Italian Chaos

ok so I know I promised that I would not wait 800 years before I wrote again, and then promptly went and took forever to get this written. Im a terrible person I know. well at least a terrible blogger. This time though I have a very valid reason. My harddrive crashed. funny enough while I was writing a post. Thankfully autosaved happened before the crash. But only autosave on my post, not any of my other important documents or anything. yay! Living without a computer for a week is a really odd experiece. Especially here since it is my main mode of communication with the living world back on the other part of the world. I can just say I really didnt like it at all. And how am I writing this you wonder? Well I would like to tell you that I have figured out a way to communicate with the internet through my brain but Im still working on that one. Giovanna was so kind to give me her microscopic (seriously never seen a laptop this small - my hands barely fit on it. haha) laptop until mine gets fixed, which is a undertemined time in the somewhat future. Even though they said they would put a rush on it, that was over a week ago and I am still without Rex (aka laptop).  Anyway, technology trouble asside, I guess I have about 9 weeks to report about... sorry this might be long. I wont be offended/know if you get board.
Literally the day after I last wrote I came down with some sort of illness which was very not fun. I was happy that it did not turn into swine flu which is going around pretty heavily and rapidly here. Yet I was still home sick Thursday and Friday feeling very not good. Saturday rolled around however and I finally felt better, was able to do some work (horray!....) and later that night went out to dinner with Sera. We were really in the mood for mexican food, and tried the two places we knew and even for two people there as not a table available. After wandering for what seemed like hours - but in reality was most likely only a half an hour- we ended up at this American pub/restaurant, called (you ready?) House of Sizzle. Yes I can actually hear the gasps that you all just made when you read the word American. You are all thinking... you are in Italy, whyyyy would you want to go ear American food? Well for starters, it was the only place that could take us without a reservation. This was an important factor. Secondly, we were both craving things that were not pasta. If anyone can believe it I actually ordered a hamburger. Yes you did read that correctly. I had my first hamburger here in Italy that I have had in probably over 8 years. Mind boggling. And yes I did like it. And did finish it all. If no one believes me, I have documented proof. (well I did. grazie hard drive failure for taking away my pictures. aka pictures for this post will come once I get my computer back and can figure out what I actually still have.)

Sunday was filled with studying and homework for midterms that were rapidly approaching in the following week. The rest of the week actually followed in a similar fashion of studying and reading and working. Monday I took my Italian Literature exam, which I had missed when I was sick the previous Thursday. Wednesday was our History of Costume and Fashion midterm. And finally Thursday was Art History. A very intense week of test taking to say the least. By thursday afternoon my brain was just a little bit fried. But they all went well enough and they are over most importantly. I do however have our  Literature midterm (that one last week was just a test...) next week and our Stylistics midterm as well, so its not quiiitee over yet. But close. So close...

On Thursday after our exam, Sera and I successfully managed to go to another University of Florence class.  This is actually a big deal since the university system here is so wacky that the likelihood of there actually being a class when the schedule says is about 50%. Nevertheless we found the history of cinema class we had gone to once before and learned about italian film in the 1960s. Its really incredible to see how many people really pay attention, because for the great majority no one does. I think Sera and I were the only two people, in a class of about 50, that were actually trying to pay attention and not reading, texting, talking, drawing or sleeping.
Feeling like we needed to give our brains a night off from intense thinking we decided to go to the movies with some of our Italian friends. They all wanted to see 2012, which I dont think I would have seen in English but the fact that it was in Italian made it very hilarious. In the end everyone bailed out and it ended up only being Sera, Alessio, Dino and I that went to the movie, which was fun. It was very different to be in a small group for once as opposed to our normal group of 78. I was quite pleased that for the great majority of the movie this time I could understand what was going on and follow much more of the plot than the last Italian movie that I saw (then again Im not convinced I would have understood it in english..). I dont know really what to think about that really though, since it was about the end of the world , does that mean Im well versed in apocalyptic vocabulary to get myself ready? I really hope not...Or maybe I have just watched way too many world ending, fighter movies and tv shows that I know that vocabulary too well...

