The Rat Pack - Fat Tuesday

Tuesdays are my longest days. I have school from 9:30-4:45. Right after English, me, Stef, and Joe went over to San Lorenzo to search the market for masks and a tie for Joe. On our walk over, it started raining and of course we didn't have our umbrellas so we were getting poured on the entire time, but we didn't care we were on a mission. After searching tent after tent, we finally find masks. Stef got one that's red, black and gold with music notes on it and I found one that's pink and silver and has silver petals all formed together on one side of the mask. It was really pretty, but after how the night played out I really wish I didn't waste 12 euro on it.

We practically RAN home, it was already 6:15 at this point and we had to be at the school Carnivale party/dinner at 8. We still had to take our 20 minute walk home and fully get ready, showers and everything. No one was ready on time. We didn't leave our house until after 8 and we still had our 20 minute walk back towards the school. The attire was "cocktail/costumes" Well, we didn't really have either. Me and Charlotte have the same black dress and I also have it in grey. So I let Bolling borrow my black one, Charlotte wore her black dress, I wore the grey one and Stef wore a black dress she brought with her. Then Bolling creatively made us mouse ears out of lined paper, permanent marker, pink marker and headbands. As we were walking out the door, they came up with the brilliant idea to call us the "nutria" - they're the big rats that live along the Arno River. Our entire apartment walked over together, for once, and when we got to the ballroom everyone was all dressed up in their masks and costumes. Sue (our program director) was dressed up with her husband as the Blues Brothers. They looked so cute!

The ballroom that we ate in was absolutely beautiful. There were giant mirrors that lined each wall, elaboratly carved doors, a HUGE gold and crystal chandelier in the very center of the room. Then at the far wall from where you walked in the door was a long table covered in appetizers. Across from that, on the other wall, were bottles and bottles of open wine (rosso e bianco) just waiting for us to pour them! ;) There bar height tables scattered all over the room and on the sides of the walls were padded benches to sit. There were three different "meals" - served like a buffet. First were veggies. Raw veggies with oil, mushroooms on bread, bruschetta, artichokes oil and parmesean. Next - pastas and rice. Penne pasta, some sort of dumpling with ricotta cheese in the center (Kelly called this the "little sack of heaven"), and pumpkin risotto (went back for seconds!). Then dessert - I forget the name of it, but its really famous here to eat during Carnivale. Its a flat cake with tons and tons of powdered sugar on top and they served it with a dollop of homemade whipped cream on the side. SOOO good.

After we ate there was a costume contest. Most creative, most artistic, and crowd appeal. The four of us were up first - The Rat Pack (nutria). We introduced ourselves, what we were dressed up as, and made our "rat" faces for pictures. There were about 6 groups of people that participated. The four of us weren't even planning on entering, but Sue kind of forced us out onto the floor! Haha!

The night started winding down, but we weren't ready to go home yet. Me, Stef, Bolling, Charlotte, Brandon, and Ryan went over to Lion's Fountain. Then Sara, Joe, and Julian met us a little later. We luckily grabbed the ONLY table in there before the place started getting jammed packed with people. They had turned off the music and there was a guy in the corner just singing on a mic to music on his computer. Not a fan, but whatever we were still having fun. I met an Italian boy named Enrico. Super nice! His friends butt was in Bolling's face when she was sitting down and they didn't really notice until they started taking off their jackets. I leaned over and said "molto caldo!" Omg, get a couple beers in me and I'll just start speaking straight up italiano. It was so much fun. He spoke english, which was good. He said "you help me with english, and I help you with italiano." He thought my italian was so good. I was literally throwing every word, phrase, sentence I've learned in these six weeks so far. He was telling me how a lot of the Americans that come here don't speak Italian, they don't even try. So he was very impressed!

We were all getting tired, so I told him "ho stanca" and said "ciao!" We walked over to Eby's for the traditional Nutella crepe (I didn't get one - I was waiting for birthday cake that was at home) and walked back to the flat.

