I cant belive that I am going to have been here for a month. I am not sure if time is moving fast or slow..? I have to say, this is the first time in my life that i am not holding a job, an internship and a full school load. it feels strange to have free time. Ive been trying to use it to the best of my ability, buti have yet to visit most of florences museums.
however, this weekend I traveled to sienna and Ravenna to see some amazing mosaics and churches... and also the shrunken head of catherine of siena. which was a let down. I loved the architechture in Siena, and the large round piazza in the center of town.
Ravenna was beautiful but alot more commerical and high end. with delicious sandwiches.
i love sandwiches. speaking of Im starving. last night i had some mexican food, but being kind of tight on money i ate chips and salsa for dinner. Tonight i am feeling Chinese. I am dealing with my slight feelings of home sickness with american chain resurant food cravings.

This morning I got up at 8am argh... to go to a contemporary art festivale in an old fort in the center of the city. It was a new area to explore so that was nice, and hte art as reqlly wonderfull. I spent three hours there this morning. Waking up at6am every morning this weekend kind of put a damper on going out late this weekend and i am still ridiculously tired.

on the other hand i have finally figured out the bus system. which means alot more exploring!
i have some fabulous pictures from this weekend.

and next weekend is London!!! in which i plan to do every touristly thing possible
love, katie

i cant believe i went swiming

9/20/07
So yesterday i went for a ridiculously long walk. and I found a bunch of wonderfully tacky (tho over priced) thrift stores. i am seeing a black and gold lame prom dress in my future (this will have to be stolen by my exceptional FBI spy abilities because i am broke)

and!

I found a wonderful vynl store, and about a bajillion outdoor markets. Kind of like the giant meat market/ resurtant on aurthur ave in the bronx

i found a riding stable online, that offers lessons. either in packages in ten or 20, sooo hopefully i can whip myself back into my former horse self. (riding may be the only thing in life where i am graceful).
hopefully i will find some more treasures on the way. as i have been told by my host family, now that i can use decent broken italian.. or more so spalatalian, that there is a GIOMORPHOGARGANTUENORMOUPHOSPHORESCENTLY HUGE outdoor market there.

i went into a shitty bar last night, and as soon as i walked in the door a group of frat kids started kareoking to sweet home alabama. i immedietly left.

this was followed by an equally classy

hip hop club

i have to admitt i had a blast.

being the sober sally i was, i danced up quite a storm.

my friend courntey however, was really drunk, and happens to be a hysterical but good dancer. there were these three scantly clad italian women dancing pretty fiercely (when i say the word fierce its like gay man vioce times a thousand) so she promptly had a dance off with them, as i egged her on. and she danced them off the floor. i was a proud mother.

so i was going to go to Sienna today. buti think ill wait until next weekend. and tomorrow i may go hiking on the coast. iam going to say that with the utmost nonchalance to make you more jealous.

tonghit im headed to a night spot that kind of reminds me of Lit. theres some band playing. then tomorrow night.... biannual rave in a bombed out train station!!!!!!

my life is disgusting.

9/ 22/ 07

My weekend began with raw eggs

Momma lucia made dinner, and normally she will make some kind of tomato omelete.
not tonight.
its was stewed tomatos.... that had raw eggs slimeing across the plate.

and

i ate it.
somehow.
:::::shudder::::

i mean, I love eggs, but i only like my eggs very scrambled .They were so raw. raw raw.
but thats enough of that anecdote..
so none of my plans were actualized this weekend. no rave unfortunetly.
but friday i explored a couple new markets. and bought two coats. because i forgot to bring one. ones a vintage green plaid, and one is a vintage red plaid with a fur stol around the collar.
i think they look pretty sassy.
i then bought the movie in and out (making it the first movie ive seen since iver been here.) to show my friends hat my town looks like bc it was filmed in northport.

i also bought Woody Allen's "everything you wanted to know about sex but were afriad to ask" because its a classic
and a giant fuschia sweater.

saturday morning, woke up at 530am, and took a 3 hour train ride to Cinque-terra. the approprietly named carribean of the mediterraineannnm

and it was amazing

its a set of five (cinque) lands (terra) connectes by 2 mile mountain hikes
on these huge cliffs that just straight into the clearest water i have ever seen..
so we scaled a cliff and found a secluded beach. we then jumped off a 20 foot rock and swam in unexplainably clear water.
the water was about 60 feet deep (which was terrifying as we had been told to look out for white sharks) but you could see the bottom. it might have been the best day of my life.
we watched the sun set over the water from a rope bridge with a bottle of vino rosso, salty and exhausted. ( i have a picture that does not do it justice at all.) we got home late, had delicious pizzza. and i went to bed.
i am so serious. i do something amazing every weekend.
next weekend sienna and ravenna
the weekend after, London.
the weekend after sicily
the weekend after venice.
the weekend after dublin, berlin, barcelona.

