding oddly specific points she made in class. THANK GOD I've taken gender classes before, because I referenced all my previous knowledge to answer about half of the questions. The other questions were taken from the Italian history readings which I luckily did, so all in all I think I did pretty well. I was pleased!


Now, I'm finally on spring break! Nathalie and I went out last night to celebrate our completion of exams. The streets were wild with people celebrating the 150th Anniversary. At every Piazza there were concerts, events and fireworks! It was awesome, there were parades right outside my window. 


Tomorrow, I depart for spring break. I'm flying from Pisa to Paris. Staying in Paris for the weekend and then flying to Dublin for my 21st birthday! The morning of the 22nd, Meg, Nathalie and I are taking a bus to Galway to stay with Meg O'Neill! We will be flying home on Saturday and I'll update you all then!


Wish me luck, 
Love all of you!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Un Bello Pomeriggio di Firenze

I'm really getting used these four day weekends. Last night, I went out with a small crew but I had a good night, nothing too wild. So I slept in a little, but planned on meeting Nathalie and Meg for sandwiches at Oil Shoppe at noon. So I woke up reluctantly at 11:15, but despite my lazy anger at the time in hindsight I'm so happy I did!
We went to Oil Shoppe and I got the number 19, something salami-ish, spicy and wonderful. It was so hot that my nose started running uncontrollably. It was GREAT. Definitely woke me up and got me ready for the day, haha. Afterwards, we walked around and I bought a new pair of flats since the ones I bought last week gave me wicked blisters on my toes. Since it was so nice out, Nathalie told us about this secret "grassy knoll" she found on the hill near her apt where we could go and sunbath. So I ran back to my apt, changed into some gool ole American sneakers and a white tee. We crossed the river and hiked up the BIGGEST hill ever, but once we reached the grassy knoll, all was worth it. I think we laid out in the sun for over three hours, just chatting and soaking up the rays. 
Once the breeze started to pick up, I went back down and treated myself to the best gelato ever. Gelato di Filo is across the river, right at the base of Piazza Michelangelo. I got myself a cone of dark chocolate and strattichella (sp?) cream and literally devoured it before I got to the river. It was such a perfect, Florentine afternoon!


After I got home, we had to talk with our landlord because our oven is broken (joy!), but luckily he said it's "his problem" aka we don't have to pay for anything! And the electrician will be coming on Thursday to fix it. Annoying, but hey at least I don't have to pay.


My roommate Steph also just invited me to go to London with her for the last weekend in March. Her old babysitter/family friend moved there two years ago and offered us a living room to crash in for the weekend, so we found some reasonably priced tickets and booked our trip! I'm so excited because I love hanging out with Steph and I really wanted to make it to London at some point, but the hotels and hostels are INSANELY expensive there. Now we don't have to worry about that!


I decided to stay in tonight to get work done, but instead I revised my resume and cover letter and applied for a few internships. I also made myself dinner and just kinda bummed around. I went out wayyy too much last week and it made me tired the rest of the weekend so I don't want to repeat that the weekend before midterms! Tomorrow Nathalie's friend is coming from home, so we're all going to Gatto e Volpe for dinner and then showing her the bars around town, so I need to be all ready for that too! Hopefully tomorrow won't be such a beautiful day out so I'll feel more motivated to do work.. but probably not. As of now the forecast is 60 degrees and sunny so, hellllllo grassy knoll round two :)

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Bello Tempo!

It's 65 degrees and sunny in Florence today! I went out with my light jacket on and was actually warm! You can tell the tourism is starting to pick up because I couldn't walk 5 feet without tripping on an Asian tour group, or Americans with fanny packs holding a map arms length away, shouting "Where is the DoOmo?" (Mom, kinda reminds me of the lady in Paris- "Is this the SEEEEne river?"


