After a very eventful weekend, Monday came with the thought that if I saw chocolate anywhere close to me I might indeed have to run fast the other direction. It also brought the third full week of classes, as hard as that is to believe. I really am beginning to believe that time is traveling at faster intervals over here, even though Italy seems to be on a slower time schedule all together. Granted I dont know how this can be the case, but when I figure it out I will give you a holla. The week itself spun past my eyes in a blur of classes, outings and a slew of other amazing things. Monday and Tuesday came and went more or less normally with classes and readings and misspoken italian (on my part). For some reason I think both my english and my italian are getting much worse. I no longer can speak correct english and continually make grammatical mistakes that would make sense if it were translated into italian and the same with italian. Its as if my language wires got switched somehow... yet they desperately need to go back into place very soon because not being able to speak any language very well is getting a little frustrating. So please excuse any grammatical incorrectness or awkwardness that might occur from now on. My brain is on overload and is not wanting to process correctly.
Wednesday however was a whole other story. While usually the day most hard to get through in a week because the weekend is in your sight and you can no longer say it is the beginning of the week, wednesdays tend to drag on. We however opted to not let this happen mainly in part by just starting our weekend Wednesday night. Before you go off thinking that Italy has turned me into a wild party animal who goes out in the middle of the week I must preface this by saying it was my friends birthday, and how often to you get to celebrate birthday's in Italy. Once a year to be exact - so something needed to be done in celebration. (see Ali and I psyched to birthday it up to the right) Wednesday apparently in Italy means that you can get into most places - ie movies, theaters, and discotecas - for a significantly lower price. This worked out well for the group of 25 we accumulated to celebrate Alessio's birthday. We went to a discoteca called YAB (short for You Are Beautiful - no I am not kidding). It had just reopened for a various number of reasons all of which are still unclear because ever Italian I asked gave me a very vague different reason. But nevertheless it was packed so tight you could barely move through the disco-balled dance floor flooded with smoke from a smog machine ever 4 feet. The whole night a collection of popular American music, techno, and popular Italian music blasted through the speakers as the dj sang along and yelled things to the crowed in Italian that I could barely hear or understand over the defining crowd and music. All in all a incredibly fun night. even if I did have to wake up at 9:30 for my class the next morning...Despite staying up way past my bedtime, Thursday was a very productive day starting with art history and followed up by a day filled with homework. Every new art history class I've taken throughout my college career so far, takes a while to adjust to the new environment of the class. I find this more true with art history classes than any other, mainly because I think of the drastically different approaches that every given professor can teach in, and the always extremely different points of views of the students in the classes. With other classes I have found that there is more of a regularity between the teaching of courses and within the class the students have more of the same opinions because it is not usually a personal opinion based class. Here too I feel we are still in the weird adjustment period where we are trying to figure out our professor, each other and what the class is going to be like. A sorta of limbo if you will.
This limbo continued all throughout Friday. Most noticeably was I in some parallel universe when Giovanna and I went to the Uffizi library to have a meeting about a possible internship for me. Every step I took that morning was filled with excited energy and disbelief. As we entered the Uffizi - through a special, high priority door, while the extra long line of tourists gave us dirty looks- my stomach began to turn in excited and nervous knots. We entered the library and I tried with all my might to not stop in my tracks and stare with my eyes wide open. The huge stacks after stack of beautiful books in a room perfectly constructed. A domed, coffered ceiling with tall with columns and pilasters, a huge glass window at the end of the extensive room - everything was more perfect than I could have imagined. I could almost see the excitement radiating off of Giovanna as she announced we were here for an appointment for a possible internship. As we walked down the long important hall (well Giovanna more bounced than walked - she might have been more excited than I was - which mind you was pretty hard to do) the stacks of books continued and a important silence was infiltrated by our footsteps. We met with a man and a woman (I dont remember their names as horrible as that is... I was in a daze) who welcomed us eagerly and jumped right into the descriptions of what I would be doing with them. I dont think I spoke more than 7 words total the whole time, and whereas I thought I would be entering an interview they sat me down and told me what I would be working on with them. Giovanna paused them to tell about my art history background and interest. They told me I could work on two projects. The first
helping go through and digitalize the book collection in the library. The second looking through hundreds of medieval manuscripts that were damaged during the flood and seeing what the collection contains. ummmm?? YES! I am still in disbelief that I will actually being to look at all these incredible things that normally I would only get to see in a picture, first hand! I am so excited. I start next Friday!!
I attempted but failed miserably to do work at the Sede the rest of day with Sera, and Ali. Some how more important things kept getting in the way of very long one page papers and readings that were not understandable in the least. Finally giving up and giving into the unproductiveness we left the Sede late in the afternoon to go and accomplish more and exciting things.
Saturday we got off to a very early start (although I almost didn't thanks to my alarm not going off..) to take a mini trip to Pienza and San Gimignano, both
small cities in Tuscany. We arrived in Pienza and were given a few hours to explore the small cobble stoned city, seeing the one main piazza with the city hall building, the church and a fountain. The main street was lined with small shops selling everything from hand made linens to moth watering cheese. Pienza is known for its pecorino cheese and Im pretty sure the entire town smelled like it - it was fabulous. (picture of me and sera on one of these said side streets- via dell'amore) The views of the Tuscan valley's from various points throughout the city were unbeatable and breathtaking. After exploring for a while, Sera, Ali and Alayna and I decided to find a place for lunch. We ended up in a restaurant of a side street through a tiny little doorway with no more than 5 tables and where the smell of strong cheese and truffles hit you like a brick. The food was amazing and hit the spot after wandering for so long in the slightly chilly air.We then took off for San Gimignano, about an hour away from Pienza, which is a fortresses city known for the towers. Again, we aimlessly wandered through the city taking in the amazing architecture and when we found them the spectacular views. Here too the main street was lined with tiny little stores selling wine, food and random other things and most of which had wild boar heads in the windows.
Sunday was yet another day filled to the brim with activity. In the morning Sera, Lenora, Victoria, Chrysanthe and I went over to Alessio's house for a birthday brunch/lunch. We walked through
the door and were hit over the head with delicious smelling foods that filled up every inch of air space. In normal italian style people overflowed each room, and were talking loudly over one another while stuffing their faces with perfectly made home cooked traditional italian food. After filling ourselves literally until we were going to burst we had to leave early to make sure to get to the Fiorentina v. Napoli soccer game. Purple (Fiorentina's team color naturally) overflowed the stadium pouring out into the streets. As we rushed to find the right door, the cheers of hundreds of fans echoing throughout the stadium. We walked into the stadium the cheers got louder, the purple was even more intense, and the Fiorentina soccer pride was ever present. The entire stadium was cheering for Florence. Because of the intense rivalry between the two teams Napoli was only allowed to have one small section of the stadium (see side pic - the yellow is the row of police dividing the small Napoli fans from the rest of the stadium). The Florence soccer patrol banned Napoli fans from coming to prevent huge brawls. It was a good thing to because unfortunately after a very exciting game Fiorentina lost to Napoli 1-2.
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