big travels

I just booked my fall break vacation

because my program doesnt give us housing between october 26th to november 3rd

soooo

i decided on

october 26th- 29th = Dublin/ edinborogh?

october 29th - 31st= Berlin

october 31st- November 3rd = Barcelona

maybe this means i will have a halloween after all!!!!

i am soo excited! #@$Q#$%@$%6

and unfortunetly poor

pisa!

So, as i changed the welcome message on my phone to "stop being lazy", i havev decided to give it my all to stop being lazy. unfortunetly this means wake up at 630 every morning of the weekend. But so far I have managed to visit Assisi, Pisa, Lucca, and tomorrow Populonia. and while i have noticed that highways in italy are reminscent of North Jersey, every 30 miles or so there is a wonderfully preserved quaint town from the 1400s. after spendinf probabaly a total of 8 hours ina bus over the past couple of days, i haven gone to church for the first time in 8 years. well gone into a church too i suppose. the first place we went, Assisi, named for the st. francis, had the church of San Francisco. a modestly decorated exterior with an itialian gothic interior. as soon as we walked into the church a childrens chior began to sing an opening hymn of a real mass. the dimly lit interior sparkled with candleight which caseed the gold guilding to reflect of the wonderful Giotto blue ceiling. the entire surface of hte inside was painted with orientalized details, and the roof of the church was actually painted to look like the sky. Frescos blow me away, because i cant paint that fast, and i have no idea how they were created so seamlessly. the enture church was gorgeous and full of wonderfull relics. The most poerful being the actual crypt of st francis. Im not sure if his body actualy resides there but there is quite an elaborate tomb. the crypt was three levels below the main church, and had pictures of loved ones slid in between wrought iron bars. I kind of wanted to leave something of mine there, but i didnt have anything on me at the time. but im pretty sure once a day some one cleans up the photos and throws them out, which would completely destroy the romantic aspect of the ceremony. being a non religious person. i had to admitt that there as a certian omnipotence that surrounded the who;le ordeal. I guess, for me, st francis has alwasy been interesting, his whole stigmata business. which i am half conviced is foul play on the part of religious fanatics, and half convinced that gabriel byrne actually rescued patrica arquette from the wounds of christ. church miracles and mystisim have always interested me. it was cool to acutally be there.

Last night i discovered how to steasl wifi from the school at night

then at 630 this morning I arose to go to Pisa and lucca. the pisa cathedral complex was amazing. inside of the church of the complex was a wonderfully preseved romanesque palace! complete with a tacky byzantine-like jesus mosaic in the apse (i used to know more about it but i forgot. Since the entire place is made of while marble, it was almost impossible to see with out sunglasses, and light/ heat was reflected everywhere making it one of hte hottest experiences. The cemetery outside the city aslls as also amazing. with a huge aray of roman sarcouphogai.. and an amazing fresco circa black death. The fresco showed the fight for souls between good andevil with flying devils and angels. unfortuently it had been mostly destroyed by world war two, it was still amazing. The leaning tower of pisa was also wonderful. its funny i never thought i would be there. so i decided to celebrate by taking the customary "holding up the tower" pictures and i am so glad i did. beause i know i will look back nad laugh at that. we then went to lucca, had a wonderful lunch at an outdoor cafe and ate the best mixed nut peanut brittle ever! lucca was a tony city that is supposed ly one of hte richest in italy. it was even cuter than florence becxause it didnt have any shady slum sections. I would like to go there around chirsmas, because they have all of these metal sculptures with candle holders on them all ofer hte sides of buildings. i am sure its glorious.

My winter break is from october 25th to November 4th. I am not sure what i am doing. I think we may try to spend halloween in Barcelona, then go to amsterdam. The first weekend i would like to go to berlin and munich. I really want to go to germany, but i cant convince people of its funality. so i may go alone, or with a friend from home... maybe
and then meet up with everyone else.

i think i want to go to germany for my dad. and see some battle fields or something. i htink i would like that, and he would enjoy the pictures.
i am a nerd

i dont think I am going to do anything too crazy tonight.
Poplonia Tomorrow for an etruscan archeological dig.
and i have so much HW