My entire room slept in today! Me and Bolling had class this morning at 9:30 and Stef had it at 11:00. We all didn't wake up until 11. Not okay. Today's the first day of Lent and almost everyone is giving up something. I have given this a lot of thought and I've decided I'm going to give up BREAD. Yes, I know, I'm in Italy and all they eat is pasta pasta pasta! But, I just can't do it anymore. This is going to give me a reason to really watch what I eat. Today was day 1 and I've done okay so far...its going to be extremely difficult, but this will also be a chance for me to work on my self control, because I have had NONE since I've been here. Wish me luck!

Twi-hards Beware...

New Moon was not filmed in Volterra. Friday we took a trip to Volterra and San Gimignano. It was about an hour bus ride north, past Siena. I listened to my Twilight Soundtrack the ENTIRE time. I was so excited to be going to where New Moon was filmed (so I thought..) It turned out that the city of Volterra was going to charge way too much for them to film there so they ended up going to Montepulciano - so when my dad and sister come I'm going to take them there to see the Piazza where Bella saves Edward from going out into the sun. Omg, I can't wait. The bus ride was absolutely breathtaking. The hills and trees were covered in snow. It was the curviest busride ever, and we were going straight up the entire time. We pulled up to the little town and it was COVERED in ice and snow. First thing we did was get a caffe latte and then we were off on our little tour. We went to a couple museums (they had Twilight books EVERYWHERE) and then had to get back on the bus to go to our group lunch. It was really windy, and really cold. We didn't really see too much of Volterra that day.

Lunch was probably the BEST meal I have had in Italy since I've been here. We had lasagna for our first course and it was soooooo good I didn't want it to end. I ate it so slowly! lol It wasn't made with red sauce, it was like a creamy brown sauce and had meat in it. And it wasn't made with the traditional ricotta cheese. I don't know what it was, but whatever the combination it was so delicious. Then we had some mixture of artichoke, chicken, and mushrooms in a brown gravy sauce (not too good) with seasoned potatoes and peas (DELISH), then for dessert ice cream with blackberries on top. After lunch was over, we went to San Gimignano - it took about 45 minutes to get there. No more snow, but extremely windy and cold. We were able to go off on our own and explore the city ourselves this time. We always have so much fun when they give us the chance to do this. We had the option of going to a torture museum (I wanted to go, but no one else did) so we opted to look at the scenery instead. Not too shabby of an idea. We got some really cute pictures. San Gimignano is famous for the white wine they make - it's very similar to Reisling. We went to a little bar and had a bottle, and a couple people got some hot chocolate.

We got back to Florence around 6:30 and went straight home. We made dinner at home that night and me and Carlotta did some P90X yoga. It had been a while since I've done it and I was really surprised how well Charlotte did! We only did the vinyasas and stopped at the balancing part. Finished the day all zenned out. Good night.

Venice - Carnivale

Saturday Feb. 6 - I woke up at 6 a.m. to shower and get ready. I was running around like a maniac because I thought I gave myself enough time to get ready, and I didn't. It was 7 and I still had to pack for Rome, do my hair, pick out something to wear for that day, fix my water bottle for the bus ride, and leave by 8. We made it to the train station in time. We checked in and loaded onto the bus. It was me, Charlotte, Bolling, Stef, Kelly and Ross. Peyton didn't come because she wasn't feeling well. =( It was about a 3 hour bus ride so we got to Venice around 12:30. We started drinking our homemade mixed drinks about 30 minutes outside of Venice. Mine was disgusting but bearable (peach tea and vodka). There was a HUGE line for the boat that takes people over to San Marco. A man came over to the 6 of us just as we walked up and asked if we wanted to ride in his water taxi for 50 euro. So we did! It was such a tiny boat. We sat inside and looked through the foggy windows on both sides and looked at the gorgeous views of Venice. We couldn't believe we were finally there.

Carnivale is like Italy's Halloween/Mardi Gras. There were so many people dressed up in costumes and their faces covered with elaborately decorated masks. I took a lot of pictures, but the color is really bad because the sun was setting. There was a children's area, set up much like a circus. There was a skit going on with carnival music playing on an elevated stage and there were girls making cotton candy all around. Me and Kelly shared some, it's not colored like it is in the states. It was just plain white, and so delicious! We walked around a bit, the roads and alleys are extremely tiny. We were walking around window shopping and trying to find somewhere to eat. We walked into a pizza place and it smelled like straight up B.O. I was literally gagging. There was NO WAY I was eating in there, I had lost my appetite just as I entered the door. We left, obviously, and found another little pizza place to eat at. It was really good! Me and Charlotte split a Margherita pizza and we all drank Pinot Grigio. The service was AWFUL. Our waitress was fighting with the owner of the restaurant right in front of our table. We were being rushed the entire time, and then we were basically thrown the bill and told to get the F out.