Anyway, it's really awesome to see the city come alive on such a nice day! I went out to try and find ballet flats to wear. The weather is getting too nice to keep wearing boots but it's not nice enough for sandals yet, so I went scouting for a cheap pair. I had a whooping 27 euro left in my weekly budget, but I wanted to save a little so one day I could buy an infamous Florentine leather jacket. I found this great little shop about three blocks from the Duomo that had a hugeee selection. Of course, the first two pairs I fell in love with, didn't have my size (apparently having small feet here is a curse instead of a blessing, like at TJMaxx). So i settled on my third choice, still cute.. not AS comfortable, but only 8 euro! Then I just wandered for about an hour, enjoying the sun and navigating my way around the tourists. I went all the way down to the Piazza Signoria and down to the river and I considered wandering up by Santa Croce, but I was getting hungry. I had an intense craving for my favorite sandwich at my favorite sandwich shop, the Oil Shoppe.. I don't remember the sandwich's name but it's wicked spicy and delicious. Everyone who spent time with me this summer knows that I'm mildly addicted to spicy foods (my Thai curry obsession.. yep, three times a week every week this summer). So once I got it in my head I couldn't get it out. So I walked allll the way to Oil Shoppe only to find that they were CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. I was so upset. Once again, I settled for my second choice and got a kebab. I told the guy I wanted it extra spicy and he like laughed at me? But I was serious. So he like put all these peppery things on it and don't get me wrong, the kebab was AMAZING but definitely not spicy enough. I ate the whole thing eagerly anticipating that one bite when your face gets bright red, your eyes tear and you feel your nose about to drip--- and it never came. Oh well, it was so delicious and I think the guy thought a small American girl couldn't handle "real" spice.. whatta jerk :(


So, now I'm back at the apt, waiting for the laundry to finish so I can shower. I'm probably gonna watch more Weeds, since I just found season 6 online and it's wayyy better than season 5. Maybe I'll do some homework. Tomorrow morning our landlord and his wife are coming over to wash our sheets and clean our apartment (sweet, right?!) so I have to be out of here by 9 am. I think I'm gonna go on a run, since I can feel my body widening, and go grocery shopping, maybe reward myself with some gelato, the possibilities are endless! Okay, miss you all a lot!! Send me some emails/go on skype, talk to me!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Update :)

Ciao tutti!
So unfortunately nothing too exciting has been happening this week :( I had a full week of classes and surprisingly got a lot of homework done for the next upcoming weeks! I'm proud to say that I made myself dinner EVERY night (except last night) and it was delicious.. I'm even starting to get creative and hopefully I'll pick up some new recipes! Last night I went out to my first "apertivo" with some of the Providence girls. The best way I can describe apertivo is like Dempsey's Happy Hour (Dad, you'll understand!). You go to the restaurant and order a drink, I'm not sure if you can get away with water or soda but I ordered white wine. Then you can eat off of their appetizer selection for free. It was about 7 euro, so you get a drink of your choosing and then all the appetizers you want! It was a pretty good deal and they had sweet potato fries- which I'm obsessed with, so I was happy :)


This was also the week of my newly, self-allocated budget. I'm currently allowing myself to spend UP TO 100 euro a week (on everything, including groceries and necessities) to ensure that I'm not completely broke when I get home in May. Also, to stop my incessant shopping in Italy, hah. So far, it's been going well, I haven't really spent that much on superfluous things and since I've been cooking for myself I saved a lot on meals! Hopefully, I can keep this up!


Hmm, what else? Two of my roommates are away for the weekend and Steph has her parents here so I've been riding solo a lot in the apartment. It's actually been kinda nice tho. I'm doing laundry and cleaning up, doing homework. I needed this time to unwind, relax and get organized. I might even go for a run if I feel energized (probably not). I think I'm going to stay in tonight. I went out the past three nights and I'm pretty tired from it, but who knows- I may end up meeting with Nat and Meg later on.


Hmm.. nothing else really to report. I can't believe I'm almost half way through the semester! I've been here for 40 days already and the week after next is MIDTERMS! I'm in shock, I feel like I just started classes! 


Well talk to you allll soon. GO ON SKYPE!