Oh those hostels...

So this past week I had planned almost a perfect weekend of operas.  Turandot at La Scala, Rigoletto and La Traviata in Torino, and then a matinée of Barber of Seville in Parma.  However, after much stress and disappointing seats at La Scala, I was feeling off about doing the rest of the trip (I couldn't see the stage whilst sitting and could barely see half of it while standing).  Then what reeeeeally sold me on cancelling the trip was returning to the hostel where I'd locked up my bags,  to find my bags outside of the closed locker, the lock rented from the hostel gone, and my suit jacket and scarf on my bed.

I immediately searched my stuff and everything seemed to be there.  I told the people at the front desk and they just laughed and said, "oh, another one.  Just check your stuff to make sure nothing is missing."  Hmmm...doesn't seem very helpful.  I checked it all and the only thing I found missing was the charge cable for my computer, but then I found it later in the floor under some other bags.  Even my computer was untouched.

I began checking my keys with similar looking locks on the lockers and, surprise surprise, I could unlock them!  A roommate woke up and we started talking.  Apparently everyone's stuff had gone missing but they eventually found it all thrown under beds.  But someone was missing a journal, a girl was missing her iPod, my roommate was missing an iPod cable (which made me double check and find that I was missing one as well, never to be found), and worst of all, some guy was missing his passport.  Thankfully I'd doubted leaving all my stuff in the locker and took my passport, iPod, and camera with me.  Full pockets and awkward walking, but worth it in the long run.  I was a bit freaked out and talked to the guys in the room, talked to people back home, and got a little calmer.  However, I slept with my bags in my bed and woke up early the next morning and got out.

I turned in the keys for the lock to the new attendants at the front desk and explained to them that I no longer had the lock because it, along with some other things, had been stolen.  They were completely shocked and couldn't believe it.  Apparently thefts aren't reported at all, and thus not told to other people working at the hostel.  There was a young guy and a young girl working the desk and a middle age guy doing other things.  The young guy said it was impossible to open the other locks with the keys.  He even tried it, but obviously not hard enough.  The older guy took random keys and began unlocking all the other locks easily.  They of course didn't know what to do or tell me.  I told them that thankfully the only thing stolen from me was an iPod cable, but that some people had lost iPods and passports.  So, they offered to reimburse me for the lock rental and asked how much the cable cost.  I looked it up on the Internet and found the most expensive one I could, which was $20, so they gave me 20 euros.  Of course it was really just 15 after the return deposit of the lock which was 5 euros, but they were going to be having a lot more trouble as other people woke up and began checking out, so I just let it be.

Once I left I went to the train station to go to Torino.  Torino was lovely, but I just couldn't make myself stay in another hostel, so as soon as I got there I purchased my ticket back to Florence on a train leaving at 17:57.  This ticket did not guarantee me a seat though....

So, I put the ticket in my bag, paid to have my bags locked up at the train station, went to tourist info and said, "Okay, I have about 5 hours, maybe 6.  What do I do?"  They gave me a map, highlighted my course, and I was on my way.  I did the whole thing, plus lunch, in about 2 1/2 hours.  Granted, I was moving fast, but I was in contact with people in Florence through texting and wanted to make it back for some events I had been invited to and originally said I couldn't make.  So I went back to the station and had to pay to get my bags so I could get my ticket and try to exchange it for an earlier time.  So now I had my two bags and when I asked about changing the ticket they said it wasn't possible.  I even asked about the tickets that didn't guarantee seats, but they said I couldn't even get one of those.

So now I was stuck with ~3 hours to kill.  But with two heavy bags and a hot day, I decided not to stress myself more.  So, seeing as there was a lovely little park and a pond in front of the train station, I laid out in the grass and got some reading accomplished.  Even took a little nap.

So, got on my train, had a seat until the first stop in Milan.  Even had Internet for half an hour!  Then a lot of people got on in Milan.  And then we were told there was a technical issue and there was a 20 minute delay.  Great.

Then it just kept getting later, and we had to switch trains, and the train was apparently smaller or numbered differently, thus people were arguing over seats and stuff.  Also, instead of just sitting and waiting, Italians were arguing with the staff about why the train wasn't going anywhere and thus slowing them down more and making us all more miserable.  As if complaining and asking questions will make us move faster.  And then we had to load up the food for the on train restaurant, which was actually done extremely fast.  So props to them on that.  All in all, we ended up a full hour behind schedule.  The second stop in Bologna was super short, thankfully.  Between Bologna and Florence a snack cart came by with free goodies due to our delay.  However, a bag of pretzels and a cup of water/juice/soda does not compensate for an hour long delay on a 68 euro train ticket.

I finally got back to Florence, met one friend, but it was late.  So I went home, dropped my bags, took a 2 minute shower (because the shower at the hostel that morning consisted of a shower in which you pressed a button and cold water sprayed on you for about 5 seconds then shut off, thus I did not feel clean).  I rushed down to the aperitivo close by to say hi to my friends, but most were already gone and there was no food, so I didn't stay long then went to get food elsewhere.

So, lousy day.  But, we learn from our mistakes!  The next day I met with friends and spent several hours laying in the sun at a park.  Ended up being a lovely day.  So now, I should probably finish this paper that's due on Tuesday!

Buona pasqua a tutti!

Rotarians and Royalty

Okay, so my adventures in blogging have kind of failed.  But hey, I never kept a journal as a kid either, and I've only sort of kept one during my travels here.  I guess I just don't like writing.

Anyway, not too much has been going on for me, but this week I did meet the princess of Jordan!  However, I hear princess and think of Jasmin, but I think she was in her 60's or 70's.  I believe she is currently the ambassador of Jordan in Rome, but I'm not completely positive.  She was very nice and spoke a lot about womens' rights in the Islamic world, and it was quite interesting.  She was very strong about not pushing beliefs onto others, so as to allow everyone to have their own minds and own opinions.

me and H.R.H. Princess Wijdan F. Al-Hashemi

It's finally gorgeous and sunny most days here in Florence, which really lifts my spirits.  It will make it really hard to leave.  I know I'll miss Italy somewhat, but I'll really miss the Italian friends I've made here, and getting to speak multiple languages on a daily basis.  However, I do miss having my own car, and my bike.  Man, do I miss having my bike.  I have one lent to me, very kindly, by a Rotarian here, but it's no where near the same.  I also miss having some source of income.  Here, I have nothing.  The scholarship is great, but I'm constantly worried about my fixed budget instead of having a regular incoming check.  Also, I miss my own clothes.  I mean, I have clothes here, but I've been living in Europe since the second week of July, so I've basically only had what I could pack in a suitcase for almost a year now.  So very little variety.  But, other than my fantastic friends and speaking other languages, I will definitely miss the food.  Not just Italian food because I can't eat out very often, but the freshness and quality of everything here, along with how cheap it is.  Vegetables and fruits are extremely cheap and most of my meals have become vegetarian because it's just plain cheaper to eat that way, and it tastes great.

So far as my Italian goes, it's gotten much better of course, but I still do make mistakes.  I've started reading a short Italian novel and I'm underlining all the conjugated verbs in one color and the words I don't know in another.  I'm underlining the verbs so that I really pay attention to all the different conjugations and exactly what the author is saying.  I thought about trying to label all of them with what tense they were in, but I think that would be far too much like actual homework.  And I've also sort of stopped my Italian language work, partially because I'm not in any classes for Italian this semester, and I've started working on the Tuscan/Florentine dialect.  I bought a book called Vohabolario which is the Tuscan dialect spelling of "Vocabolario" or vocabulary.  It's very interesting, and of course all in Italian, so it's forcing me to work really hard.  Now I just need to find one for Neopolitain dialect!

my new Italian book

Okay, that's it for now I think.  I couldn't find the pics I've taken of sunny Florence on my iPod, so until I figure that out, a picture of our puppy that is no longer a puppy.

