summer start 07

i like summer. i really do. it's generally my favorite time of year, and even though it's the least productive time, and i have to be on long island, waitress, be without albany friends, i always seem to look forward to the weather and the ocean. it's a nice thing to come home to. this summer is different, though. it doesn't have that same appeal. it's lonelier this time around--there's only a very small handful of people to spend my free time with, most of my closest friends are really busy with internships (and i will be soon, too) or stayed up at school. the only thing that makes it okay is the beach, clear warm nights in my backyard, and sam summer ale. or any combination of those three.
after a week of being home from italy, i started working at the steakhouse again. it's not bad at all, i shouldn't complain so much, but when you have larger expectations of yourself and your life, doing bitchwork/waitressing for a corporate restaurant isn't exactly motivating. it just makes you want to run, REALLY far away. thank god for this internship at the heckscher museum--it's really the only reason for me to stay home this summer. that and my mom, but she's busy too working something like 3 jobs now? i don't even know. it's too expensive here!
waitressing does put gas in my tank though, but my biggest summer goal is to be creative in my spare time. as creative as possible. step one would be to get off facebook in my spare time. i don't know why i've become so addicted to it, it's really a time waster. i've got some goals though for my creativity plan for the summer of 2007.

1. draw every day, in some way.
2. read about 3-4 books (i am a slow reader!)
3. make some music, either with my brother or well enough on my own to not be embarrassed (in fact, stoked) to sing at an open mic.
4. spend more time with cool, interesting people (that share the interests above, actually) on long island and NYC
5. save maybe 2 grand?
6. swim
7. stop being addicted to caffiene and facebook

phew, i think that's pretty good, don't you?

i'm going to hit the hay.

ps: everyone should download "paradise" by jenny lewis, if they can find it. i have it on a 7" vinyl and it makes my heart melt. i rediscovered it today in my "creative spare time" time. haha

i forgot all about this
staying up listening to clock ticks
but i guess i like it.

i suppose i'm not used to it.
but i choose to do this.
it's how i'm passin' the ti-i-i-ime,
so i'm fine.

i feel fresh like the morning paper
too many words, but lots of pictures.
but i'm lying on my back in the driveway
everyone's just driving on the highway
and i'm pretty sure you won't be coming way
to give me a read
you don't like what you see now.
you don't like

how i pass my t-i-i-i-me
but that's fine.

and the worst blog keeper upper ever award goes to...

ME!!

Life Updates...

I never finished writing about Barcelona, but it was certainly my favorite trip so far, probably because I stayed there longer than any other city! We hit up all of the major sights: Gaudi's amazing cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, The port, Las Ramblas, The Picasso Museum, Parque Guell, the Aquarium and Maremagnum among other things. It was so nice to have enough time to just wake up and hit the road with very little of an agenda. We also had Sangria every day, and it was served every place we ate, everything from Pizza Hut to a tapas bar. I just realized I can copy the link to the website with all of my photos, and it takes far less time for me to actually put them in my blog. So here are the links to the Barcelona albums:





Since then, I have also been to Milan and Lake Como. Here are the pictures from those fun adventures:


This weekend I am going to this little city called Certaldo with my ceramics class where we are going do this firing process called Rakù. The next day I am going to meet up with my roommates in Rome and do the whole Rome thing. I cant believe that I havent been there yet!

Next weekend is Paris, and the weekend after is Valencia, so there is certainly more to come.

Barcelona!

This is going to have to be quick, but I will write more when I get back to Florence and I can put up some pictures!

Spring break is finally here. We got to Barcelona yesterday. It´s an awesome city so far. Our hostel is a bit outside the center, but it´s pretty awesome. There´s hammocks, a kitchen, good people, a den...
We can take the metro right into the center, which is called Las Ramblas (or La Rambla). La Rambla is this main street that has tons of vendors, stores, restaurants, tapas bars, and street performers. If you walk all the way down, you hit the water. There´s also palm trees everywhere. I´m in love with them!

