Some news and a little story

A lot has been going on. Most important thing that has happened, if you don't already know:
I MADE IT INTO THE ACCADEMIA!!!!
I'm excited, humbled, greatful, anxious.. just very happy to know that I'm going to have a year of learning from an institution of great tradition. Actually, everyone from Cal State who went through exams made it into the Accademia, which was a first since the Cal State Florence program was founded. We did a lot of celebrating. :)

In other exciting news, I have regained access to my Flickr account (after much sweat, blood and tears.. and a simple email to Flickr Support...) Also, by the kindness of my friend, Nick G, I was gifted a Flickr Pro account, which really just means more pictures for all of you. Thanks, Nick. It was a thoughtful thing to do..

I'm currently working on a huge batch of pictures to upload for all of you (I've had a few requests for more..) but I have little free time to work on it. The next three weeks are going to be busy, as I am planning a lot of activities between now and then, "then" being when the semester offically starts. This week, I have a small cooking class Wednesday, maybe going to a fair in the suburb of Florence on Thursday, the opera "Barber of Seville" on Friday, and I just started planning a trip today for the world-famous chocolate festival in Perugia on Saturday. (phew!) Next week, CSU has finals, I have a very small paper due, and then Friday, after my written final in the morning, I hop a train to Milan with my two roommates, Sincere and Courtney. We will stay there through the weekend and on Monday, we are taking a plane to London to stay there 5 nights before returning through Milan that Saturday. Like I said... it is going to be a busy 3 weeks. I'll try to get pictures up before stuff really starts happening, because after this month, I'm going to have even *more* pictures to post. haha... life just doesn't stop around here.

Okay, I need to go, but those pictures are coming soon. To close up this post, I'll leave you with a little story about my Saturday adventure. Enjoy!

"The Debacle"

This weekend I had quite an adventure with a group of my friends here. We thought we would be so American and go out for some good, old fashioned outlet shopping in a town near by to Florence. Little did we realize that we would be unable to purchase anything, since this outlet is full of Puma, Prada, Gucci and other designer labels. So we found ourselves content with looking (not touching!) at all the pretty things and drinking cappucino during the incredibly rainy weather.

Toward the end of the day, as we walked through the down-pour to the bus stop, on the side of a road with no sidewalk, up-hill, as cars are whizzing by, we begin to long for the bus. It was fun day, but really, we are ready for it to be over. We get to the bus stop, read the sign, and realize that earlier we misunderstood the bus schedule. There was no bus coming just then at 645. Instead, it was coming at 920 that evening. To add to the problem, there was a major accident on the autostrada and traffic was completely stopped. So now, there was a possibility the bus might not even come.

Sincere, Courtney, Malen, Becca, Damien, me, and Terri on the side of the road... not really sure what is going to happen next...

So, to make the best of a bad situation, we decide to stick it out and have dinner to pass the time. We ate a lot, and continued to order small courses to keep the table as long as possible. With our bellies full, we walk back to the bus stop and maintain our post at 845 (just incase the bus is early). The air is now decidedly colder, our feet are still wet and there is little-to-no light on this dreary road side. So we wait. And wait. And wait... and receed into the depths of tired delirium to which we had already entered during dinner. Things become very funny that really aren't and we slowly lost all hope of a returning bus...

If we worked this out, so far, mathmatically
(don't check my figures, I'm an art student for a reason...),
then we would get:
(7 tired International Students x 1 long rainy day (12 hours)
+ 14 cold, wet feet)
divided by 7 good senses of humor - 1 SETA bus =
the following video, documenting our complete pandemonium

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Now before you start to worry for our sanity, know that the bus finally did come... but not until almost 10pm, after we were completely hysterical with laughter and so tired, nothing was really even funny anymore. And so we get on the bus, happy to be warm and going home.

Until.......

The bus didn't take the autostrada back. The traffic was too bad, and the driver had to make up for lost time. So instead, this behemoth decided to take the tiny, windy, down-hill, mountain roads at a speeds which were not safe for any vehicle. Shaking, rolling, tipping the whole way down, all of us quickly became ill. Now this wasn't your run-of-the-mill-I-might-be-a-little-uneasy car sickness. This was pale-green-woozy-gross-I-can't-believe-I-just-paid-for-a-nice-dinner nasty inside sickness. Trying so hard to calm our breathing and just fall asleep to get through it, we fought to the bitter end. However, one of us did not succeed, and as Courtney took clothes out of a Puma bag as fast as she could, everyone else readied themselves with ears, eyes, and noses covered. Shortly thereafter, the bus pulled over and Courtney disposed of the now-very-toxic Puma bag in a trash can. Once the bus finally reached its destination, we exited, and sat on the first pavement we could find, happy to be on the solid ground again. The walk home was slow and labored, and we don't really remember even getting home.

Although taken in jest,
this picture was taken when it was
"too soon to be funny yet"

Sure we had a great time shopping, but that's not the part we are going to remember.
And I can guarantee its going to be a while before any of us get on another SETA bus.

Pisa

I completely forgot my password to Flickr and can not retrieve it in anyway. Believe me, I spent all weekend trying their little "forgot password?" methods and I had no luck what-so-ever. Well, I wasn't too excited about Flickr anyway, because in order to get all the features I wanted to take advantage of, I would need to pay for a year subscription. That's no good. So I'm looking into new sites and also considering just using another site I'm on, since I have free gallery space available to me there... Bleh.. point is, no additional pictures until I figure out something else. :)

Court, Sincere and I went to Pisa this weekend, which was really awesome. We took the train, about a one hour ride out of Florence, and walked around the city for the day. There really isn't much to do in Pisa, except look at the tower and take silly pictures. So, we layed in the grass, got lost in the city for a while, found a park, and just meandered around the town. It was absolutely perfect. Here's a couple pictures (I can still put some on here, but they wont be on flickr)

This is my obligatory "leaning" picture

this is us, laying in the grass, under the great shadow of the leaning tower...

and then we tried to be all artsy with the reflection of our glasses...


Just some pictures of the buildings...
the duomo of Pisa and the tower in the background...
the baptistry that sits infront of the duomo...
Even the cappucino seems a little crooked there...


I have some more entertaining pictures, however, the internet is going weird again and I should get these up before it crashes...

Hopefully, in the next weekend or two we will be going to Lucca, a small town not far from here which is rumored to be a smaller, more rural Florence. It sounds like my kind of town :)

Oh and by the way, write me letters, leave comments on this blog, or drop me an email. Even if you think you don't have anything interesting to say, believe me. It is interesting to me. I miss you all and anything you say will be so comforting and appreciated. :)