solo eaters

there i was
reading a book (a quite boring book)
sitting solo at the diner.
i imagined myself like they do in movies
(dont say a thing)
just there to lunch with myself
utterly content.

another girl wanders in. "un tavolo per uno"
she says bashfully.
i look up and grin--im alone too, my smile whispered.

on another completely irrelevant note

these pictures just came to my attention, and i thought i would relive some glory days.

APEX 2009 IM Soccer Champs

ps/oy

for the next week, my mom and i are keeping a blog of our time in roma. so, if you want to know about that part of my trip check it out :

http://therootsearch.blogspot.com/

my last couple days in florence

well. I made it through finals week, with the help of Jordan of course who came out to visit me (yay!). we went up to Fiesole and looked out over Florence..which was incredible. Mostly we ate delicious food and talked and slept. We actually made a bunch of super good food, you guys would be proud. Poor man's caviar (eggplant, not fish eggs) and toast with frutta di bosco jam and mozzarella buffalo were definitely the best that we created. ask either one of us for the recipes, we may or may not give them to you for a small fee. or a quick massage. I would do anything for an Olivia Jones massage right now.

Seeing Jordan made me pretty home sick for my friends back in the states. I MISS YOU GUYS. COME TO ROME. but, I am going to live my last week abroad up and to the max because now I dont have to worry about hw or having to go to class. Speaking of Rome, I was initially going to meet my mom in Dublin...earlier today...but the Iceland volcano caused serious problems for the European airlines. aka, they are all still closed. RyanAir is closed until Wednesday..Lufthansa (germany) is closed until...who knows. My entire program was supposed to leave on a group flight tomorrow morning, but it was canceled because no one can get to paris or frankfurt. It has been pure chaos as everyone is trying to get home. Luckily everyone's landlords are letting them extend the lease for a couple days while we are all stuck in Florence. Not that it is really like being "stuck"...who minds being stuck in a beautiful european city for a couple extra days? im not complaining. i was only really worried because my mom was coming in and i didn't want her to be in dublin by herself. but it all worked out, as it always does.

For now, I am staying at the most excellent hotel in florence. I feel so unworthy of it, I had to dress up and take a shower to even enter the place. But I love it. My shower doubles as a sauna. I have a handwritten note from the hotel manager welcoming me to his hotel (Dear Ms. Hockett Alden haha). and I have a bed that I can lay both hot-dog and hamburger style on and nothing hangs off. I could stay here forever. But until Tuesday will be just fine :)

It was beautiful and sunny today so Melinda, Katie, Winnie and i all got gelato, sat in Piazza Repubblica, and listened to a guy playing guitar and singing simon and garfunkel tunes. he even played radiohead's creep. it was the best afternoon. I was in dire need of some vitamin d and some chillage with a gelato (soy vanilla and dark chocolate, best combo ever).

I want to put up some pictures, but haven't gotten them off my camera yet. The last pictures I have on iPhoto are from Easter. So i'll put those up. Every year Florence has this whole to-do for Easter in the Piazza del Duomo inbetween the cathedrale and the battista. This is prime because my living room window looks out over that very piazza. Anyway, they have a parade with music and everyone is in costume from the 1700s and it is incredible. The grand finale is a huge barge which explodes with fireworks. 2 oxen bring it in and while they set up the fireworks part, ladies all dressed in bonnets hand out white flowers to the droves of people that show up to watch.

weekend adventures

OHHHK! Vespa riding was just about the most fun thing, ever. I want one so bad. They just go! I hadn't gone that fast in a while, and totally needed the speed rush. Super bonus, after we finished motorini-ing, we headed off to lunch next to a lake in the hills. This was no ordinary lunch though, it was a 5 course lunch with wine and strawberry mousse. After, we went wine, olive oil, and honey tasting at the Castello Monteriggioni. Needless to say we all passed out on the car ride home :)
Saturday I went to Bologna with my art history class. Our final Helen trip! I was not that excited to go because I had heard bad things about Bologna, and because we had to meet the bus at 6:50 in the morning...ew. It was amazing, however, and I loved the atmosphere. There were tons of outdoor markets and a huge sport-court type thing set up in the center town square for kids to play soccer, volleyball and dance. There were games and performances all day. It didn't hurt that the weather was superb and that I had 3 espressos. I WAS PUMPED! My favorites were the Santo Stefano church created to mimic the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the Pinacoteca. Both were beautiful, and the Ludovico Caracci Annunciation would be worth going all the way back just to see it again. PLUS, the church's gift shop had homemade chocolate spread, which I just cannot get enough of.

Today's adventure? I'm not sure. Right now it is finishing a 15 page museology paper. It's gonna be a really cool paper though, so I dont mind writing it too much. Hopefully something cool will happen later though. I'll tell you about it tomorrow!

wow

well. it's been almost a month since i last BLOGGED!, and there is no way i can even begin to catch up on everything that has happened. I don't believe I could even recall everything i would have written had i not been busy every second of the day.

how about some highlights?

my family came to visit! minus my brother, plus my grandma. It was so wonderful to see them and wish they could have stayed longer. We ate amazing food, drank wine up the wazoo and enjoyed being with eachother. OH! we also saw La Boheme the opera in Italian. It was funny and tear-jerking and I have found a new appreciation for opera. I think my dad should take lessons.
two friends from whitman came to see me the day and the day after my parents left. Oh my gosh I cant even express how fantastic it was to see familiar people and talk about what has been going on in our lives the past semester. We all agree that Whitman is the best place in the world. We went to a Beatles cover band show and had gelato (a lot of gelato) and explored the city. Plus, Matt kept my apartment-mates happy by cooking us the most delicious food. He certainly earned his keep (not that I was MAKING HIM COOK! NOW! or anything). Really, I could have been doing absolutely nothing and still would have been having fun just being with them.

We climbed to the top of the Duomo, which (sheepish face) sadly was also my first time in the Duomo this semester. I live 15 feet from it, but had yet to step inside. The view from the tippy-top over Florence is sweeping and makes you want to sit and stare for hours, which of course you cant because people have to move through. It was definitely one of the highlights of Florence touristy things so far.

Top 3 so far: (in no particular order)

The Stibbert Museum
Chanting monks at San Miniato
Seeing the Firenze soccer team play (and kill it 4-1)

moving on.
It is finally getting warm and sunny and delicious out. I am beyond ready for some nice weather, the gray skies and cold windy rain-y-ness was starting to get to me. I've spent as much time as I can out here in the garden, soaking up the sun and trying in vain to do my piles of homework for finals next week.

finals next week. it's weird to think that I only have 10 more days in this amazing place. I am going to try and do something fun EVERYDAY for my last ten days. and i'll blog about the fun thing. OK! good, and it will keep me bloggin.

Today counts as one of the 10 days, so I'll have to do something fun for dinner and dopo cena. Melinda is having the worst week of her life (seriously everything is going wrong) so we are going to take her out and try to cheer her up a bit.
Tomorrow is already set up. I am going VESPA RIDING IN CHIANTI. jealous did you say? yeah, I know.