Београд, Србија!!!!!

                I will now share with you the events of one of the most amazing weekends of my life.  It took place in Belgrade, Serbia (Београд, Србија).  I just finished with the Rotaract European Meeting (REM) for 2011.  This meeting happens every year for Rotaracters in Europe, but it’s always in a different city.  Since I am living in Italy as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, I was given the opportunity to go, even though I only heard about it the week before the meeting.  Nothing too official actually took place, which was really nice in a way.  Countries sent representatives to be more official and go to meetings and discuss upcoming plans and things to do for the year, I assume, while the rest of us met others from all over the world and made amazing friends and toured the capital of Serbia.  And how many Americans really get a chance to come to Serbia??

               

                So anyway, when I first arrived in Belgrade, I was met by very friendly Rotaracters and natives of Belgrade.  Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful.  One of them, Lazar, gave me a ride with some “future” German friends to my hotel and then later that same night took us for a small tour of the city and also to an authentic Serbian dinner, which was fantastic. I say “future” friends because, as is often the case with the wonderful connections you make through Rotary or Rotaract, he did not know these two guys before they arrived, but knew someone from their club in Germany who had previously lived in Belgrade and been a friend of his, and thus the connection was made to give them a ride and also a tour around the city.  Quite amazing in my opinion.  Before the dinner I went downstairs because I was starving and wanted to get something from the café.  I began to sit by myself and noticed another guy by himself who had on the same name badge for REM as me.  So we started talking and I joined him.  We were both waiting for dinner basically, but still starving, so we split a pizza.  Thijs is from Amsterdam and after my recent travels through there I was very excited to talk about that.

                After my dinner with the Germans, Florian and Franz, and Lazar and lots of socializing we went to Serbian New Year’s because in Serbia they follow the Julian calendar due to the Orthodox church and their new year is later!  We were at a very loud club on a lake and it was a pretty fun first night.  Somehow though, I came all the way to Serbia, to a program with people from all over Europe, who all speak English, and I still spent most of my night with Italians and speaking in Italian.  But it was fun!  And of course this was just the start of me being introduced to people as being from the United States and getting responses such as, “What are you doing here?  This is the European meeting!” or “Wow!  What a long trip!” or “What…?”  I was acting as not just a representative of the United States but also for Florence because no one I knew from any of the clubs I attend was at the REM.  (Edit:  I met the one other person from Florence in the Florence airport when we got back.  Pretty funny!)

                For the second day we did some touring around the city.  I saw a big fortress famous around the city and took lots of pics, but eventually just sat around with my new Italian friends from Milan and Como and got to know each other, which was fantastic.  I’ve made several great new friends from the Milan area:  Fabio, Enea, and Francesca.  There were a lot of Italians who were all great as well, but I didn’t spend quite as much time with them and there are too many to name here!  When we went to lunch we met a guy, Selim,  and a girl, Vera, from Lebanon.  They ended up being great friends.  Throughout the whole REM one of the most fun things to do was sit at tables with mixed countries.  The Italians would talk in Italian and then I would speak with them, or translate for our new friends.  Or we would all speak in English.  Or our friends from Lebanon would speak in Lebanese together.

                After this lunch we went directly outside for a Bohemian Street Festival put on by the Serbian Rotaract clubs.  They all had projects and were trying to win a competition of our votes so that they could get all the money raised that day buy the rest of us buying tickets and then using them to essentially buy things from the clubs, usually different foods or a local alcohol.  After this I went back to the hotel with some friends and took a nap because we had another big party coming up!

                This was a “Red Hot Winter” party, so the majority of us wore red things.  The crazy thing this time was that though our buses had been showing up 30 or 40 minutes late, the one this night showed up and left 30 minutes early, so we had to take a cab.  So I was talking to Vera, who was talking to a friend of hers, Elyes from Tunisia, and then a guy from Germany (Munich to be exact), Florian (different from the other one I met), came over to tell us that we had to take cabs.  So the four of us hopped into a cab together, and THEN officially met.  So of course when we got to the restaurant we all sat together.  It was so much fun.  Florian and I were instant friends.  After we had finished our meal another friend of his from Munich, Heidi, came to join us.  Once we all finished our drinks we headed out to walk to the party for the night.  Along the way I would say random phrases or single word answers in German, which almost got me into trouble because they began thinking that I knew more German than I actually do!  Once again, an amazing time partying with new friends and meeting even more.  Of course the problem is that I would meet so many people at these parties, but it was too loud usually to hear someone’s name, especially if it’s a very foreign name.  But of course we always see each other at some point the next day and say hi again and get reacquainted.

                Thus concludes the second day.  My third and last full day and night was probably the most amazing, aside from being rained on without having an umbrella.  The day was spent walking around the center city of Belgrade, but the really fun thing was the people I spent it with.  I teamed up again with Selim and Vera, and met a new friend named Housni from Morocco.  Then we found Fabio and Enea and a few new Italian friends.  So I was hoping between these two groups of friends for the whole tour, spending more time talking than listening to our guide.  New friends!  More important!  Well, Housni’s English wasn’t great he said, so some things Vera would have to say in Arabic to him.  But I thought about the way his speech sounded and my knowledge of the Francophone world, and low and behold he speaks French!  So, he and I would speak in French, he and Vera in Arabic, Vera and I would speak in English, and when Selim showed up he just won because he spoke all of them.  And then Fabio joined our group and I had to translate between French and Italian a few times, which is always fun.

                The group then split up for lunch and I ate with two Italians, Fabio and Matteo, and a guy from the Serbian Rotaract.  So we were hopping between Italian and English.  After this there was a special event to plant Christmas trees for a Christmas tree forest in front of the former president’s building.  It’s to beautify and unify the city a bit, and to have people from all over the world planting these trees and donating money was really special.  I purchased a tree and planted it in the name of the Jonesboro Rotary Club.  Oh, and I also got to meet Miss Serbia and have my picture taken with her.  On my way to this project I began talking to a girl I had previously met on another bus ride who is from Slovenia.  I can’t remember her name right now, sadly.  But I sat on the bus with her and two of her friends from Slovenia and another from Croatia.  We had a good time talking about what I’m doing in Europe and being an opera singer.

                After planting the trees, it was a bus ride back to the hotel to get ready for the final gala dinner.  I sat with Fabio, Dunja (one of the Begrade Rotaracters who was organizing almost everything), and Maria, a wonderful Greek girl.  After getting back to the hotel I went to hang out with Maria and her Greek friends and they were some of the coolest people I’ve ever met!  I have never really met Greeks or even heard the language spoken.  It sounded nothing like I’d expected.   They were having a small dinner and shared some pizza and what not with me.  The more we talked the more fun we had and I decided that for my last night, instead of sitting with Italians, whom I love but live only about an hour away from me in Italy, I would hang out with the Greeks!  They were so much fun.  Though when they speak to each other, well, it’s all Greek to me.  But they were very hospitable and interested in what I was doing and open about their culture and lives.  We laughed and joked all night long.  I told them that I’d already looked up flights to Greece and it looks like it would average around 70 Euros round trip.  The last night was definitely the best party because we were at a big hotel with a huge ballroom and a live band, so you could actually move around, so of course I danced everywhere.  I was hopping between dancing with the Greeks, Italians, and Germans all night long.  If one group slowed down or wanted to get more drinks I’d just go find my other group and dance with them.  In the process I met people from Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Austria, and some others that I can’t even remember.