On our way back to the piazza, me and Kelly stopped into a store FILLED with blown glass. We were on a mission to find glass rings and wine stoppers. My fingers are way too small for these pre-made rings, so I didn't get one. Kelly basically bought out that store! When we were in there, the old men that worked there were joking around with us. One of them was asking me if I knew what was really in my water bottle because he said that he saw a man outside the store peeing in one. My peach tea and vodka looked exactly like urine! Then they proceeded to bring out a HUGE glass penis filled with gold flakes. They told us that it was "true Italian size" It was VERY inappropriate, but really really funny.

I found an awesome wine stopper in the piazza, not for me...it's a present =) Everyone was really drunk by this point - except me and Bolling. NOT okay. I had to throw out my bottle of tea and vodka, it was disgusting and was so sweet I had a headache. I stopped at a bar and bought a 3 euro bottle of bianco wine and started sipping on that a bit (it was disgusting too). We split up for dinner. I met up with a friend I met when we all went to Interlaken and we ate at a cute little restaurant right on the river. I had my first glass of prosecco then.

We kind of just walked around the rest of the night. We didn't have any luck finding the crazy parties, but at the end of the night we found a hole in the wall bar that was really chill. We found it because we literally were walking in circles. Word to the wise: don't follow any of the street signs in Venice, the arrows point to each other. Me, Kelly, Bolling, and Ross took a B-52 shot before we all left. It's basically 4 kinds of alcohol all layered on top of each other then the bartender lights it on fire and you suck it really fast through a straw. It was crazy! I was so scared I was going to suck up the fire and burn my throat! We had to go back to the buses around 1 a.m. We parted ways and I was off to ROMA that night!

"Where are you from?"

"America." "Do you ride busses for free in America?" "Uhhh..yes."

Friday we finally made it to IKEA, after a bus ride from hell. We've been told since we've gotten here that there's a free bus that will take you to Ikea. We thought we got on it. Apparently not. We were running around the train station going back and forth from each side trying to find the bus. We randomly walk outside of the station, down on the street and catch a random bus where people were coming off with Ikea bags. The bus stops and people get on. A man comes up to the four of us (because we're Americans) and pulls out a badge and asks us for tickets. I guess these guys hop on buses randomly and check if people have tickets. Of course, when we don't have them, this would happen to us. We were so confused, we were handing him ID's, student ID's, everything. We told him that our teachers said that it was a free bus and he responded "Well, where's your teacher?" He was such an asshole. He fined us 45 euro each, and when we said that we didn't' have it, we ended up having to still pay 94 euro (when tickets are originally 2 euro). So the start to our awesome Ikea day was NOT good.

We FINALLY get to Ikea and the first thing we do is eat. We all got the meatballs with gravy and cranberry jelly and some fries. After getting fuel to go shop, we grabbed our bright yellow bags and roamed the store. I'm obsessed with Ikea! That was my second time going there and I really had to hold back on grabbing everything! Our original purpose for going was to get mattress pads, but all they sold were thin little "sheets" basically that weren't worth it. So we spent money on new pillows instead. I got one that's kind of like a Tempurpedic. And we got matching pillow cases (deep purple). We left with candles, pillows, matching pillow cases, and hangers. All in all, a successful trip.

Okay, now for the trip home. We stood in the rain for 15 minutes waiting for the bus to come pick us up from Ikea. It was about a 30 minute bus ride home. We didn't really know where to get off so Bolling just picked a spot. Unfortunately, when we got off we didn't know where we were at all. We were just walking in a direction we thought was right, until we found some street signs (which were nowhere to be found!) We stood underneath an awning to figure out exactly where we were located, all while this whole time is pouring down rain. We're speed walking with our paper Ikea bags trying to find the bus station. We were probably about 10-15 blocks away from where we needed to go. As soon as we got to the station we hopped right into a taxi and went home. We were SOAKED.