Arriverderchi

stigmata

So today i went to the church where St. Francis was buried. He is one of my favorite saints because supposedly recieved the Stigmata. i dont really buy it, but he could talk to animals. \

i snuck a picture of the interior

So in a bout of irrantionality i booked two trips for my self
one on october 5-7th to london
and one from november 23rd-25th to paris to visit you anne!
i found an airline that has ridiculously cheap prices and both trips together cost me 100 Euro.
what a deal!
hopefully i dont die in flight.
i am sure these are the first of many Euroventures.
Next weekend their was talk of naples and capri, one of hte most beautiful places in Italy.
a picture of me fitting in

jenny, cassie (my roomate) Bruce and me!

i also hope to get to amsterdam, prague, Budapest, Berlin, Munich, Sicily, barcelona, Edinborough, stolckhom, and dublin. We will see what actually happens.

I didnt really do anything yesterday. except i found a wonderful italian secret, the equivelent of tapas. my friends and i went to a cafe, and with hte purchase of a drink you get an all you can eat buffet of snacks!! like little sandwiches, and cow intestine soup, which i tried, but almost couldnt convince myself to swallow, supposedly its a native dish of tuscany.

Tonighti think i may just go to a wonderful outdoor bar i like to pretend is run by gypsys... although its obvously not. because its infront of a wonderful little market.

p.s- gypsys are absolutely not as reomantic as i thought they would be. There are tons of them around the Duomo, long crzy hair, long flowy skirts, and always asking for money....kind of like me as a child....

well, i hate itialian class.
love katie

smorzies

So now i suppose is an appropriate time to explain that i live with a 57 year old widow and her 27 year old daughter.
Neither family member speaks a word of english,
and myself, being a scholar of latin... have never taken or heard italian.
this forms a giant obstacle called the Language Barrier.
and a larger problem i like to call.. very awkward gesticulation.
This problem normally manifests itself around dinner time
I would like to think that its improving, and i slaughter verb noun object combinations in an effort to ask "how was your day."
which i belive is Como e andanta oggi? maybe i have no idea.
truth be told after 2 classes of itialian, as much as ai hate it, being the lingusitcally lazy individual I am, i cannot wait to put down the dictionary at the dinner table.
but!
last night there was a break through.
the student who my woman hosted before me left the ingredients for smores, but no directions. my host family confused by the quintessential american dessert asked cassie and I to make them for her.
I think they were slightly taken aback by our technique as we stuck marshmellows on knives and held them over the flame on her gas burning stove.
the end result was differnt. but i do not think either fmaily member was a fan.
momma Lucia was not conferted to the dark side of american confectionaries.
none the less
it provided some bonding time.

I am super excited about my classes. a lot of reading, but not alot of material.
High reniassance and mannerism: will probabaly be my hardest. the class meets once a week in a classroom, and once on site at a museum. we have overnight class trips to venice, padua, and rome. I am so excited!
Sexuality in europe: will probabaly be the most interesting/ have the most interesting handouts, as i dropped my notebook in the middle of my italian class and a giant diagram of the "female penis" skittered across the floor.
classical mythology: will be my guiltly pleasure. first we will go into all hte back ground myths of gods and creation, then read hte bacchae..which i already read, and then the illiad which i am psyched to read because i translated part of it in latin. we're also going to be reading sagas and poems by ovid that i have also translated. i will be in nerd heaven.

i may go out tonghit. but i will probs be to lazy.
i also found a wonderful expresso cafe for an afternoon delight

European Vacation

So i've had my first week in Florence.
and it has flown by at an incredible pace.
I havent done anything exceptually crazy, because for the meantime i have found it more enjoyable to take obscenely long walks at night then party at local discoteques.
The giant nerd that was once latent has come out full force,
and i often find myself stopped (usually in the middle of traffic) infront of one of Florences amazing sites.
the buildings arent more than 4 stories high, making the central cathedral stand out like a giant in the skyline.
its kind of funny how the city works though. it looks as though someone crossed the tropical-ness of bermuda with the foliage of upstate new york. I like it though, as I have always been drawn to the villaesque combination of stucco and terracotta.
navigationg the streets is very confusing. because the buildings are lowish.. its hard to see land marks. and i usually find myself walking in circles...
so i should change obscenely long walks to getting lost alot.
I have meta bunch of very fun people
and we might to go spain this weekend because we found round trip tickets for 70 Euro.
I still have to figure out how to travel around europe, because public transportation is not one of my strengths. but! if this doesnt work out, i will be going to Assisi on friday and an etruscan ruin on sunday. i also applied for an internship at the Centro al Restorio. where i would fianlly get some restoration experience.
i will have pictures next time
Arrivaderchi
I'll leave you with a view