                It was an amazing night, and a truly amazing experience overall.  Now on my list of places to visit in Europe before I go home, and also where I’ve been offered a place to sleep for free, I have Munich, Milan, Greece, Lebanon, Serbia, Morocco, and Amsterdam.  Now, to start looking at some flights!  But really, an enormous thank you to Jonesboro Rotary Club and Dr. Bob Warner who helped make this weekend in Serbia possible for me.  I’ve acquired a few more banners and sent some out to other clubs.  I know that the club in Lebanon now has their first banner ever from the United States of America.  Rotary truly is an amazing thing.

Serbia!

I'M IN BELGRADE, SERBIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

more news to come later.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!  New year's in Florence was pretty cool.  Lots of music, people, and fireworks.

So, I've needed to post for a while, especially about my travels to and from the United States.  Well, to start off, the Friday before I was supposed to leave on Sunday had the most snow that Florence had seen in something like 24 years--about 5 inches.  Of course everyone here was sooooo happy to see snow, but after living in Pittsburgh for four years I knew how much it could suck when it snows.  And of course flights were cancelled.  Even the buses just pulled over on the sides of the roads and quit running.  The entire airport shut down Friday and didn't reopen until 5 p.m. the next day, and that was mostly just to rebook flights.  My plan Saturday night was just to stay up all night and sleep on my flight across the Atlantic because I had to be at the airport by like 5 a.m. anyway, which also meant getting a cab at around 4:30 a.m.

Due to the snow, the cabs wouldn't book a ride ahead of time, so that sucked.  Then I kept checking the airports all night and around 2 a.m. my flight had been cancelled.  Luckily, I got in touch with my mom and she called the airline and found a new flight for me, but as soon as she booked it (or maybe before) the flight was cancelled.  But no matter what I needed to go to the airport to rebook.  Around 3 or 3:30 I started calling to book a cab, but they kept saying that I couldn't book ahead of time because they wouldn't know who would be available.  Well, that's why I wanted to book ahead of time!  So around 4 I just started telling them I wanted a cab right then.  Well, at that point they just kept telling me that no one was available and hanging up.  So I couldn't even get information on what I should do to try and make it to my flight!  They really didn't care.

So, I got my stuff together, bundled up, and started walking.  I didn't go very far until I found some other Americans my age and asked them if they were waiting on a cab.  They were waiting on a shuttle to the train station where they would try to get a cab.  So we stood and talked while I kept calling cabs.  I finally got one and when he showed up I asked if they wanted to go with me.  They were two girls with 8 or 10 bags; one of their friends wasn't there at the moment.  I told them they were welcome to join me in the cab, or they could stay and wait on the shuttle, but I was leaving then.  So one hopped in with me and we went to the airport.  The cab driver was really nice and we talked quite a bit.  Luckily it only cost me 15 euros since I had someone to split the cab with.

So, at the airport my flight was of course cancelled, so I just went and got into line.  For the first hour or so I just stood in line by myself.  I didn't even have headphones for my iPod.  Then a friend showed up in the back of the line and we talked off and on and tried to figure out the system.  For the last hour and a half or so I made some friends that had actually been at the same school as me this whole semester!  After they had stood in line as long as I had the guy told them that they could have just gone to the check-in counter and taken care of everything.  So they left and when I got up to the counter they told me that I could get on another flight later the same night to go to Amsterdam, then fly directly to Memphis the next day.  It was a a much better plan than staying in Florence because Florence doesn't have any airlines that cross the Atlantic.

Oh, funny story right before I got my flight.  I was next in line and a friend behind me said, "You're almost there!" or something and I said, "Yeah, except for this guy that just kinda magically appeared in front of me..." and a few people understood me and the whole line behind me started yelling at him that he couldn't cut.  It was fantastic.  It was really cool that the entire time I was there the mood was just sort of, "Hey, we're all screwed right now.  There's nothing else the airport can do.  There's no sense in being rude so let's just be nice to each other."  So if you cut, everyone yelled at you.  Otherwise everyone was nice and friendly; lots of chatting in English and Italian.  A bit of other languages.

Okay, so that story had to be told because of the goodness of people does exist from time to time, and also because for the girls that had been told they could just take care of their flight at the counter, as soon as they had gotten out of line the flight was officially cancelled and they were stuck.  So they needed back into the line which they had already stood in for three hours or more.  Luckily I was still there so one of them just ran over and went to the window next to mine.  No one made a big fuss, but if they had I was ready to explain her case.

So, they got a flight to Paris for around the same time that evening as mine to Amsterdam.  So we had some bonding time, which was nice.  Then I found out my other friend who is an actress here in Florence was on the same flight as me to Amsterdam.  So, I hung out with my new friends for the rest of the day, and we all went down really early to stand in line for check-in, but we all just stood in line for the ticket counter because other Paris flights were still being cancelled.  I decided it would be better to have a spot in line just in case my flight was cancelled.  Eventually it wasn't and I my other friend from Florence and I ran to get into line.  Thankfully, due to the airline problems, there were no charges for heavy bags!  So I checked mine straight through to Memphis to sort of trick the system and get a heavy bag on all my flights for free.  Score.

For the rest of the day my traveling partner and I hung out and had some good bonding time.  We called my mom and asked her to book us rooms at a hotel.  But the flight was pushed from 16:50 to 17:30 and then to 18:30.  So we waited until we were on the plane and the door was shut before sending a text to book the room.  The Amsterdam airport is fantastic.  We both were starving and got hamburgers and beer.  Obviously we weren't pumped to get back to the USA.  We tried to take a cab to our hotel but the driver told us we should take the free shuttle (which we had been told didn't exist) instead of paying him 30 euros for the cab.  But then of course the shuttle didn't exist and we came back and he was booked.  We finally found a cabbie who charged us 35 euros for what should have been a 10 minute cab ride but took about half an hour because he got lost.  But at last we got to the hotel and got a good night's sleep.

So the next day we'd planned on taking public transportation to make up for the expenses of the taxi the night before.  The lady at the front desk told us to take a cab because it would be impossible to get anything and even if we did it would take forever.  As she was saying this the bus we were supposed to take drove by and then came back in the direction we needed it.  We ran out but missed it, but then waited about 5 minutes and another one showed up.  We tried to pay, but nothing really happened, so we got a ride for free.  We had a lot of fun reading signs in Dutch and figuring out what things said.  Then at the train station we tried really hard to buy tickets, but there was only a machine which only took cards, but none of the cards we had.  So a train came up, we ran upstairs, hopped on (because she had said it was the right train), then she had to ask someone if it was the right train.  Luckily, it was and the airport was only one stop away!  So, we ended up getting free public transportation for the whole morning.  But we tried really hard to pay!

We had an amazing breakfast at STARBUCKS!  My first American style coffee in months, and a delicious blueberry muffin.  There are pictures, just not on my camera.

