Czech Me Out.

It's been quite the week/weekend. Second week of classes down and my first out of Italy adventure. I've a ton of homework and it's been kind of overwhelming. Between Italian homework, The Holocaust, and multiple photo classes and assignments, I've been busy to say the least.

Last week I guiltily got gelato at this cute place called Perche No!, that my friend Ari told me about. So gooood, but slowly realizing that I like the fruitier flavors more than the sweet chocolates and caramel flavored gelato. Which is fine, because I feel less guilty about eating the fruitier ones even though they probably aren't any better FOR you. Anyway, aside from that, I had to buy a new pair of combat boots and a new coat since my boots had broken and I didn't bring my winter coat from home. It hasn't been this cold in Italy/Florence since the 1980's! I did however get a deal on this awesome gray, TOTALLY Italian fashion coat at a store called Dixie. I love it! Plus I got the scarf in the picture for 5Euro. Super warm. I feel like I fit in to say the least. Ps. sorry for the horrible phone image of it.

Thursday night all of my roommates and I left for Prague. Such an experience I'll never forget. We took a 12 hour bus from florence to prague over night. Yes 12 HOURS! So dreadful. Left at 8pm and arrived in Prague around 10am because of the pit stops along the way. I've never been more excited to be on ground for the next 3 days. Friday morning started with check in at the hostel "CzechInn." Then we went on a walking tour of old town with the New Europe/New Prague tour group. Super awesome. Although it was freeeezzzzingggggg and a 3 hour tour, it was totally worth it. We walked through the Jewish Quarters, through old town, and many other places around the heart of the city. We had some free time so we decided to go to this pub called "The Pub," really close to where the tour ended. They had a huge keg under every table and you basically kept score per table to person as to how much beer was consumed. I'm not a fan of bear so it was just funny watching the scores.

After that we got ready and went on Prague's famous pub crawl. Every pub we visited we got a free welcome shot. That was interesting. We started at a hole in the wall pub/bar that was underground in an Old Church basement that was also a Jewish Cemetery. In one of the rooms was a huge cement head of Stalin and many other odd things. It was all lit with candles, no electricity, but they had all you can drink, mixed, shots, or beer. (Vodka, Rum, or Absinthe.) That's what did everyone in and had us set for the rest of the night. We went to this awesome pub that played GREAT music and there was a ton of dancing. Such a different feel from the first place. The 3rd place was strange and super smokey but pretty decent. And the 4th we made it too but left because we were all getting super tired. It seemed SUPER awesome though and quite the party. The Moto of the company that puts this on is "The best night you will NEVER remember." I have a feeling there were a few people who lived up to this for sure.

Saturday morning, our weekend tour guide Shawnn Sullivan took us on his own little walking tour around Prague. We visited the Kafka Museum, The Lennon Wall, and a few other awesome places. I bought some street art (for 320 Czech Korun=a little less than $15), signed my name on the wall and took a TON of photos. I wanted to go to the Jewish Museums but found out after getting there they were closed on Saturdays. I was super bummed about this, I love studying the holocaust and was definitely looking forward to this. Aftwards we had some free time, I went and fell asleep at the hostel because of the lack of Jewish Museum options while my roommates went to dinner and the Beer Challenge Tour. Later that night I went to this strange 80's 90's music video club in the heart of the city. That was kind of odd, not really what I was expecting, but an experience none the less.

After a long weekend, we headed back sunday morning, well, noon, because the buses bathroom water pipes froze and busted and had to be fixed. So instead of a 10AM departure we left a little after 12 and arrived back in Florence around 12:30 AM. LONG day indeed. Thankfully nothing like that is planned this week for me, just a lot of roommie time. Emma turns 21 on the 15th! Obviously we will party it up as much as possible.

Above you'll see terrible point and shoot images as well as phone images. I decided to bring my film camera so the neat artsy ones won't be here until May once they are developed, so bear with me :] Also the mountain image is from my Flight TO Italy back in January.

Until next time.

tardi le notti per tutti

Sorry for the lack of pictures in todays post, I haven't been out and a bout much because of school work and keeping busy.

A week of classes have gone by, we've had our weekend and today's the super bowl! Classes have definitely been interesting. My italian class is definitely going to challenge me, but thus far my Advertising & commercial photography class has yet to please me. The whole class I sat there as he went over things I've been taught for a year now. So, we'll see how that goes. It's actually the class that matters most right now transfer wise too.

Thursday night I went out with my roommate Liz and her friends, it was interesting, but we called it an early night. Her and the other roommates were going to Pisa in the morning. Friday, as sad as it sounds, I laid in bed and around the house all day. I felt like I needed a chill day. Partially because I have a cold and wanted to get rid of it before it got to out of hand. Then yesterday, we ran around, had breakfast which was called the Super Breakfast for 7Euro at Astor, killed some time around the apartment, and then got ready for the night. A bunch of friends came over around 9:30 PM for the "pre-game." It seems our apartment always happens to be the place to go for that. Around 11, after everyone was pretty well liquored up, we went out. This included Fish Pub, were the deal for the night was 5 shots for 5Euro, then we wandered to Twice, and to Red Garter. At twice all the girls were let in VIP to the VIP section. It was a ton of fun, which is a lot coming from me. I'm definitely not a big party girl, but last night I enjoyed myself. At least until we came back to a disastrous pre-gamed apartment. That's never a fun site, thankfully I kept my mess cleaned up all night, soooo I'm going to work on homework all day and hide away.

