Day 8 in Firenze...but I am really talking about yesterday.

Ciao! 


Eight days now. Wow. 
The days are just whizzing by now. 

Well, if you read yesterday's post you will know that I had a rough first day of school. I got really homesick and was a mess. AN ABSOLUTE MESS. 
But here is a funny thing I was thinking about today: Good ole happy lives where everything goes perfectly perfect are rather boring to read. We like to read stories where people have struggles. Where people fail, suffer, endure, and then triumph... well, hopefully this happens in the end. We like this kind of story because we can--in some small way or another--relate to that person's struggles.  
My Point: Suffer = Entertaining 
Thus: My Life's story has GOT to be entertaining. 


Moving on. 
So, the second day of school went MUCH better. It was a lot easier to follow what was going on in my Italian 101 class. I was getting a hang of things. I was feeling happy. Plus: Everyone said they were feeling on the idiotic side. It was just me!!! We were all struggling sort of in that class. WELL HELLO!!! We are there to learn. That is what you do Amanda. You struggle. You learn. You move on. Ok?
Yesterday I just heated up my spaghetti for lunch. Popped it in the microwave. Holy moly soooooo good. Oh my goodness gracious... I need to tell you something. So, my mother bought me some chocolate biscotti... good GOD they are delicious. I have literally--well... ok, not LITERARLLY--been inhaling those suckers. Soooooooooo ridiculously good. There are times where I am thinking, I am going to get so fat on this trip, but then when I have to hike up the mountain of stairs to my school and walk the few blocks down to my school I think, this will even out. I should come back home looking pretty much the same. 
I also went on a little walk around my neighborhood. 

Get your picture drawn. 

I wanted to go on. 

DON'T GO NEAR THE MARKETS!!!!

Armni Collezione. 

I have yet to go inside this store. 

See the street signs are on the corners of the buildings. 

So, I have GOT to tell you about my ART HISTORY class. I just have to. My Art History class consists of a two hour lecture and then a two hour walk to the ACTUAL SIGHTS!!! Yesterday we went to the Santa Croce and saw... wait for it... or not because you can just skim this part... we saw Michelangelo's tomb! Oh my good golly gosh. Did you know that Michelangelo originally died in Rome and was going to be buried in Rome. They were actually planning to have a big celebration (well, sounds like a bad word, but I think you get the idea), but the Florentine's stole his body and hulled him to Florence.
Funny story right?
I thought so. 
Oh! Another funny Michelangelo story to add here. I was near the Santa Croce innocently looking at postcards to buy and I just couldn't make out what this one image was. Turns out.. . it was David's crotch. Great. Who seriously sends out postcards of a close-up on a statue's penis?
(I could make all sorts of crude jokes about the statue's penis, but I won't.)


One day I will take a picture of me holding this card. 


Anyhow that was a wonderful Art History class. I love my 


teacher too. I think I've said this before, but she is a german 


woman who moved to Italy to teacher American students Art 


History. Whew. She is hilarious. So vivacious and she snorts 


when she laughs, which always makes me smile. 


Later that night I caught up on my blog postings, read more of "The Help," had my laptop play me some music, and cooked myself dinner. I have recently realized how much I LOVE cooking, especially when I have such good food to cook with. My roommate was out for the night. It was just me. It was relaxing. It is better if I blog in the silence... because my head is one noisy place. Anyhow, back to the food part. I made a salad. An absolutely delicious salad. I chopped up some carrots (really crisp delicious mouth-watering carrots) and then tossed those in. I also pleasantly surprised myself. I forgot we bought salami, now Italian salami is super thin, pulls apart when you take it out and is just out of this world delicious. My mouth is water right now just thinking about it. Then I just drizzled some olive oil (Italian first press olive oil) and balsamic vinegar. I know I say this a lot, but... GOOD GOD it was delicious. I wanted to scream out loud at how delicious it was. So simple too. 