So, I already had a boarding pass, but she didn't, so we had to check her in again.  She also had bags which needed to be checked.  When we got to the counter she had to move stuff around so as to not have an overweight bag (hehehehe....I had an overweight bag....) but then we found out that she had been upgraded to business class!  Jealous.  And she was very smart to realize that that meant she could check TWO bags.  Lucky.  We were both very over theatrical about her being in business class and me not being upgraded, which seemed to make the days of the women working at the check-in counter.  But after we walked away we looked at my ticket and I WAS in business class on my flight.  Woo-hoo!  Though we were both pumped to go hang out in our lounges, we would have had to go through separate security checks, so we opted to hang out and shop.

So anyway, we finally did have to separate.  I was worried about being late to my check in, so I rushed right through it, but then, being business class and all, I got to hop right around the line and check in.  So then I was just there for a couple hours.  That was kinda lame, but not too bad.  We we started boarding I got to walk straight up as well, and I was in the front row of business class.  There was a bottle of water, pillow, blanket, and a goody bag waiting for me.  So cool.  I was sitting there for a short while, was served a bit of sparkling wine, and having a great time when I was asked if I would mind sitting in an aisle seat.  I of course did not and I actually prefer the aisle on a plane.  So I switched so that a husband and wife could sit together and was bumped up to FIRST CLASS.  First class is so great.  Lots of food, reclining chairs, and never an empty glass.

So far as food, I had a multi course meal on actual plates with real silverware and even table clothes!  The menu as I recall it was:

Appetizer:
Mixed nuts
Smoked salmon with capers
Delicious soup
Caprese salad (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and olive oil)

Main Course:
Mixed salad
Filet of beef with mushroom gravy of some sort (a very large piece of meat as well)
Mashed potatoes
Spinach sauteed with garlic
Cooked carrots

Both of these with a variety of dinner rolls to choose from and three different wines I think.  Oh, and quite good coffee.

Desert:
I was going to go for the healthier choice of cheeses and fruits, but when the guy referred to the ice cream as a sundae, I had to go for it.  So I had a giant scoop a vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.

And then at a random point during the night a lady came buy and offered me a chocolate chip cookie.  It was still warm.  Fantastic.

Then about an hour before we landed I was to have a turkey sandwich, which I assumed would be a crappy sandwich, but it wasn't.

Lunch:
Turkey and melted cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a loaf of whole wheat bread with pumpkin seeds on top.
A salad of shredded carrots, nuts, and dried fruits.

So, the trip home pretty much.  It was pretty fantastic.  The trip back of course was pretty bad of course because I was back into coach which was only slightly more uncomfortable, but had like half the food.  Luckily I planned ahead.  And once again I couldn't sleep on my transatlantic flight.  Very annoying.  Then when I landed in Munich they were very surprised that I made it to my connecting flight because I had to get my passport checked again, go back through security with my bag, and run across the airport.  But I made it, and then we sat in our plane for about an hour just to be told something wasn't working and we had to switch planes.  Of course, this wouldn't have actually been that terrible if the flight hadn't been filled with Chinese families with like three or four kids each.  None of them spoke a common language with anyone on the plane, they wouldn't sit down, they were constantly changing seats, and they moved other people's stuff.  I couldn't find my backpack in the overhead bin at one point because they moved it without telling me.  And every time we had to get up for something they all acted like they would actually get somewhere faster by standing up and grabbing their bags immediately.  For one, at both of these airports everything took place out on the tarmac, so any transfers meant that everyone had to get on the same shuttles to be transported, so it doesn't matter if you're off the plane first or last.  Also, airplane aisles are super small, but for some reason they all thought that we could get up and stand in the aisles at the same time, and of course that if they didn't immediately get their bags then they would disappear.  I was telling them in as many languages as I could to calm down and wait.  I had to push one man behind me at one point because even though the line wasn't moving he kept pushing against me.  So, that flight was kinda hell.

I got to the airport, and for the first time ever my bag had been lost.  It was bound to happen eventually and seeing as there was nothing I immediately needed in the bag I didn't worry about it.  And actually they had my bag the next day and delivered it to my place.

So, that's my long story about traveling home and traveling back to Italy.  New Year's here was cool.  More details later I hope.

How did that audition go? Oh, and prizes!

The "audition" went great.  Mary Sue and I basically just flipped through my arias book and she had me sing random things to test me out through trouble spots in certain arias.  It was really a lot of fun!  Of course some things I hadn't sung in three or four years, so they were very problematic, but she also wanted to see how quickly I could change and how I take advice.  I ended up getting a great little lesson.  The biggest problem was that I had just come from an hour long lesson and the only break I had from singing was the bus ride to the church!

So, some cool things she told me: picking the best pitch in the phrase and sing around it, counting my vibrato, and of course using my air more.  So, picking the best pitch in the phrase was kind of cool to keep from switch the timbre too much.  This worked especially well in phrases going from low notes up to my middle voice to keep me from pressing too much on lower notes and then not having the right position in my middle voice and thus losing overtones.  I'm going to go out of order from my list to talk next about the air thing.  It was the same problem I encountered when I had a coaching with Mark Trawka at Pittsburgh Opera last year in that I often back off the air when I go down in pitch instead of keeping the sound alive.  Also, I change the majority of pitches in my throat, not with my air, which is bad.  So, that's something we worked on a bit and I know needs to change, so it's sort of up to me.  But my coloratura was really cool when we figured it out in that brief amount of time.

Now, the coolest thing was counting vibrato.  I'd heard of doing this to get a more pleasant sound, but never to actually know how to release a note.  She had me count how many reps my vibrato went through on high, dramatic notes, and then always release on an odd number; that way I was always releasing UP instead of down.  It was so cool!  The sound keeps going after the note, and it works especially well if a note needs to be released tenderly instead of dramatically.  Probably the coolest thing we talked about.

So afterwards we went to get some coffee and talk, and then walked around Florence for several hours.  It was a great time.  She said she'd like me to come to Arizona to visit her Rotary club and maybe do a concert.  She also wants to introduce me to some great directors, conductors, and composers.  So exciting!

So, speaking of Rotary, I've had some great dinners and social events with them lately.  Last night we had a gala d'auttuno with the theme of Casino Royal.  I was afraid that more people would be in tuxes and only a few of us with be in suits, so I wore a black suit, white shirt with French cuffs, and a silver tie.  Some guys had tuxes, most of us were in suits, some were in jeans and hoodies.  It was really cool though because we got a lot of chips and two free drinks with our cover charge.  The only games they had were Poker, Roulette, and Blackjack.  I was holding out for a while on Blackjack, but I gave up and began playing Roulette, and losing a lot.  Also, I had to explain how to play to some people all in Italian.  After a while of losing and being down to only a few chips of hundreds and a 500 I left, hung out with friends, and kept having a great time.  But eventually I went back, played at a different table, and did alright back and forth and got a little bit of money back.  Then I got mad because the guy spinning the wheel sucked and the wheel would stop spinning before the ball finished.  Not exciting, so I left.  Same thing of hanging out with people, dancing, making new friends and everything.  Then a friend gave me some chips because he had won a lot at Poker and was going to Blackjack.  So I went back to a table, and started playing high stakes and getting a lot of chips back.  It was a lot of fun and on the last spin I bet 2,000 on black, 2,000 on the cross with 35 black, and I bet around 6,000 or 7,000 on the column below 35.  And, as luck would have it, the ball landed on 35 black!  But then the jerks just said, "okay, done!" and left.  They wouldn't even pay us!  And then I argued and they just kept telling me it was the last roll and didn't matter, but of course there were prizes to win and I'd won something like 16,000 or 20,000 in chips.  They didn't have enough 500's for me!  So, I told some of the guys that knew me and they helped explain it to the guys giving out the prizes and I won a gift certificate for two to a spa outside of Florence and two more free drinks!  Great night.  Made a lot of new friends, got prizes, and was the only American not speaking English.  There were at least two American girls there that I only really met by them being at my table or because I heard them talking to other people, and they weren't even trying to speak Italian.  Not even for simple colors and numbers!  Very strange to me.