Here´s a few highlights of our first day.
We...
-saw a parade with huge men in costumes on stilts
-ate crepes with fruit and nutella
-took a tiny air tram over the entire city
-ran through the streets barefoot in a sunshower
-let ourselves dry in the sun outside of the biggest mall ever!
-desperately tried to find a restaurant and spoke broken Castillian Spanish only to get frozen pizzas, and ham and eggs


Hamburguesas here are just a piece of ham. Total let down.

me gusta barcelona!

CIAO!

ciao, marzo!

March has been a very good month so far indeed. The weekend of the 9th and 10th, Katy and I went to Berlin. It was our first trip out of the country so it was pretty cool to venture out. We stayed at this very funky hostel in Mitte, East Berlin. East Berlin and West Berlin are really different...Mitte is a bit more artsy and in the process of being rebuilt, like alot of other things in Berlin. I was so amazed at the history there, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, old Third Reich buildings...just kind of an eye opener compared to the frills of Florence.
We stayed in a 32 bed dorm in our hostel. The walls were lime green, the beds were tiny, and sometimes we found girls sleeping in our beds, but everyone was very friendly. I would totally dorm like that again for 12 euro/night!

I DID: see the historical sights and crazy modern art galleries, go to a party with local Germans and a very scary night club, drink a beer the size of my head, and eat falafel.

I DID NOT: go to a holocaust museum, see any lederhosen, eat a weiner, or a schnitzel, or any combination of the two.

I might have to go back just for the schnitzel!


reichstag

Germans!

the Wall

feet, hostel


Now I have alot of painting midterms to finish (and start). Most of them are self portraits at the moment, which is kind of annoying and I'm getting sick of my face, but I'm learning alot about it.

We are also mastering the art of pasta sauces (marinara, pesto, alfredo, creamy pesto...) in our apartment while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I eat gelato almost every day. We also have pet fish now!

Things we miss: Tropicana, maple syrup, peanut butter

Feel free to mail them with love letters to:
Sucola Lorenzo de' Medici
Via Melarancio 6R
Firenze, Italia 50123

One Month Later...

It's been about one month since we've been here, and we've finally settled in pretty well. Classes are totally rolling, my Italian is improving (I think it is, at least, "MOLTO BENE!") and I'm having a really good time. An average day during the week consists of me getting up, making coffee from a percolator, have some toast with Nutella (if you don't know what Nutella is, please go to your grocery store and scour the isles for it, it will change your life and your jar of peanut butter will get very jealous) and head off to the studio for about 6 hours. We get a siesta in the middle where we can go grab a coffee or some lunch. We usually cook every night, which saves a ton of money and it's awesome! We basically live on pasta and veggies, but we're working on some good curveballs like risotto, breaded chicken (fancy, I know), and real beans, like dry from a bag at the market, not goya in a can. The beans have not worked yet, I think we're just going to buy cans. We also drink wine with most meals, it's pretty cheap. We have our hookup from the Indian bodega down the street who gives us 3 bottles for 10 euro. His name is Happy. haha..

We haven't done a whole lot of traveling yet, just because there is so much to do just within the city limits. Katy and I went to Venice though, and that was beautiful. We went during Carnivale, which is kind of like Mardi Gras, so it was pretty packed but everyone was dressed up and there was alot to see. Here's some pictures from that weekend...


The Island of Burano in Venice, where every house is a different color!



Palazzo Ducale in central Venice



Venetian masks, these people were SO awesome!



and a gondola, DUH! :)

Today we went to Pisa and Lucca. We saw that crazy leaning tower, took the silly pictures with us trying to hold it up, etc, etc. Other than the tower though, there's not much to see in Pisa! Lucca was actually cooler, I thought. It's this awesome old city that has a big circular wall that runs through the whole town. The wall is really high and it's pretty much built for pedestrians and bikers. So naturally, we rented bicycles for 2.50 euro and rode around the wall. It was so cool, and no one fell off the wall. Glorious!


so cliche, but I couldn't resist..



Other than that we've been having friends over, doing our homework, art projects and going on random adventures. We eat gelato like it's our job, too. We're also becoming regulars at this pub called BeBop which features a Beatles cover band every Tuesday. They are so good, and there is nothing like hearing the Beatles when you get a little homesick.



