25

I got back to Atlanta on Monday, and started work on Tuesday. I guess I have to be a responsible human being for the next six weeks. I’m working the same place I did last summer, doing research for a big fall event and working on programming. I like the people in the office (there are only four of us) and I think the work is interesting, but there’s something soul-sucking about sitting in an office for most of the day, sending emails, making phone calls, and getting extremely frustrated with the lack of help google gives for research. I’m just not cut out for office life. I want to be out doing something all the time. It’s only six weeks though, and I do get a stipend. And at the end I’ll be off to Edinburgh. I think that makes it worthwhile.

I don't really have much else to say. I'm not really doing anything besides working, as I really don't have any friends in town at the moment. Sorry for the length of time it took me to update.

24

I bummed around the house for a while, before heading to Philly on Thursday for a super-long weekend to celebrate a friend’s 21st birthday. I got there Thursday afternoon. We had lunch before making party preparations – aka blowing up a giant kiddie pool, filling a piñata, and buying alcohol. We had the earliest dinner I think I’ve ever eaten (4.30pm – Mexican food), which we ate sitting in the (unfilled) kiddie pool in the middle of the living room of the house. And then we napped. In the kiddie pool. In the middle of the living room.

We celebrated that night and headed out to a bar at midnight, so my friend could buy her first drinks legally at a bar.

The next day my friend had to keep up her drinking. Her goal was to have twenty-one drinks in the day of her birthday (from midnight to midnight). That morning consisted of Irish Coffee from a café. We managed to drag the pool outside and fill it with water, which meant we could take our time lounging in it and enjoying cool beverages.

At some point people showed up for the party. It was really strange though. I’m used to parties where I know a significant number of people. Here, in a house that was supposed to be full of my friends, I hardly knew anyone. It was like I was standing around awkwardly, which I’m just not really used to doing. I guess it’s because most of my friends weren’t actually there for the weekend, and therefore other people had invited people. It ended up fun at the end of the night though. Everyone was out on the porch and in the backyard. At some point there were about ten people standing mid-calf deep in the kiddie pool. I ended up talking to some guys from other schools in the Philly area, one of whom had made a 7-11 run for us a little earlier, despite not really knowing why.

For whatever reason I was one of the last people around at about 3.30am, which was sad. I had to call it a night. The next day involved more bumming around and such. At some point we met the neighbors when they asked if they could use the kiddie pool since it was so hot outside. We of course obliged and found out they were from one of the frats on campus. Later that night we hung out with them. They were grilling (and eating straight from the tongs for the most part) and asking for henna which we had been playing with all day.

Afterwards we went to another friend’s party, which was all grad students (and therefore slightly intimidating). One of my friends was beyond drunk, and we had to take her home and take care of her for a couple of hours, which was a shame way to end the night. That’s not actually English there, but it’ll have to do.

Sunday was in the same vein as the others – just hanging out during the day. We ate Indian food for lunch though, and that was delicious. At some point we were in the kiddie pool with beer, and one of the neighbors joined us. We even had birthday cake for dinner, haha. It was a chill evening and I met some friends of the people who live in the house before I called it a night and caught my flight back to Atlanta early on Monday morning.

I guess I would call it a fairly boring weekend, though it was really nice to see some of my friends again, since it’s going to be January next time. I guess my biggest surprise for the weekend was the amount of drugs presents. I have never seen people smoke more pot. I don’t want to do that, but if you do, whatever. I just don’t get how: 1) you can spend entire days doing nothing but smoking; 2) you can afford to spend every day doing nothing but smoking. Isn’t there more to life than sitting around, high all day? How can you just not be productive, ever? I know I’m lazy and I bum around, but all the time? I guess if that works for you, go for it.

23

I know I’m beyond behind with updating this, and I apologize. What can I say besides the fact that I’m lazy?

Anyway, that Thursday after my last post was our last day of classes. We had a group dinner for everyone in the program that night. A bus took us up into the hills and dropped us at a big house with a large yard. There were tables set up. Naturally, five of us made our way stealthily to the best table, under an archway and somewhat isolated. We played the “Oh sorry, we have no more room at our table” game until it was just the five of us. Perfect. We had wine, pasta, salad, brucshetta, and panzanella (beyond amazing). I think a bowl of gazpacho and some panzanella would make the perfect summer meal on a hot day. Here's a picture of some of us.