I think that is all I want to say today. Not too much to comment on today. Italian was fun because we actually went out into the markets and learned what the names of various foods were. I saw horse meat again... uggggggggghhhhhhhh! It was a lot of fun and interactive... this market was amazing. 

Firenze Day 7: School Starts

Ciao!


I can't believe I have been in Italy for a WEEK now. Can you?


I have a feeling I will have some angry customers since I am a day behind on my postings. Well, wow, where do I begin. I'd first like to say that I am VERY thankful for the invention of Skype. Seriously, I love seeing my friends and family and being able to talk to them. This technology is absolutely amazing! We really don't appreciate these things as much as we should.


Well, perhaps you remember me telling you that my back was killing me two days ago. Yes? No? Maybe so? I was in excruciating pain. All this walking around, standing, climbing stairs, not used to my bed--it's really a mixture of little uncomfortable situations. I couldn't sleep I was in so much pain and when I don't get enough sleep I'm in even more pain the next day...
It is a vicious cycle I tell you.

This is before my second surgery by the way. Just thought I'd add it here. 

I was also kind of stupid because... well... I forgot to bring some medicine along with me on the trip. I can already see your eyebrows furrowing, your eyes reddening, your lip curling around your clenched teeth, smoke bursting from your ears, bellowing:
STUPID!
STUPID!
STUPID!
Yes, I know. I KNOW! That was a really S.T.U.P.I.D. thing of me to do, but it is in the past and we must move on now. Good Lord...
I went to the Farmacia the other day and bought some Ibuprofen. For a case of 400mg it cost me 8.50 Euros. Let me tell you something interesting about the Farmacia--see it is expensive to go to the doctors, especially if you have something rather simple to take care of, but they have these people who work at the Farmacia who are sort of trained like doctors (at least that is what I got from the little explanation on them) and can tell you what you need to take based on your symptoms.
So, I went and got my Ibuprofen and goodness... it helped A LOT. I was thanking the little pill like crazy. Literally, as the pain eased, I kept thinking: Thank you pill. Thank you. Thank you.
Please remember this is the Ibuprofen pill... let's not get sidetracked here.


Yesterday, I had a bit of a mental/emotional breakdown. The nuovo (new) factor was really setting in and scaring the living daylights out of me. I sort of overwhelmed myself.
See, I had my first class yesterday. Italian 101. I have never taken Spanish before. I took Sign Language... which as you might imagine doesn't exactly prepare you for Italian. Our teacher didn't even speak one sentence to us in Inglese. It was terrifying. I felt like an idiot. I catch on to things very slowly. I am slightly dyslexic and that also makes things a bit on the tougher side. Plus other people were catching on way quicker than I was and it drove me insane. Remember how I said my mind likes to break off into two people sometimes? The wild, brave, confident one and the shy, oh-my-god-the-world-is-out-to-get-me one? I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but if not... well, now you know. Here is what my brain did...

Brave A: (Calmly) Amanda, my love?
Wimp A: (Frazzled and about to explode) Whaaaaaaat???
Brave A: (Still calm. Maternal. Ah, life is good with this voice.) Why is our heart rate going up and we on earth is our face resembling that of a tomato?
Wimp A: (About to break down into tears.) Because I don't know what the hell this woman is saying!!! I suck at this!!! I am so stupid!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Brave A: Honey, let's not pop a blood vessel. We don't want spaghetti sauce spewing all over the place now do we?
Wimp A: (Confused and squeaky) Spaghetti sauce... what? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Brave A: Take a deep breath.
[Wimp A takes deep breath]
Brave A: There we go... good girl. Now you say you don't know what the heck this woman is saying. True. We don't have a flipping clue. You say you suck at this--you don't. And you are NOT stupid.
Wimp A: Yes I am.
Brave A: Don't make me smack you because then we WILL look stupid. Amanda, have you ever spoken Italian before?
Wimp A: No...
Brave A: And how many days have you been to Italian 101?
Wimp A: This is my first day?
Brave A: Do you expect to be fluent in the language today?
Wimp A: Well... no... I guess not.
Brave A: Then what is the problem? You are learning. Be nice to us please. Ok?