So anyway, had a great night and met a lot of new people and got closer with my other friends that were there.  Soon I'll update you all on the really cool Italian Thanksgiving I had!

Audition of my lifetime!

Hello all!

So sorry to have not been posting very much.  Such is life I guess.  But, I have an extraordinary story for today! Today it was like everything just magically came together by meeting one person.  Mary Sue, and I don't know her last name, was presenting a check to St. James Episcopal Church here in Florence this morning.  She had actually sat two rows behind me the whole service and I could tell she had some sort of musical experience when we were singing the hymns.  It was an extremely musical day today!  There was a wonderful tenor there today who sang three very lovely pieces, the last of which was Panis Angelicus as a duet with our music director.  He sang from the altar and she sang from the choir loft in the back of the church.  A-ma-zing.

Anyway, my morning was filled with music.  After the service, Mary Sue and I began talking about what I do and where I went to school.  She almost went to CMU for voice, but decided on Curtis instead.  Yeah...but she was a great friend of Lorenzo Malfatti and was actually in Lucca when I was there two years ago, we just never met!  I gave her my card and she saw Rotary and said, "hey, I'm a Rotarian!" and I proceeded to tell her that I'm an Ambassadorial Scholar and she demanded that we meet again sometime this week.  She also wants to go to a meeting this week, so I just sent a quick e-mail to try and find a meeting to go to this week and I'm very excited.  We talked off and on a bit more and it was all fantastic.

Afterwards I went with our guest tenor, Grahm, to grab a drink with Mary Sue and a music director at the music school in Fiesole.  So, Mary Sue and I began talking more about what I do, what I want to do, etc.  I talked about my senior recital and the recital I just did here so that she could get an idea of my rep, and when I mentioned the Old American Songs by Copland she taught me an amazing lesson.

Aaron Copland, Lee Hoiby, and Lorenzo Malfatti were three of the first Fulbright Scholarship winners EVER and they all studied in Italy at the same time.  Copland wrote the Old American songs FOR Malfatti, who did their world premiere at St. James Episcopal Church WHERE I SING IN ITALY and I sang six of the twelve on my recital, in St. James Episcopal Church.  O-M-G!  Chills when she explained this to me.  She also knew Copland and still knows Hoiby.  She thinks I should meet Hoiby and perform some of his work....

So, she said that she has to hear me sing.  Thus, we are meeting up on Tuesday of this week and I'll sing for her.  SO NERVOUS!  To me, this could really be the audition for me.  She knows so many people, and is so gracious, a Rotarian, graduated with Dr. Page's daughter from Curtis (yes, they're friends and were in the same class I believe).  And she wants me to come to Arizona, where she lives, and perform for like Rotary or something.  Ugh, overwhelming.  Anyway, that's the newest and biggest news.  Hopefully I'll have a great follow up this by the end of the week!

I have Internet!

Woo-hoo!  I finally have Internet at my place.  I'm not completely sure when it started working.  My landlord came by on Tuesday to help me with it, but before he arrived I turned on the router and tried to bring up the problem pages on the web, but it worked!  Everything all of a sudden worked even though the router still didn't have all the appropriate lights.  The landlord came over, we put in the username and password information and now I'm good to go.  I think I'll be fine from here on out.  And the connection seems to be pretty fast.  I still haven't gotten to test Skype yet though.

So anyway, life in Italy gets better every day.  I've figured out that in combination with people not speaking to me in Italian when I first got here, I was also frustrated with the lack of help from Rotary and also the lack of company.  But things are better now.  I have fantastic friends that are American, British, and Italian.  I also have been getting great help from certain Rotary members and the Roteract.  I went to a murder mystery dinner with the Roteract kids and last night had a fantastic dinner with the Todescans, a family of Rotarians.  I love that family.  We speak all in Italian, but the Mrs. speaks English just in case I don't get something, plus they feed me fantastic food and lent me an old bike today!

Anyway, all is going well here in Firenze.  I can't write too much now because I have to write several essays for Rotary before next week.  In English and Italian...ugh...

Rotary thus far

Actually a very old post, so not actually anything about "last night" lol

Grand dio!  Tutto andava bene!  Benissimo!  Tonight I went to my first Rotary meeting tonight, thanks to the wonderful Elaine Poggi, and had an amazing time.  E tutto era in italiano!  Elaine only knew two or three people there, but she is a very outgoing person and immediately started introducing me to people.  She started with the nearest group of people, who after a while I found out were a bunch of teenagers.  They were nice, but basically talked amongst themselves.  There was also an American girl there but I continued speaking to her in Italian when they introduced me to her, but then I found out that she doesn’t really speak any Italian.  Alas, everyone in that group was between 16 and 18.

Then I found Elaine and told her that those kids were too young for me so we found the group from Roteract that were all around my age.  I ended up meeting a lot of people because we all sat at a table together.  It was a lot of fun and really funny because every time I was introduced to someone they would great me with what little English they knew, but then became very excited when they found out I could speak Italian.  Thus, I had a great night and great dinner with new friends and picked up my first Rotary banner.  Sadly, I didn’t take one of mine so I couldn’t give them one, but they’re letting me come back in the spring to present them with a banner.

Since then I’ve been to a couple other events for both Rotary and Roteract.  I was working on this post like a month ago and as per usual I didn’t finish and kept forgetting about it.  One very fun event though that I recently went to was to play Wii with the Roteract and Interact clubs.  We played Wii Tennis, which was very fun and surprised them that I knew how to play so well.  It was also funny because the Wii announcer still spoke English but all the text on screen was in Italian.

So the next step is being an actual member of Roteract.  There is some big dinner I’ll be going to next week.  I keep getting confused about what’s going on with membership and payment because they always explain it to me very, very fast.  So, things for Rotary are going pretty well, even though my “host” has only spoken to me once in the last couple months to basically say he’s been busy and I still won’t be able to speak at his club anytime soon.

Okay, if you read through all that, great.  This is basically a month or two old and I’ll try to be more up to date next time.

La SpeeeeEEEEEEEEranza!

I’m prefacing this with the fact that I originally was writing it like September 23^rd or 24^th as a word document and I’m just now posting it.  Sorry!

Yesterday I received an e-mail about events that are happening in Florence for students this week.  In that e-mail was information about a concert that night of Porgy and Bess.  And what was even better was that the tickets for students were only 5 Euros!  So of course I planned on going.

So, when I got home I went for a run (because I’m running in the Corri la Vita this weekend) and went about 2 miles I think only really stopping at stoplights.  I got back and had hoped to cook dinner before going to the concert, but realized that to get there in time to buy a ticket, even by bus, I needed to shower and leave.  So I did and then looked up a quick bus schedule.  Well, I couldn’t find any evidence of this bus around my house, so I hopped on one that came by, asked if it was going to the theater, and several people on the bus said yes and a young couple told me to go with them.