And a picture of my Italian class.

Anyway, it was a fun meal. People were nostalgic. We had a final toast with prosecco before going back into the city. Pretty much everyone went out after that to a bar around the corner – including the two main guys from the hotel and two of the program professors, including my Italian one. Needless to say, the first thing we did at the bar was make her take a shot with several of us. She could not stop laughing when we told her the name of it.
Most people ended up getting beyond drunk, which was really rather stupid. Some people missed flights the next day because of it. Good call.

Friday was fairly calm. We did a little shopping at the Leather School. It’s inside the monastery of Santa Croce, which was really cool. They will engrave anything you want too. After that we went into the hills – to Fiesole – for dinner. It was originally an Etruscan settlement, which makes it older than Florence. Much smarter building a city in the hills than in a mosquito-ridden valley. Kudos to you, Etruscans. We had the most fantastic dinner in a little restaurant there, which became packed. I had pici (like a fat spaghetti) with zucchini flowers and sundried tomatoes and capers and such. Delicious. The picture below is Fiesole at sunset. Looking down and gorgeous.

We didn’t do much Friday night, besides hanging around the hotel with some limoncello. Saturday too was fairly chill. We did some more shopping and had one final grocery store dinner. A round of tequila shots went around at some point that night for the people still there, which wasn’t really that many. Sunday I left bright and early, an made it back to Atlanta that evening. Because of weather, we had to circle a few times over West Virginia before they would let us come into Atlanta. Sadly when we did land, we had to sit on the tarmac for ages because it was the worst weather imaginable and it wasn’t safe to either open up the ramp or let the groundcrews out. Eventually I did make it home though, which was wonderful, as much as I miss Italy.

22

It's almost time to pack up and leave here, which is saddening. Virtually everyone seems so ready to get home, but honestly I could stay here forever. With a few changes maybe. It's not that I don't love my family and want to see them, but it's wonderful here. I think I'm just more suited to this continent. Atlanta and Philadelphia are just going to be so boring. If I did stay here though, I would want a kitchen. I'm beyond vegetable deprived. Looking at them makes me drool with joy and desire. I'm not going to be able to eat pasta/pizza/bread/cheese for a month at least after getting home. The idea is fairly repulsive. Ew.

The hotel had a going-away reception for us last night, which was wonderful. They cooked a delicious dinner buffet and served wine and dessert. Mmm. It was fun because they did superlatives for people and generally had a good time, especially as it was one of the maid's birthday! It's so sad to think that we're gone so soon though. I just don't know where the time has gone.

I had a final presentation yesterday for history (the professor said it was "exemplary" which is good, if he knows what that word means) and one today for Italian. The history one was on Savonarola, who was an interesting guy. The fanatics always are. For Italian we had to create a guidebook of places and then a commercial for it. We had a Wizard of Oz theme, which my professor loved, so that's good news.

I wish I could stay in Europe forever. In fact, I plan to after college. I'm buying a one-way ticket (but no worries mom, I'll be back for Christmas).

21

This weekend was definitely the best so far, minus a small issue on the way there. We got back at about 11pm from Siena, and left Florence on a 12.30am train to Pisa. Thanks the the train explosion not far from there a few days ago, our train to Rome was delayed. For three hours. Meaning we spent the time from 2am - 5am in the dirty, disgusting, potentially dangerous train station in Pisa.

We couldn't sleep thanks to the fact that someone would steal our stuff/kill us. At one point I was walking up and down when I noticed a hobo peeing on a column. He looked me in the eye as he continued. Then there was the puking hobo who seriously seemed to be dying. There was the one-armed hobo who was lecturing a group of gypsies and also the creepy Asian man who followed us. There was the hobo sleeping on a bench but not moving. And there was a group of guys who snuck into a dark train car and invited us to smoke with them...in the dark. I'm somewhat surprised that we all made it out of that place alive. Eventually we made it on a train to Rome.

We made a huge mess enjoying our bread and cheese (which is pretty much what I eat every day). I'm not going to be able to eat bread/pasta/pizza for quite some time after this trip.

Eventually we did arrive in Naples though. At noon aka tweleve hours after we set out.

Naples was even more disgusting than I remembered. We went to have lunch in the city thanks to one of the girls I was traveling with having family from Naples. The pizza was absolutely fantasic, but the city and restaurant were beyond gross. Garbage everywhere. Beggars constantly approaching us for money. And the smell. Ugh.