I felt better after that.


But then later that day I was really missing my mommy and my home. Everything seemed to put me on the verge of tears...

This hot, gooey, Nutella infused crepe with strawberries and powder sugar is sooooo good.
Do you know what else has good crepes?
The French Press in Salem.
(On the Verge of Tears)


Mom texts me.
Mom is not here.
I won't be with mommy in 3 months.
(On the Verge of Tears)


See a horse carriage.
Red is a horse.
Red is not here.
(On the Verge of Tears)


As you can see it was an interesting day. Good god that crepe was delicious though. And it is just right across the street from my apartment. I'm definitely going back. Yum! Yum! Yum!


Ok, later that day we had a lecture on traveling and culture shock. Very informative. I really want to go to Venice and Rome on this trip. I know I am going to see a friend of mine in Germany. That will be fun.


Later that day I went with my roommate out to dinner. We have these food voucher thingys. They are awesome! I used my map and found the ristorante. So proud of myself. I can use a map! An Italian map. (If this makes you go: Whoop-di-do! I'm scowling at you--just so you know.) I have 25 food vouchers. This restaurant was delicious!!! Absolutely delicious!!! I got a salad with tuna, eggs, and mozzarella--the great things about Italian salads, is that you control the Olive Oil an Vinegar that goes on because you are the one who puts it on--and I also got some spaghetti. SOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!! I can't seem to emphasize this enough, but the food here makes me feel as though my body has finally clicked to LIFE! My best way of describing it.
Italians don't give you boxes to go. They don't like the idea of you taking their food, putting it in the fridge and then reheating it. It hurts them to think that. But I just put the rest of my food that I couldn't finish back into my roommate's pizza box.
Then we walked back home...

I didn't pay attention. She expected me to, but I talked more than I paid attention. Not good at night in Italy where I don't live. So we went a little further than we should have... into a scary zone. We passed by these smoking (they were actually smoking... this is no adjective) Italian men who told us we had nice a**es. This was a bit of a shock to these fragile Mormon ears of mine. (Sidenote: What makes a good looking butt? I don't know what is a good looking butt. I seriously don't. I don't think about these things. I don't go staring around at people bottoms, thinking: Man I wish I had that. I think if you can sit on it that's all that matters, right.) The politer thing to have said would have been: What nice curvature you have.
So I just looked forward and walked with a purpose... even though I knew we were going the wrong way. Then I realized we had to pass them again due to this fact. That was fun...
We finally made it back, but man, did we ever go a long ways the WRONG way. Not fun at night when all you can think about is... sorry Erika J. I am going to use you as an example again--Erika: This is the part where we die.
Made it back. Went to bed.
Really hot last night. Could hardly sleep.


Ok, more happened today, but it is getting really late here and I need to go to bed because my eyes are flickering like a fading candle. I will explain more. I have a LOT more to say.


Arrivederci!    

Firenze Day 5: Getting Adjusted

Ciao!


Not all that much happened today! I am feeling less weirded out and horribly homesick than I did last night when I parted with my parents, which felt more like I severed a major artery.
I didn't get hardly any sleep at all last night. (As Erika Juengling would say:) Here is the thing, Italians like to party hard. Holy moly holy, my friends. It was outrageously noisy outside my window last night and into the morning.
How late last night? What morning? What???
Yep, at midnight or maybe even 1am I was thinking the noise would dwindle a bit.
NOPE!
I looked out the window at 4:30am, wondering why on earth the noise was getting louder...
Oh, here's why... there were even MORE people outside at that time!!!!
It was also Dante's-Inferno hot last night. I had the fan on high... as high as it would go. But I was just sweating like a pig (I realize that pigs don't sweat, but it is just an EXPRESSION people, so please just get over it.) I kept groaning: Please people... JUST GO TO BED NOW! It is FOUR in the morning.
My mom gave me some earplugs, but did these help?
Not really.
Kind of, but...
Not really.
And these sirens kept blasting by my house.
(As E.J. would say:) Here is the thing, I live in the country. All I hear outside are crickets. THOSE WEREN'T CRICKETS LAST NIGHT!!!!
So, needless to say, I was a bit tired this morning when my alarm went off at 8am. I took a shower, which felt good. Had myself a bowl of cornflakes and a glass of orange juice. OH! I need to tell you something. So, my discovered this really, really, really delicious juice. It is part orange juice, part lemon juice, and part carrot juice--you wouldn't think this would be a good combination, but it is A-MAZ-ING! So incredibly good.