Friday I went back to my internship at the Uffizi bright and early. Arriving promptly at 9am several things occured. 1. Only the man at the front desk was there. 2. He had no idea who I was even though I see him every week and have been introduced to him several times 3. He called someone else over so I could explain to both of them why I was there and why I had a ID badge and neither of them had ever seen me before, 4. I finally co0nvinced them that I was not there to steal the library and they let me go to my usual computer post 5. The books that I usually work with were MIA - and there was no one to ask, since they obviously had no idea why I was there 6. I sat and swivled in my chair for a half and hour waiting for someone that I knew to come 6. The second man finally realized that he had infact seen me before and that he knew exactly where the books that I needed were and he would fetch them for me 7. A legit crazy italian lady whirls her way into the library bringing with her so much confusion and chaos. 8. I sit and listen to her mutter in Italian to herself about why the computer wont work 9. She asks me for help with the computer 10. I have no idea what is wrong with it (note how good I am with technology lately), and she notices through my not so hot italian that I am american and about shreaks her head off 11. She insists that she is from New York - untrue by the thick Italian accent and her jeans. 12. Inch my way back to my computer to find the program not working 13. Swivel in my chair for another half an hour waiting for it to work again 14. Realize its one o'clock and I can go.
I spent the rest of the day exploring and hunting around the city, not really doing much but enjoying my surroundings. That night it was another one of our Italian friends birthday's, Alessio (no not the same one as mentioned before, there are now two. - I have realized Italians seem to only name their childeren one of a handful of names which leads to much confusion). We all went out in the center to a little pub by Santa Croce called Kikuya. It ended up only being Sera and Me from the American group and almost every Italian that we know (Fillippo, Alex, Alessio 1, Alessio 2, Simone 1, Simone 2 and I am most likely forgetting someone) + three random girls (not random they were friends of someone I just never met any of them before). Sitting listeing to old school American 90s music in an English pub in Italy was just a little bit funny to me, but somehow it worked. We found Jenga on our table when we arrived and promptly started playing. Dont worry I did managed to topple everything over. After, the girls - who for some reason were verry annoyed that Sera and I were there, and kept on commenting about how we didnt know any Italian and it was annoying -because i didnt hear over the loud music what she said- very defensivly though Fillippo stood up for me about how I knew italian and spoke it and could understand her. She was quiet for a bit until they thought it would be a fun idea to play telephone in Italian. Clearly doing this only so we would look like idiots they passed around odd itaial phrases none of which when it was passed to me made any sense or sounded anything more that odd words. Needing to have a little bit of a revenge Sera and I started one in english which inevitably everyone messed up.

I sletp in a little on Saturday, and decided to blogg for a bit before I stated homework. Then my harddrive crashed. Disbelieving and hopeing it really wasnt my harddrive I took it to one of the only Mac stores in Florence (and prolly Italy for that matter). With one look the guy told me it was my harddrive and it would be about a week. Its been a week. I would like my computer back. (sorry Im bitter and miss my computer)
After computer fiascos I met up with Sera to poke around some stores and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around. After dinner that night I met up with Dino and we went for a walk in a park right by the Arno, and talked as best as we could with my 4th grade italian.

Sunday was spent studying for my upcoming week of more midterms and more work and more papers and more reading.. I did take a lunch break with Sera to hunt out some Chinese food, which was very good and very different than the usual pasta/ panino.The begining of the week was rather uneventful. Monday after class, not really wanting to go home just yet (not for any reason really - stay assured I really like my family here) I helped Giovanna look up recipies for the upcoming Thanksgiving feast she was preparing for us.
Tuesday I had my Literature midterm, and after classes that day I went to another University of Florence class. This time the methodologies of contemporary art. I have to admit even for me who really likes everything they were talking about, the class was a little boring. Maybe it was because four students were giving a presentation, and I found it really hard to hear them over the construction, and traffic noises let alone understand them. And the professor kept on inturrupting them after every sentance either correcting or telling them something they should have done better or asking them a ridiculous question. He seemed like the professor all the older students warn you against taking his class. However, throughout the room which sat about 100 people on some of the desks were incredible drawings of famous sculptures, painints, and buildings inevitably coppied from the slides. On Sera's desk there was a miniture verson of Michalangelo's Pieta perfectly drawn in pencil. The desk in front of me there was his David. A few rows back Santa Maria Novella was chilling a few seats away from La Guernica by Picasso. I really want to meet whoever did these. They are all absolutly amazing.
The highlight of the rest of the week was Thanksgiving at Giovanna's house. Giovanna, Monica, and Pam (cooking teacher from orientation) all slaved away for days to make sure that we all had a American Thanksgiving dinner even though we are in Italy. Giovanna said after that this was the first turkey she has ever made, and was worried that she would ruin it - well it was delishious. Complete with stuffing, corn bread, mashed potatoes, green beans + peanuts we literally had a feast (dont worry Mom, I was still missing your food with every bite.) It was a very lovely eveing, and everyone, Americans and Italians alike (yes all our professors were invited and came) had a very good time. Giovanna's husband played music for us on his fiddle, we sang Thanksgiving songs ( I didnt know there were such things), and I played with Cocco and Sparkey (Giovanna's dogs) since I am highly dog deprived.