We then took the train to Sorrento and found our hotel, which was fantastic. It was five minutes from the station and no more than ten minutes from anything we wanted to visit. It was clean, had a swimming pool, had the biggest towels I had ever seen, and even had air conditioning. I'm pretty proud of myself for booking it. Actually I'm pretty proud of myself for arranging the entire trip. Hooray.

The first thing we did was of course visit the beach. There was only an itty-bitty part that was public, but luckily it was late and people were leaving, so we could use it. The hike down was interesting as it was literally a cliff face, but the water was beyond perfect. We had dinner at a little cafe and picked up groceries for Saturday, before going to sleep nice and early.

Saturday turned out to be one of the best days of my life. We left on a 7.45 ferry from Sorrento to Capri, where we sat in the harbour just watching everything start moving for the day. I had a lovely capuccino. We then got on our boat at 10am for our day trip. The six of us had a traditional type of boat called a lancia to ourselves, with a captain (Cristiano). There were pillows and a cooler with water/wine/coke. Cristiano drove us first to the blue grotto, which was amazing.

It actually looks like this. You get in a rowboat and squeeze through a tiny opening (everyone has to lie down) into a completly dark cavern. The sunshine from the opening reflects off the bottom with sand though and turns the most beautiful stunning blue color. It's breathtaking. And the rowboat captains sing, which is hilarious since the cavern echoes.

After that we did some driving around the island, passing the green grotto (below), seeing where the two parts of Capri meet, stopping to swim frequently, eating lunch, seeing the old Hollywood beach area. Eventually we came back to the green grotto and swam through that.

The company that did the tour is run by an American woman, so we had an American flag on the boat, which was perfect for the 4th of July.

It was such a relaxing day. The sun was bright and the sea was a perfect temperature. So clear too. We just hung out on the boat, eating whenever and swimming whenever. We taught one of my friends how to dive. I even got a wonderful tan, which I'm so proud of. I can't honestly have imagined a more perfect day.

This is some of us on the back of the boat, and our captain. You can't see the front of the boat, but it was all cushioned and so comfortable to lie on. Eventually we went back to the harbour and caught the last ferry back to Sorrento.

In Sorrento we had a fantastic dinner (delicious pasta) and did some shopping. They're famous for lemons and inlaid wood, so naturally I bought some of both (gifts mostly for others). We had an earlyish night again and left the next morning for Pompeii.

I visited Pompeii a few years ago and was therefore designated tour guide. We only had about fourty-five minutes to run through, with our luggage, so it was interesting. I think we hit a few of the big sites. Everyone at least got a taste for the place. I don't feel too bad though because it was boiling hot.

After that we went back to Naples and caught the train back to Florence, which was a straight shot this time, thank God.

20

Last Thursday we went to Siena for the Palio. Basically it was amazing. We left bright and early on Thursday as a full group (all 55 of us). It took about an hour and a half to get to Siena. We spent the morning looking at the Duomo, the Crypt, the Baptistery, and then the Museum. It was a little bit much religion for one day. In the museum there was a tower you could climb up that gave amazing views of the city.

This is looking over and into the countryside.

This is the Duomo.

And this is the Campo, where the Palio is held. You can only see about a third of it -- but it's enormous! It holds 50000 people for the Palio. Tourists, Italians, you name it. The Palio is a huge event for the Siennese because the neighborhoods are such a vital part of life.


This is an idea of what 50000 people look like in the square. There was first a long parade (literally two hours). Then the horses came out. They line up with one behind the rest based on a random drawing. That one behind is the one that starts the race whenever it deems it appropriate. This meant it took an hour for the race to start, including two false starts. The horses were just so nervous. They're not racehorses. About a month before the race the horses are picked from the countryside. There's another random type drawing to place them with the different neighborhoods. The 50000 people made them so nervous. Apparently every year some fall over on the turns and such -- but not this year, of course.

Anyway, after 90 seconds the race was over. The jockeys ride bareback and it's crazy. Tartuca (turtle) won the race by quite a bit. It was actually the same horse that won last year winning again, though it raced for a different team the year before. The fans jumped the barrier and started parading around the track afterwards, waving flags and everything. Some people from neighborhoods that didn't win literally burst into tears. That's how important the race is to them. It was so exciting to see.