So, I talked to them for a while and we got to the theater and looked for the ticket office.  They had purchased their tickets online, and apparently so had a few other hundred people and they all had to stand in the ticket line to pick up these tickets.  We finally found the end of the line, about a block long, and took our places.  The guy told me that he didn’t know about any tickets being left, but I could always try.  So I stood there.  As we got closer we started seeing signs saying the performance was sold out, but I was already about 20 minutes into the wait.  So we talked about it and decided that maybe people didn’t show up and I should keep waiting because I had already committed over half an hour (and the show was already about 10 minutes late.  So I got to the point in the line where you just stand and wait for the absentee tickets.  My new friends wished me luck and get their tickets.

I continued to wait.  I was very confused by the line because no one was assisting us and we were all just standing there.  Then finally they started giving out tickets.  Most were for 35 Euros and I thought about buying one and trying for a discount of like 10 or 15 Euros.  Then all of a sudden they said that they were not selling any more tickets because they had to start the show.  We were all extremely let down.  But then some guy showed up behind all of us and he had a single ticket and it looked like he had a girlfriend for whom he couldn’t buy a ticket.  I asked him how much and he only wanted 5 Euros!  But then they said they were closing the doors and he thought the ticket wouldn’t matter.  The people behind the desk said I could still get in if I hurried.  So I gave him the money and took off running.  The ticket was for the floor seats but the door was closed, so they took a last minute group of us upstairs to the second tier.  We walked in as they were finishing tuning, but it was amazing to make it in like that!

So, as for the concert, it was decent.  From the tier I could hear the singers on stage right pretty well, but for the second half I moved down to my actual ticketed seat and could only really hear people on stage left.

After the concert I went around to the stage door, of course, and waited for performers.  The chorus slowly filed out and I actually knew a few people, one of whom because he had sung Colline in La Boheme in Lucca when I was there two years ago.  Super cool!  My voice teacher’s wife was also in the chorus and the music director for my church.  The only soloist I saw come out was the tenor who sang Sportin’ Life, Ronald Samm.  I talked with him for a bit and he was very nice.

Overall a very fun and exciting night, made all the better by the suspense of whether or not I would get in to see the concert!

Now, as you all could tell it took me a while to get this post up.  My Internet is back to not working at my apartment.  I’m starting to look for a way out of the agreement so I can move at the end of this month or maybe for the next semester.  Internet is kind of required in this day and age to stay in touch with friends and loved ones.  Also, I have a couple more blog posts written up in word perfect so I’ll try to use this week to get everything up.  Try not to miss one! 

I'm still here!

Sorry for taking so long to update my blog.  I’ve been sort of busy, but I also always just forget that I should write these updates in Microsoft word and then post them online when I have Internet.  Instead I usually think about writing something when I’m sitting at an Internet Train paying to use their Internet.

Speaking of which, I’ve had quite a grueling time with the internet.  I’m so very, very close to having a connection in my apartment.  In fact, after I write this it may even be uploaded from my room!  But we’ll just have to see.  As the Italians say, “Non c’è fretta” or “there is no hurry.” So, how am I so close to having Internet?  Allow me to chronicle the tale to you, and teach you all a bit about the Italian system!

So, I’ve been calling my landlord every week for about a month about the Internet situation at my apartment.  He kept telling me that he had given Vodafone (telephone and Internet provider) his number and that they would call him when they were available and then he would call me.  Now, this seems very useless to me. Why not just have them call me?  Though I guess my Italian is a bit limited, but most of them speak English well enough.  So this went on for a while until it became, “I’ve signed the contract.  They should be there this week.  Ten days at the max!”  Well, of course they tried to schedule at 6 p.m. on a day when I have class until 5:45 p.m.  I my landlord, whom we shall now refer to as Nello as that is his name, that it was possible but I might be a few minutes late because I had a class.  He decided we should just put it off until Saturday.  I said, “No, I’ll be there.   We can’t keep putting this off.”  He said fine, then changed his mind to 8:30 A.M. Friday morning.  Ugh.  Well, of course I arrived home Thursday evening right at 6 p.m. and Nello and his wife were there and we talked for a bit and he dropped off the router with me.  Yay!  Il rooter!

So, next morning I wake up early, have some espresso, save a bit for my guest, and then get the place ready for company as best I can.  The young man that showed up may not have slept for a week, but it had not phased him one bit.  He was wired super tight.  All I said was, “Buongiorno!” and “Va bene,” in response to him and all of a sudden it was understood that I spoke Italian, and then some other stuff was said…idk.

Now I know I’ve been complaining and dying to speak more Italian, and I was happy to speak with him, but I have quite honestly never heard anyone speak Italian that fast (even faster than the Don Pasquale duet I believe) and he thought I understood it all!  And this was 8:30 in the morning!  On a FRIDAY!  But it was still funny as I woke up more and more and we talked a bit and as I understood every third or thirtieth word.  There was a lull at one point and I asked if he would like a cup of espresso and his response was, “no, grazie,” followed by an explanation of why he didn’t want any and some gitters like a Thriller Zombie that gave me the impression that if he drank any caffeine his head might explode.  That would have been bad and left me with no DSL.  Or ADSL as it seems to be referred to here.

Okay, so, everything was installed in the walls, lines checked, very little cell phone service in my dungeon, but the router was hooked up.  Now, this makes no sense to me, but the router is plugged into the wall by a data cable (resembling telephone wire), but it also needs a jumpdrive that holds a SIM card to be plugged in as well.  I’ve never seen something like this before, and it sort of makes sense for paying on your cell phone bill, but it was very annoying and useless to me.  Why?  Because the jump drive and SIM card weren’t in the box!  The codes for the network access and SIM card were in the box, but no such luck otherwise.  So, I mentioned that maybe Nello had them.  I guess he didn’t get this because he just kept telling me that I needed to go to the Vodafone store and talk to them and I could get it taken care of.  I said okay, we chatted a bit, laughed, and he left.  Very nice, very crazy guy.

So, it’s about 9:30 a.m. at this point and I get ready to make the long walk across town to the Vodafone store.  I thought several times, “Just call Nello; he probably has it,” but it seemed early and I was ready for a bit of a walk and maybe some store browsing.  I arrived at the store and explained that my landlord had purchased the router, the guy and I set it up, the line was good, but we didn’t have the “Internet Key.”  He told me I would have to get a new router because whoever had it before probably kept the key and I needed a new one.  Then proceeded to sale me on a new plan and such, though I was pretty sure Nello had all that taken care of beforehand.  So I stepped outside to call him and of course he had the key and he and his son were coming by on Saturday to set it up.  He had already mentioned this to me the day before, I remembered, it just didn’t click.  So, now I had a whole day with a brand new router sitting at my house and no Internet.

Okay, so I anxiously wait all day long for Nello and his son, Luca, to arrive and set everything up.  Got some reading done and listened to Joyce DiDonato’s “Pasion” CD, very soothing.  They arrived and began working.  So, I needed to install a program using a CD/DVD and we tried this and it just wouldn’t work and we couldn’t figure it out.  Then I remembered, haha, I’m in ITALY!  My computer è Americano.  Stupid region codings.  This was pretty hard to explain (neither of them speak English), but Luca agreed with me and then explained it to Nello.  Luckily they had brought another laptop and it worked.  Now, at some point while the ball was rolling I didn’t notice that Luca went through an online setup and established the password encryption as WEP instead of WPA, which it had been originally and I had actually connected my computer and iPod to it regardless of the lack of Internet.  It’s still a network, after all.  The problem with this is, other than the fact that WEP is less secure, is that my computer only recognizes WPA encryptions, so I couldn’t connect to the network anymore.  It took a while but I finally figured out what he had changed, but I didn’t know HOW he had changed it.  I explained a few times what I believed the problem to be, and I think he got it and sort of agreed, but kept trying other things.  This went on for a very long time and at one point Nello asked if we were done with the other computer.  I was thinking, “NO NO NO!” but didn’t say anything fast enough so it went away.  In all our waiting and deliberating though Nello did bring us a couple of espressos, which was very nice and a good little break as we sat and sipped on them and discussed what was going on with the Internet.