I spent Friday morning at the Uffizi as usual, and without any issues I am happy to report. After I met up with Sera and we went to Cassa Buonarroti - a itiy bity museum of all things Michaelangelo. Natually I loved it, especially since Michaelangelo is my favorite sculptor. I really enjoyed seeing all the models and seeming miniature statues of his, many studies for much larger statues later. To me, i like seeing the that the steps that go into making such remarkable art work and seeing that they are just as amazing and impressive.
That night, wanting a mellow night, Sera, Chrysanthe, Steph and I headed out with Alessio 1&2, Simone 1&2, Alex, Fillippo, and Dino  to a german bar called Braumeister, How is a group that large mellow and relaxing you ask. well the alternative was to go to a discoteca,so large goup + german bar or large group + disco... hmm. Lots of confusion and Italian whirled around all night, leaving me overwhelmed sometimes but all in all a good night.

Saturday I spent the day re-organizing my room and doing some unwanted studying. That night after dinner I watched one of the Tim Allen Sant Clause movies (in italian) with Vieri, chuclking to myself about the bad dubbing of italian films and the over all ridiculousness of the movie (dont get me wrong I a big fan of the first one). After the movie, Dino picked me up and we attempted to go into the center but forgetting that the Florence Marathon was the next day and almost every steet was blocked off and about 90000000 more people were in the city to see it, parking was a little bit of an issue. Giving up after 35 mins of driving aroudn with no hope of ever finding a parking spot for anything other than a vespa, we ended up going up to Fiesole (about 10 mins ourside of Florence). Even there we had to wait 20 mins before parking was found - I was convinced that Florence had doubled in population over night. The town itself consists of on main piazza, a few stores and resturaunts and two pubs. I think most of the bars that I have seen here has been of another nationality other than Italian - there are countless Irish bars, a few Scottish, some German, and even an Australian one (even though I do know really know what that means). We went to one of the two, J.J. Hill, and talked over the crowd and eventualy ended up playing darts. It goes without saying I am not good. This requires hand eye corrdination, I have zero.

Sunday morning the craziness at home started early. Vieri's birthday is tomorrow and he was having 16 of his friends over for lunch + festivites in the afternoon. After he departed for his soccer game, and Lucia and Fillippo went out to watch the marathon for a little while, which I could literally see from my window which was pretty neat wo watch for a little bit, I started to get some work done before the 90 tweenagers arrived. at 12 sharp the doorbell rang and they started to come, even though Vieri was still at soccer. After everyone had arrived including the bithday boy, I ventured out of my room into chaos to help Lucia who I could hear yelling and beggin for people to do this and stop that. Arriving just in time to help get lunch on the table, Maria Chiara and I, as fast as we could, spooned kilos of pasta onto plates. When the last one was finnished we were both shocked that all the mounds of past were gone.We both then stood silently, not being able to hear our own thoughts let alone talk, and watched, and listened. If anyone thinks that American childeren are loud by themselves, let alonewhen they are all together, then you ovbiously have not been around a group of Italian children. I just observed and I am tired from all the energy that they expelled.
Now I think I should recharge this energy, for school tomorrow, but more importantly it is Vieri's actually birthday and if today was any indication for tomorrow I feel like I am going to need some rest...

lets do the time warp againnn...

I think I failed a little bit at my blog this week. Im very sorry. every day I was like ok - finish work then update your avid followers on life. Then the work just kept on coming. and coming. and coming. This past week was kind of a joke about how much work they decided to give us. Literally I dont really know how I got it all done. That time warp that Ive been talking about -Ii think it worked in my favor this time and created an extra hour or two and somehow let me finish everything. Granted I do know how much work we get at Smith - yet not in my... 2 years (it  sounded longer in my head).. have I had as much work as I did last week. anyyywhooo tutte bene. :)
I feel like instead of making you read about ever single one of my days that have passed since we last spoke Ill give you a general overview and some specific highlights. 'Cause lets face it no one wants to read something 897 pages long.

The first thing of note since last I wrote was my first day at the Uffizi library. To say the least I was a little nervous. I woke up at leas 9 times the night before paranoid that my alarm was not going to go off. Thankfully it did, and I made it there in plenty of time. Making it to the museum and then into the library presented a small problem. Since it was my first day, I did not have my official Uffizi card and therefore when I showed up at the door to get into the library ( which happenes to be a fire door but the alarm will not go off if you open it, they just apparently say that so people dont - note I do not recommend trying this with other doors...) Anyway. I got to the door that Giovanna and I had gone through the previous week, told the (unfriendly) security woman why I was there, and why I needed to go up to the library. She however would have non of it. Telling me the library was closed, that I would have to come back later, and when I did I would have to go thorough security through the main door (already a 2 hour wait and the museum was not open yet) to get it, she closed the door. By now its 8:54am and Im beginning to get a little worried about how Im actually going to get inside. One call to Giovanna solved everything. In the end the man at the front desk of the library came to fetch me, and let me in (yes through the same door that was just shut in my face) and brought me up to the so called closed library. The very open library is quite a sight. It is lined with bookshelves for books bigger than you could handle, and just incase the book self cant either there are rough iron caging on all the shelving. The library itself is two floors (sounds small for all the books but its only a small portion, I found out later that there are a few other locations). On both sides of the long hallway, there are large windows, and also is decorated with frescoed angles, and mythical characters. Down the center of the walkway of the room there are two sets of dark brown desks that run the entire length of the room. (see the very slypicture I took when everyone left the library)