I have the bed on the right. 

Creepy naked flying babies. AKA: Cherubs. 

I use this chair to blog and facebook. 

Kitchen. 

Window in kitchen. 

This is where I can hang my wet clothes. 

Kitchen sink. Only one person can fit in here. 

Old stove, but it works. I cooked pasta tonight. It was delicious. 

This thing is my savior. 

I met up with my fellow Oregonians at 9:45am for orientation. I don't think I really have to tell you much other than this trip is going to be amazing and we are going to go on a TON of WONDERFUL day trips to museums and different places in Italy.
Also I hope to visit Paris sometime on this trip.
After our little orientation. I went with my group and walked around town a little bit. We ended up having lunch at this family owned Italian restaurant, which I've learned is the best way to go, much more personalized that way. I had a I-LOVE-LIFE-AND-I-WANT-TO-KEEP-EATING-THIS-SORT-OF-DELICIOUS-FOOD type of lunch--it was a meatball tomato soup in a bread bowl. And the best thing about bread bowls is that you get to eat them! Yum!
I then went home... my apartment.
I grabbed my camera and then went exploring, taking pictures as I went. I think you will like them. I am right down the street from the Duomo. And I am also right down the street from the Santa Croce (I hope I wrote this rig. So, I took pictures of these. I was all by myself and was able to figure out where everything was around my apartment. I am getting adjusted to this city.
Then I went on a tour with my group and our Art History teacher. She is a vivacious German who moved to Italy and teaches American students. How about that? Cool, eh?

The Duomo. Just down the street from my apartment. I can actually see it from outside my apartment door. Crazy, eh?

My back was killing me today.
I have been in soooo much pain lately.
I need to go to a Farmacia and get some meds. I hope I can make it through this trip, but my back is seriously KILLING ME right now.
So much pain.
Yuck.
Well, I met my roommate. She is very nice. I made dinner for her tonight. Pasta, with a little olive oil, roasted garlic, and cheese. Such good cheese here. And garlic. Yum! Yum! Yum!
She cleaned up afterwards.
I think we are going to get along well.
Well, I know one thing. I need to sweep these floors. My feet are absolutely disgusting. And I will show you the picture. Gag!

I am going to end here. Not as exciting stuff as before. Sorry about that. I don't think I will be able to blog every single night from now on because I start school tomorrow! Italian 101. Very, very exciting. I can't wait.


Arriderci!

Firenze Day 4: On My Own Now

Ciao! 
Today's blogpost will be a bit more personal that my previous ones. As I write this I sort of feel as though I am writing my memoirs... sort of like the adolescent version of "Eat Pray Love"... kind of. 

As I write the newest chapter of my life for you, dear reader, I sit in this pink, plush couch with my feet up on another chair I scooted across the floor to assist my back. I am alone in my apartment. My roommate, one of the many Rebeccas in our group, comes tomorrow at 4:00pm. Yep, I'm all by myself (Please imagine me saying this in a melodramatic sing-songy voice--works better that way.)


Ok, onto the more personal side of things. I might tear up at this. Let me know if you do... or don't... I mean it is quite possible that this won't tear you up the tiniest bit to what I write here... you cold hearted person you... JK (Rowling). 


Here we go! 