It's pretty easy to hide up here, sometimes I forget that I should probably go downstairs and be social. Sometimes I think having my own room upstairs is extremely bad for my social life, but I love the privacy. It's cozy and I can for the most part focus in my room and block the world out.

Well, this is it for now, hopefully in a few days I'll have more photographs to share. Until then, live vicariously through these posts :P

Ciao.

primo settimana in Firenze

The last few days have been pretty interesting. I've started classes now, I've gone to a welcome dinner, and bought a new pair of boots! I feel like i've been spending excessive amounts of money but my parents claim I'm not. Not sure if I REALLLLY believe them. I still haven't decided if things are more expensive here, or if it's just my head telling me that. I did however buy a new pair of tall brown boots, black flats, and a cheap purse for 34 Euro. I was surprised that was even possible. Thankfully I bought the boots when I did, my combat boot zipper broke after I was done trying the brown ones on. So sadly I now have to buy another pair of combat boots while I'm here. So much money being thrown around and I have yet to leave florence or do any traveling. hmmmm.

I haven't completely figured out the florence streets yet, but I do know how to make it to my classes and back now, which is quite the accomplishment I'd say. I had my fashion photography class yesterday, I feel like I'm one of the few ACTUALLY a photo major. I'll definitely be rocking the darkroom once we start working there. I also found out the school has a field view camera I can borrow. I'm pretty sure while hearing that I had a HUGE grin on my face of excitement. View Camera in Italy? Yes please!!! Anyway, we played around with strobes a bit, we start using them in a couple weeks. So above is a quick snapshot of a very blown out image from the strobes I was using. And also above is the doorway from the palace of the welcome dinner. LDM hosts a welcome dinner, which is really a free glass of wine, some finger food, a bit of desert and off you go. It was in this giant maze of a place that was absolutely gorgeous. Obviously I was there and didn't get a picture until I was out the door. So I just snapped the doorway. Oh well. It was still fun!

Also, yesterday I was mocked by an Italian woman in this little restaurant. She worked there and still decided it was a good idea to mock the confused American. I was caught off guard by this, as well as when I was leaving she told me she loved me and that I needed to remember that always. I think she just wanted me to come back .... maybe she doesn't have very much business? I can't decide if I really want to ever go back after that experience. :]

Buon compleanno Caroline!

Today is Caroline's birthday. Yesterday we celebrated all night for her. During the day I slept in until about 10:30 and chilled around the house for a bit. Liz and I ventured to the local LUSH. I was of course beyond ecstatic because I'm obsessed! It was liz's first time there so I was running around explaining the products the best I could. I'm beginning to realize how many people here actually speak english. I knew it was going to be a lot, but really? I've only encountered maybe 3 people who didn't speak any and they were from spain!!! Which are coincidentally our neighbors across the hall. Which reminds me.... The first day here I couldn't get into my apartment because I didn't know how to work the keys. Thankfully our wonderfully adorable neighbors helped me get my baggage upstairs and called the landlord for me. They speak barely ANY english. It was extremely hard to communicate but we managed.

It's been tough getting around knowing only very little Italian. It's very terrifying to attempt to speak it. I don't want to offend them yanno? Anyway. I bought a scarf yesterday when all the roommies when on a shopping excursion. We wandered to the Ponte Vecchio with my first gelato in hand. It was beautiful and strange to be standing on one of the most well known spots in the world. And last night we pregammed with the guys who live below us and went to a few clubs. We started at Astor, which was extremely fun, and free entry!! which is kind of hard to find here it seems, many have a cover charge. The Red Garter followed which was okay, and then a few people went to Twice while the rest of us walked the drunk birthday girl home. I fell asleep around 3:30-4 AM and was actually the first one asleep. Everyone here stays awake so late and most of the bars/clubs don't open until about 12 AM. Makes sleeping almost a last priority here. Kind of crazy since it's not really my life style. But I joined in on the fun last night since it was my first weekend here.

Tonight, after being lazy all day, we went to dinner for pizza. The waiter was a sweetheart and gave us a huge discount. We spent 97Euro for 7 meals, bread and oil, 2 pepsi's, and 2 bottles of wine. I was pretty impressed. The pizza I had was very sub par though, i've had better pizza in the states. So the pizza hunt begins. I need to find my favorite place. I like good pizza, but who doesn't right? The rest of the girls went out tonight to a few other clubs while I decided a movie night was best for me. So here I am blogging about my small adventures.

Ciao a tutti!

Hello Everyone!

Hope you're days are going grand and the weather is somewhat to your standards.

I've been here in Italy since wednesday afternoon. It's beautiful.

I can't even describe how I'm feeling. How do you sum up a huge life change that happens in a day? Scary? Exciting? Lonely? I know I was terrified thinking I had to find my way to school without help. Word on the streets was the taxi's were on strike. Thankfully that was over and I successfully made it to my school and my BEAUTIFUL two story apartment.

I was terrified of living with 6 other girls but thus far it's been okay. Sharing the kitchen has proven to be slightly tough, but my room is perfect. I'm the only one living on the 2nd floor so I have my own bathroom as well.

Yesterday I got lost in Florence.... not intentionally of course. I walked around for 2 hours trying to find my apartment, with heavy groceries. Not my ideal day, but it happens.