Luca decided at one point that maybe it was because Vodafone had not yet activated the DSL line and thus we couldn’t connect to the Internet.  It took a bit but I explained that I had already connected my computer to the network and that there was wireless in the room, but just no Internet.  I explained that it shouldn’t matter if there is or isn’t Internet, there is still a network.  After a while more of staring and clicking I finally got out my iPod with my handy dandy UltraLingua app (thanks Carnegie Mellon) and figured out a few new vocabulary words and used a few stronger words such as “I believe” instead of “I think.”  This worked a little better, and then I thought to connect my iPod to the network.  I did this and it did work (because though you may all think this is a win for Mac it just proves that they care less about their quality of wireless security as compared to PC users who won’t even acknowledge WEP :-P) and I was able to go to the webpage and change the encryption back to WPA.  I did this, the iPod disconnected, a few seconds of anxiety passed, and all of a sudden my laptop connected to the network!  Tutto bene!

We were fairly celebratory.  But still, no Internet; just a network connection.  My hopes had been that I would leave for a while and some server off in the distance would switch on my Internet.  No such luck.  It apparently must be a person somewhere.  So, I wait.  I watch all the little flashy lights and wait for one more to pop up.  In fact, only 3 out of the 5 are on now.  There were 4….must investigate.  Oh yeah, there is a LAN connection light.  I’m not wired in anymore so it’s off.  No worries.  So yeah, still no Internet.  Maybe one day.  It’s almost my one month anniversary in Florence.  Maybe that will be my present.

Okay, that was a really long post, but that’s only one of the crazy things that have happened since I last wrote!  I have a few more good stories that will hopefully be sorter.  A few more quick words about Nello and Luca.  Before they left Nello sort of showed Luca around and he was using regular vocabulary and I have recently learned new vocabulary for such tiny living conditions and I was sure to point that out.  Also, Luca had seen my goggles sitting on my desk and asked if I was a swimmer.  I said I try, but I’m more into biking and only do the swimming because I was interested in doing triathlon.  I also pointed out that I had noticed his RoadID bracelet, which is a little bracelet to wear with all your medical information on it so that if you’re in an accident on a ride or run it helps the doctors work faster with you.  He then pointed out that he was wearing a Florence Half-Ironman shirt and that he will be going to the world championships in Florida next year!  How cool!  I mentioned an upcoming 5K here in Florence and found out that Nello is the organizer!  So I kind of have to run.  It’s actually next Sunday and the furthest I’ve run without stopping is 2 miles; 5K is 3.1.  I told him I didn’t know about church obligations yet (bum, bum, bum!  What’s this?!  A preview of a future post?!), but I would find out and try to be in it.  So I’m free and will try to enter tomorrow to run in it and spend a couple days this week trying to build up my mileage.

So, that’s it for now.  Sorry it was so long and drawn out, but that’s what it’s like in Italy!

Update:  Internet has worked at my apartment long enough so far the I could update my Facebook status once.  I had to get a Vodafone SIM card to call the service line, which doesn't work in my phone so I have to pay for it with my Wind SIM card anyway.  And the service in my house isn't really good enough to stay connected and understand the Italian anyway, so I'm kinda stuck for now.  I spent all day today working on it and by the time I get out of class I'm betting that they won't be open anymore.  Another update very soon.

Don't second guess the milk!

So, you know how in the US we see the expiration date on that milk in the fridge and if it’s like, day of or a couple days after we’ll smell it and say, “Oh, it’s fine, just drink it!”  Don’t do that in Italy.  I made my regular cup of espresso yesterday morning, and normally I use a regular size mug, put in one sugar cube (that delicious cane sugar of course), fill it about halfway with espresso, and the rest is milk, and it tastes AMAZING.  I did just as that yesterday morning and as I poured my milk it seemed to me that I was pouring cottage cheese into my coffee…which is not what I had intended.  I smelled the milk and it smelt like it always does, and then observed that the bottle said “1 Sept” so I just assumed that, it being September 1^st, it should still be good!  So, like an idiot, I poured a bit more, thinking that maybe the milk had frozen a bit, but once again it was like cottage cheese, or maybe mozzarella because that’s more popular here and also sits in more liquid than cottage cheese does.  Rather perplexed (all this was shortly after I woke up, mind you) I grabbed a small glass and poured the milk in there.  It didn’t smell bad, but did appear to be expired, or have been sitting in the sun for some period of time.  I resolved that it had indeed gone bad as the clock struck midnight on September 1^st and poured out my coffee and threw the milk away.  Luckily, it was mostly gone anyway.  But, moral to the story is that milk here goes bad when it says it does.  So don’t push it!

So all the students for LdM arrived yesterday and are in orientations for the next few days.  My orientation is Friday.  I’m pretty excited to actually be meeting some people here!  So far I’ve found about five people attending LdM who are from Arkansas or attend school in Arkansas and there is another Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in the same district as me here who is from Oxford University in England.  I’ve sent e-mails to a few of these people to try and find out more about them.  Haven’t heard much back, but it’d be nice to find some people to go to the museums and such with, or get coffee or a bite to eat.

I’ve sent, or at least written and I’m just missing the addresses to, all of my postcards.  Well, just the first 12.  I’m going to buy some more, it’s just that they are annoying expensive to send.  They cost a total of $1.25-1.55 per card.  So you who are receiving them know you’re special!  I’m actually getting very into it and it’s fun to write them now, I think just because I have an Italian address and also because I remember how exciting it is to get postcards from friends abroad.  Which for me is now all of you!  Send me letters the good old snail mail way!  And don't forget to send me your addresses so I can continue to send postcards.

Scott Beasley

Via San Niccolò 80

50125-Firenze

Italy

I got some contacts ordered today!  Actually, I ordered them yesterday, but when asked for my phone number I couldn’t remember the last four digits and so I had to go back today and give them my number again.  But there were very nice!  After a while at least because when I showed them my handy-dandy prescription card they said that “Oaysis” contacts didn’t exist, but they’re really just a category of Acuvu, which I told them, and they said, “No, non è vero, aspetta,” and then he looked it up online and of course, j’ai eu raison.  So he happily ordered them for me after I told him I live here.  So, good stuff!