Allora! ("anyway..") That's about it for now, I will hopefully become less lazy and try to update this more frequently. Katy and I are headed to Berlin next weekend, so I'm sure I'll have something good to post from that trip. Till then, Ciao!

It's been a week...

Nothing too crazy to update at this point, except for the fact that we are on our second (family sized) jar of Nutella. Morning, noon, night...by the spoonful, on a banana, on bread, I think we eat this more than anything else.

Also,my feet are killing me- this is probably the biggest thing that I should have planned ahead for. It's tough too, if you wear sneakers or sandals, everyone makes fun of you, or at least can point you out as dinstinctly American. So we're all wearing our beautifully painful leather flats or boots, and we're dying. Katy is slowly developing her first bunion (like Paul?), I have some blisters, we all have corns. It's gross!! Dr. Scholl's is pretty expensive here too, but I think it may be worth it to pick up some of those gellin' things.
I don't have class until 4:30 today, which is awesome. But if I'm left alone for too long, I wander. And then I buy clothes. And it really, REALLY excites me. There are just too many pretty things here.
We're going to Venice this weekend, it should be awesome. Apparently there is this festival, Carnivale going on, and it's supposed to be pretty crazy. I hope I don't fall into a canal. That's all I'm saying.

some more pictures...

i hope that these don't get cut off, they look funny from this internet cafe!

around the duomo



santa croce



waffle with gelato!

along the arno...


more to come! <3 ciao.

i'm here!

this is my third day in florence and it is SO beautiful!


when we first got here, i was so confused and tired, the trip was so long and frustrated that i could hardly understand anything. 80 lbs. of luggage is also NOT cool to drag around cobblestone streets and up 5 flights of old stone stairs! but i kind of knew i was gonna be okay when we were flying over the swiss alps. i can't even tell you how beautiful everything is. i should not be complaining at all.

our apartment is really cool, it's pretty big for what we need, and we have a great common area. our neighbors, bob and the girls from michigan, are really sweet. it's cold though, everything is made of stone. tonight we made a pasta dinner with wine, fresh bread and cheese, fresh lettuce and tomatoes etc etc etc. there's these huge market places where you can just go and buy different kinds of bread, chesses, fruits and veggies, and lots of animal products, for example, a whole chicken, beak and everything! or just a breast, if you're a little grossed out and very VERY used to perdue.

there's all kind of other markets too, it's kind of like china town but everything is really nice! the streets are so small and everything is pretty walkable. i think the most frequently sought after items are cups of gelato (AMAZING), money transfer centers, and shoes. ("oh my god shoes") it's really easy to haggle a handbag down 10 euros too. i'm holding off on that though.

you can also buy 4 bottles of wine for 10 dollars. albany has NOTHING on this place.

i don't even know what else to add for now, there's so much still to see! i can't wait to start classes and make some paintings! that's a whole entire other entry though.

more to come! hi mom!

reading up.

Today I spent a fast $50 at Barnes & Noble on some travel books. I bought a Berlitz Italian-English pocket dictionary, which I think will obviously come in handy when I'm like "what on earth is proscuttio..oh right that's BACON!" It's weird though, the entire book is printed upside down. It bothers me probably more than it should. I also bought this budget-travel-hostel book that's about 3 1/2 inches thick but will be useful every weekend...
This will be really good. I don't know how accessible computers will be at 2am when Katy and I get giddy in planning our trips to Prague and Paris and Capri.
And to top off my mostly unneccessary purchase, I bought a third Moleskine notebook! This one's a little bigger and has blank sketchbook pages. I'm pretty much just going to fill it up with everything I see, wrappers, polaroids, ticket stubs, drawings, whatever. Hopefully it will be the most interesting thing I take back with me. Moleskines, if you didn't know already, are the most BALLER notebooks out there, in my opinion. They have little book markers, they're leather-bound (I think it's leather), and they are the same notebook that Hemingway (<3) Chatwin (who?) and Picasso (duh) used! Shannon got me a sweet little watercolor notebook that I've been filling up, and I also have a small graph paper one for random notes and things I can't remember.
Why am I such a mega nerd??
I'm too excited to sleep!!!!!