For the first hour or so I had to do some official looking paper work with a woman that worked there, Silvia. Signing confidentiality agreements, giving contact information, being told how to use certain things - all pretty official and daunting. After that the woman that I had met with last week came out to explain to me what I would be doing. She brought with her a huge book - probably 15x9in - which held a list of all the books in their collection. What I would be doing would be reading the entries, entering the title on a particular program on the computer, and if it came up write down the system number. Sounds simple enough right? Well that means you have never tried to read Italian cursive. Very pretty to look at, but impossible to read - for an American at least. All the letters are perfectly curved and linked together in a perfectly formed line of letters all the same size. So really first decipher, then enter, then write is what Im more or less doing. So after a while I was getting used to the cursive - not so bad (some of them at lease), and at least I can understand the Italian ones I was thinking to myself. And then the German started. Talk about a oddly written language. Literally have no idea what any of those books could possibly be about - only that they relate in some way shape or form to art.



Next  - Halloween. Let me start of by saying that Halloween is probably on of my favorite holidays. Dressing up + receiving free candy = awesome day. Halloween in Italy is more of a new 'invention' really. In their quest to be more American (why I am still trying to figure out), they have adopted
Halloween. However, everyone seems to celebrate or not celebrate at different degrees. My family for example laughed when I brought up Halloween. Not going to be discouraged by the lack of celebration a big group of Smith and Italian friends alike headed out to celebrate in some sort of fashion. We went to a place called BeBop, a little music bar in the center. In a festive spirit, they had put up (minimal) decorations which were appreciated on my part. The cover band for the night also sported some attempts of costumage - boas, tall leather boots, bandanas, leather things were all sported (please note the band were all guys). The crowd ranged from fully decked out costumes, odd pieces (like eye patches - not not lying), to normal every day italian clothing. Not deterred by the mismatched Halloween spirit we continued to have a good night (as pictured both with Sera and Oliva to the right and Oliva to the left), listening to an eclectic assortment of music, laughing, and general merriment.

The beginning of last week was pretty uneventful. Class and school and homework and italian all ensued.  I did successfully finally get to a University of Florence class - which in my book was a big deal. Its really incredible how disorganized the Italian university system is. I finally found a class that worked with my schedule, and that was actually happening - for me a small miracle. Sera ended up coming with me and we sat in on a History of Cinema class. The room was filled with students who for the most part talked throughout the entire class, while others came in late and left early. The professor said nothing - just continued talking the entire class. Well that is after he got off his phone that he answered within the first 5 minutes of the class. It was interesting to see some of the big differences between the italian classes and students and Smith - lots to say the least.

Friday came another day at the Uffizi, which was a little bit easier this time since I was a little more used to the perfect cursive. During the afternoon I wandered the city with Alayna attempting to find a open shop to look at boots, but to no avail. We had the brilliant idea of going out at 230. Everything closes for lunch at 2:30 and does not open again until 3:30 or 4. Needless to say we did not find anything.
That night after dinner - despite the warnings from every person I met prior to my arrival in Italy - I went out to the movies with a boy, Dino (yes I know you immediately thought of a dinosaur)  I met through some of my Italian friends. To everyone who has told me to not trust italian boys and are now thinking to yourself how I could have possibly gone against your warnings - dont worry all advice is lodged in my brain. I was a little nervous because although my Italian is good enough to get by, its not top notch by any means, and the thought of having to hold a continuous  conversation in Italian was a little daunting, especially since he can only speak literally 2 sentences in English.  We ended up going to the movies, which meant not a night of continuous talking for me which was fine, but also meant watching a movie in Italian. The 30 minute car ride to the theatre when very well, not to many miss understandings, confusion, or miscommunications on my part and was able to keep a conversation flowing for the great part of it.  We ended up seeing 'The men who stare at goats', in Italian of course. Throughout the whole movie he would check in to make sure I got what was going on, and what they were talking about - cause lets face it they dont really teach you military terms in school. Only missing a smalllll part of  the content (at least I think...) I was still a bit confused about the story itself - meaning why they would actually make the movie. It was very strange to say the lest. I was somewhat happy to hear that Dino did not like the movie either and thought it was really strange, only because that meant I did  not totally misinterpret the entire film.

The rest of the weekend passed very uneventfully - filled with homework and reading. There seems like there is always something more I can be and should be reading for school. In fact I probably should get to that now....
(ps pinky promise not to wait another 9 weeks until I write again)