Today has not been a good day for saving money, sadly.  I try really hard and it just doesn’t always work. I went to a café today to get some lunch and went there SPECIFICALLY because they have free wifi.  I tried to sit outside because it was so nice today and I was in the shade of the Duomo (awesome).  Well, it wasn’t working and the waitress (who so far speaks Italian, Spanish, English, and German) and I decided that maybe it just didn’t work outside, so I ordered and then went inside.  Well, it still didn’t work and I was stuck there.  Then I got my glorified coffee, which was a substitute for a soda that I didn’t want but was supposed to come with my meal, so don’t freak out, Mom, and it was gorgeous, but just okay.  My homemade coffee with rotten milk would be tastier I think.  And then my chicken sandwich came and it was terrible.  I had eaten there before and used the Internet with success for a couple hours and had a delicious hamburger, but I attempted to cut my sandwich and the bottom bun was so hard I couldn’t cut through it!  I ended up picking it up and could barely bite through, and even at that I eventually got rid of the bottom bun and sort of nibbled on the rest of it.  And the fries were less than good.  Sadly, I have not had good French fries since I’ve been in Italy, but (of course) they were pretty amazing in France!  I should have a running tally on French and Italian food wins and losses….

So anyway, no Internet and a crappy lunch.  Sad day.  What was funny was seeing a group of teenage American girls come in and the first thing they asked was how big their margaritas were.  I’m assuming they had escaped their parents for the day and wanted to have a little fun.  This was at 12:30.  Ah, la vita bella….

I have now mended my Internet ways and returned, once again, to Internet Train.  This place is fantastic and reasonably priced.  And the guy who works here (and isn’t here today for the first time!) is super nice to me and has always spoken to me in Italian, even though I’ve heard him speak English to other people.  And this place does everything: faxes, copies, telephone, wifi, desktops (I’ve paid for both services because it’s nice to not always have to carry my computer and bag), postcards, bathroom, printing, routers and phones for sale, drinks, and snacks.  Of course, this also led to my other extra expense today.  I had to make copies of every page of my passport, which was only €2.25, but I had a €10 or a card, and the new guy didn’t have any change other than €.50 coins and my card didn’t work.  So I just bought a Fanta and said whatever.  I still got a handful of change and he felt bad, but I’m all about customer loyalty and this is one of the few places that’s been really kind, reliable, and spoken to me all in Italian!  So, it’s all good.  And I’ve been craving Fanta for about a week.

On a final note, as I was sitting here writing this a rather large couple, pretty sure they were Americans, walked in to use the Internet.  They just read the signs but never approached the counter.  They sat down and began to put a credit card into the card reader on the computer and I quickly explained that you had to purchase a card with time on it and that was what you used to access the computer.  They just sort of said, “Oh,” talked quietly to each other, helped each other out of the chairs (rather large), and then left.  They never even attempted to ask for help.  I see people come in here all the time who don’t bother to try and speak any Italian, not even a “ciao” or “buongiorno!” but they’ll still go up and ask for help.  It was just truly shocking to me that these two were either so independent or so scared of talking to anyone that they wouldn’t even approach the counter to try and get Internet access.  There are so many signs here you could easily point your way through the whole process if neither person spoke the same language!  So today’s tip:  just try; don’t let little things like a language get in your way.  I survived in France because my wonderful language teachers would always make me describe things I wanted to know about, as best I could, in the language until I could get an answer for the word I was looking for.  So in France I was always making up my own words or phrases and then asking what the real word was and half the time I was already right or really close!  Now, if only I could convince these dang Italians that I can speak Italian if they’ll let me practice and get back into the flow of things….

p.s. I was very humbled yesterday when after writing to my old Spanish teacher and telling him I didn’t really remember any Spanish anymore, I left Internet Train and immediately encountered a Spanish couple trying to use an ATM that didn’t have a Spanish translation.  I did my best but the only things I could really say were, “You speak Spanish” and “Ummm…if you go…” and the such, trying to tell them where there was an ATM with Spanish on it.  Alas, they were in a hurry and didn’t have time for my blundering and ran in the other direction.  I reflected on it a couple hours later and thought of plenty of things I could have said, but my Spanish just isn’t there anymore what with French and Italian floating around in my head.  Maybe I’ll pick it up again eventually.  Also, to my credit, I think they were speaking in Catalan, or at least they had very think Barcelona accents…

One week down, several more to go!

So, it's a gorgeous day in Florence and the heat is actually not terrible for once!  I'm once again sitting at Lion's Fountain Irish Pub because I get free Internet here and there's hardly ever anyone here, so I don't feel bad about sitting here for hours if need be.  In fact, yesterday there was a soccer match and I just slipped in and sat down and waited for someone to take my drink order for about 2 hours, but no one did, so I had like 2 hours free Internet.  Alas...

As I've been writing this I've been catching up with a friend that lives here and friend from Belle Ile and now it actually is getting hot out.  Not terrible though.  I don't think I've talked about my frustration with how this is such a touristy city.  When I was in Lucca, I don't know what it was, but I apparently looked the part of an Italian and people would speak to me in Italian, but I guess since there are so many tourists here that I just look like another American and everyone just speaks to me in English.  Even if I speak in Italian they speak to me in English.  And thus my Italian is becoming slower and slower and harder to use.  So, I think I'll steal a trick from someone at the music festival I just left.  One day someone was speaking to him in English instead of French, so he said he was Spanish and didn't understand English.  So I think I'll start saying that I'm French and don't understand English.  I may get busted, but I think I speak enough French now that I'll slip by.  And if nothing else I'll get to keep my French up.

I guess there's really not much more happening.  It's their vacation time here, so there really aren't that many Florentines around.  I haven't seen my host since my first day here.  I've only talked to him once since then just to let him know I found a place to live.  The first Rotary meeting here will be September 7th at 8 p.m., so I'll be going to that.  I'm hoping I have all my supplies I need by then, but who knows.  I don't even really know my address here yet.  I don't think I even have a mailbox at my apartment.  I feel like it will be the kind of thing where stuff is just slipped under my door or just left outside of it.  The biggest thing I want is my bike. It would make it so much easier getting around I think, plus I've been seeing lots of cyclists out in the mornings.  I also found this site http://www.ibikeitaly.com/ that seems really cool.  I may try it this week or next weekend just to get on a bike again.  I really hope I meet some Rotarians who are into cycling and maybe I can go on some rides with them.

Well, I thought I had more to write about, but I guess I don't yet!  Hopefully I'll start meeting more people this week as I think most people should start arriving for school.  A presto!

Starting to settle into Florence

So, I'm in Florence and have a little apartment!  A very little apartment.  Pictures to come.  I think I'll have Internet in the apartment, it's just that there is a key for the wireless and I don't know what it is and my landlord hasn't called me yet.  I'm betting he's still on vacation, so I may not have Internet until September.  But, I have figured out how to work the washer, which was quite a feat and now my clothes are hanging to dry very very slowly.

The first few days here were horrible because I was just sort of left on my own and didn't know what to do and didn't have a place to stay or even leave my bags, so I was constantly lugging my bags around with me in 90 degree heat.  But, since I finally got a place to call my own and a phone things have been becoming much nicer.  My Italian is improving, but kind of slowly.  Since this is such a big tourist town a lot of people speak English anyway.  So, seeing as I have mostly American t-shirts, I get spotted pretty quickly and people just speak English to me.  Some of them though will speak Italian if I just keep going with it.  I do miss speaking French though.  I've been writing to friends from Belle-Ile in French, but that's a whole different challenge.

My house is across a bridge just outside of the center city here.  I found out today that it's about a 25 minute walk to school.  But I'm in the middle of a lot of museums and up above me are big gardens of historic names.  I tried to go up to them one night but apparently they're gated and you can only get in at certain times.

Anyway, I was about to start uploading pictures, but since I'll have to upload one file at a time and I have probably 100 from Belle Ile, Paris, and here, I'll just have to wait until later or something.  So, until another time!