There are many first time things we do in our adventurous lives that, quite frankly, scare the hell out of us. Of course, when we are little munchkins (Not sure why I put "little" in front of "munchkins," being a little redundant here... sorry) these scary events are now seen as comical: 

1. Going to the dentist (Wait a minute... that's still scary).
2. Jumping off the diving bored without your mommy to catch you.  
3. Going to school (Dressed in your awesome gray-polo shirt, which, of course, is tucked snuggly into your pants. Don't forget that belt, wrapped around your waist, squeezing the living daylights out of you. Lunch bag at hand. New pink barbie backpack slugged across your shoulders. The works.)
4. Riding in your first horse show. 
5. Leaving home for two weeks for an over-night camp. 
6. Going to Middle School.
7. Going a plane by yourself.
8. Going to High School.
9. Getting back surgery (Wait... the second time was just as scary, if not scarier.)
10. Driving a car. 
11. Going to get your license.  
12. Going to College. 
13. Asking a boy you just might have the tiniest bit of a crush on if he wants to hang out... (Needles, catheters... um lets, just say facing pretty much any sort of medical utensil is nothing compared to this.) 

As you can see I have a lot of first experiences that were on the rather frightening side of things. And today I encountered a new, new scary experience (Whew, say that seven times fast. Don't! You might hurt yourself.) 

What is this new, new scary experience?

Answer: Living on my own... in a foreign country. 

Here's some of the things that make this event even scarier than previously interpreted. I have never really lived on my own before. I go to community college, so I live at home. I like my home. I am comfortable at my home. Home is good. (I think you get the point.) I am also very, very, very, very, very close to my momma. (You Thinking: Awe, how sweet! / Me: Yes, I know.) My momma and I grew A LOT closer than we already were during my back surgery years (5 years), so saying goodbye to her for three months was obviously a really difficult thing to do today.

Eventually, I would like to go to NYU and so I was thinking: Living in New York City is going to be a difficult new experience for me. Hey! Got an idea. Maybe... maybe if I go somewhere even MORE difficult the transition to New York City won't be as challenging. 

Can I just say that I have an odd thought process? 

So, here I am in Florence, Italy. New country. New language. New way of living (on my own). New EVERYTHING!!! Yep, New York City should be easier after this. 

I am very excited for what I have to learn through this new and slightly frightening experience.  

Am I scared? 

Let me think about this... ok, done thinking. Not really. I mean, yes this is a scary, new experience as mentioned before, but I'm not too, too scared. I know I am with a good program. I'm with a kind, welcoming group of people... I'm going to be ok. And if I ever NOT feel ok. I'll just have to listen to Ingrid Michaelson's awesome song "Be Ok."

Yes, it is scary to take on a new experience, especially when it is a combination of new experiences--new school setting, new group of people, new country, new language, new home, new, new, new--but it's amazing what you are capable of doing when you push yourself. You never know how far you can go unless you try. The only way in succeeding at anything is taking that FIRST step. And here is how I think of things now--see I was stuck at home and in the hospital for about five years (long, long, long five years) and not being able to do a whole lot really forces you to take a hard look at your life. In the hospital you take on a new perspective of the world. This is what pain does to you. And through my back surgeries I learned: Yes, things will be tough in life, but if I just take a deep breath in and out and keep on taking those steps in the direction of my destination I will BE OK. 

This is my life's mantra: BE OK. 

I will BE OK.

Everything will BE OK. 

I feel like I am babbling a bit again. (Your probably rolling your eyes at me.) But I am almost done I promise. 

I guess the point is: I want to experience life. 

There why couldn't I have just said that???

These scary experiences and how you react to them are what define you. They are character building, which I know I liked to roll my eyes at whenever someone told me that this really awful event I went through was "character building," but now I get it. If I've gone through a really challenging event, I don't look at it like: Why the hell is this happening to me? What did I do wrong to deserve this? 

Instead I go: What can I LEARN from this?

So here is my question for my new, scary friend Florence, Italy: What can I LEARN from you?

Arrivederci!