When we got home we changed into dry, warm clothes then went to the supermarket down the street. We picked up things for dinner and some vodka and mixers for our trip to Venice then went to bed early because we were leaving the next day at 9 in the morning.

Toot Sweets! Toot Sweets...

The candies you whistle, the whistles you eat. Toot Sweets! Toot Sweets! The eatable, tweetable treats! Just a little "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for ya...

The past two days I've been living off of candy and pastries. It's so bad...I'm going for a long run tomorrow, I'm in desperate need of one. I've finally kicked the cold I had since last weekend I was in Rome, so I'm going to get back on my exercise regimen. For the journalism class I'm in, our assignment is to do an investigative essay and I chose to do "The Benefits of Yoga" and I'm going to research the three most popular types of yoga and one of my forms of gathering info is to try each one for about a week. I need to get started on that. I'll probably start tomorrow night.

I've been up since 6 a.m. We had to go to the immigration offices today to get our fingerprints taken. We met at 7:45 at a closed McDonald's (because they don't serve breakfast in Italy - which is awful because McDonald's breakfast is the best!) We waited in the office today for almost 5 hours! It was terrible. I completely missed my first class, Modern Italy. We ate lunch at La Loggia and then went to Italian. Everyone was so out of it because we had gotten up so early.

After Italian we came home and I had to change. It had been raining all day and my Joes Jeans got completely soaked and I was wearing my converse and they were wet. So I was wet, cold, and miserable. I got straight into sweats and me, Charlotte, and Bolling watched the first episode of LOST. Stef was sleeping because she didn't feel well. The episode was soooooo good! (I can't believe I saw it, and my dad and sister haven't even watched it yet.) Then I took about a 45 min nap and we had to leave at 6:10 to go to Mask Making with Costanza (our Italian teacher). I really wasn't in the mood to go, and Stef made me. She said if I didn't go I'd really regret it because I would be the only one without a mask. She would've been so right. I'm obsessed with the mask I made! I'm not finished with it, I have to finish it tomorrow. I did a lot of tedious work tonight, I have a couple more things to glue then I'll make sure and post a pic when I bring it home. Love love love! I made it so it would match my room at school. It's pink and gold. I'm going to bring it with me to Venice this weekend for Carnivale. (It's like the italian version of Mardi Gras). I'm going to Rome on Sunday then taking a train back to Florence on Monday morning. This weekend should be fun.

I have to put away laundry now, then me, Stef and Charlotte are going to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (I rented it on iTunes!) Ha domani!

LUSHHHHH

I FINALLY went to the supermercado today and bought myself some food! I was running on fumes this last week. I made the most delicious sandwich - wheat bread, salami, smoked turkey, swiss cheese, mayo and dijon mustard (the best I've ever had!)
Ran to the study center for a mask making class for Carnivale. Constanza gave us an intro today on the history of Carnivale. It was very interesting. We're making our masks on Wednesday.
Popped into La Loggia for a macchiato and my usual fruit tarte.
Went to Italian and played a memory game of the countries and learned how to say them all in italiano.
Me and Carlotta went to LUSH - the best store ever and visited our inglese friend that works there. She's so cute! I got the most delicious smelling lotion and lip balm everrrr. Vanilla, coco, chocolate, and kiwi lotion and white chocolate and vanilla lip balm called: gustami (kiss me). OBSESSED!
We're making a trip on a free bus to IKEA tonight to get mattress pads for our hard ass beds. I have bruises from sleeping on them. They're awful. Hopefully I'll be sleeping on a cloud tonight and not effing concrete. I'll let you know how I make out... Until next time, CIAO.

Update: We didn't make it to IKEA last night, unfortunately. Somehow our communication got mixed up and me and Charlotte ended up at our apartment and Stef and Bolling were at the train station. They missed the IKEA bus and we all met up and went to the supermarket to get things for dinner. Made a delicious salad and disgusting pizza, ate a few Toblerone dark chocolate pieces, skyped, and tried to go to bed at a decent hour. Unfortunately, the city of Florence decided to clean the streets at 1:00 a.m. so I couldn't fall asleep. So not only could I not sleep because of the noise, but I was still sleeping on my concrete bed. Not cool...