Life After Italy (La Vita e Agrodolce)

Well I have been home for a month now and I am well over due to write a final posting of sorts. If you don’t feel like reading fine, here’s the summary it’s always nice to see friends and family but life is a lot more fun in Italy.

I know Jessica thinks I’m full of crap when I say this, but returning to the U.S. was big time culture shock. Mostly because there’s not much to do, especially when you are broke and consumed with Catholic guilt over the amount of money you just spent parading around Europe.

So instead of visiting my (well Michelangelo’s) David or walking around Florence, I spent a lot of time on the couch in the family room watching really horrible day time television alone. It was so depressing. Yeah it was nice to watch Golden Girls with a bowl of cheerios on the couch at 10 am once or twice; it was depressing when that started becoming a routine. The thing is though when you have no money to spend, there’s really not much of anything to do in Northern Virginia. So there’s not much incentive to actually get off the couch, except to maybe read a book (which was borrowed, not purchased, from the library).

I was very lucky, my old roommate from Mary Washington came up and stayed at the house for three days that first week I was home. Seeing Melissa was great, it was so nice to actually talk for the first time in months. Her visit delayed my I-miss-Italy depression a solid week. We went to Target and Old Navy and I bought random things I could actually afford and didn’t have to worry about converting the price in my head.

In the same vein my first two weeks back, I ate all the weird American foods I missed so dearly, even though they all seemed to make me feel a little queasy. I ate about a jar of kosher-dill pickles, three or four hot dogs, cheddar cheese, whoppie pies, and drank diet coke around the clock just because I could. I talked on my cell phone without trying to spit out everything I needed to say in under one minute to avoid an expensive phone bill.

By week three home my life was consumed by the anxiety of finding a summer job when our economy is down in the dumps. Another great “Welcome home Kari!” My days were spent essentially stalking Craigslist list for jobs—seriously, at least five times a day I scoped out “childcare,” “office/admin,” “part-time,” you name it, I searched it. I did get quite a few sub days at my mom’s school, each was its own fun/strange experience. I really loved being in first grade and kindergarten, and a few of the special needs kids really stole my heart. Tomorrow I will sub for the last time before summer vacation and next Monday I am starting my REAL SUMMER JOB! I’m working at an office as a summer intern of sorts, doing who knows what, but it’s close and pays well and I am very happy. Who knows maybe a summer blog will be started.

I guess that’s what I’ve been up to, not too much. I’m glad to see old friends, but I miss my new ones. I miss dancing, the closest thing I’ve done to clubbing in boring-S-A (U.S.A.) is Zumba, the latin-dance inspired workout class at the gym.

Oh and men! I have been asked if I miss the Italian men and to be honest I kinda do, they are certainly not perfect or all that dreamy but they are quite good at shelling out those compliments. In Florence even on my “I look like a train wreck” days, I still seemed to get a “Ciao bella!” on the streets walking to class or out at a bar. Here, if you have a bad day (or a good day for that matter), good luck getting a straight guy to tell you you’re pretty, or smart or funny for that matter. One day when I was shopping at Tyson’s alone after a job interview, I spotted a thirty-something guy checking me out and while usually I would be grossed out, I had an “awwwwwwww” moment and was taken back, if only for a second, to Florence.

Sometimes when I think back to my experiences, it all seems like one big dream. Do I wish I was in Italy, of course; if I was in Italy would I miss home, yeah. All I can say is that deciding to study abroad and making that a priority in college was the best decision I have ever made. Hopefully after graduating I will find a way to make it back to Europe and stay for a year or so. If not, I know in my heart that I will return to Italy again—hopefully many, many times.

Love me like the world is ending

I am going to say this straight up, I am not happy that after today I only have 2 more days in Florence. This is crap! My semester has gone by way to fast and I am not ready to leave Italy. I don't want to move, I want to stay like this forever. Okay, maybe not forever, but I am happy here and well it's lame that it's all coming to an end. I am already starting to realize how much I am going to miss my friends, all my roommates have become like family to me and my other friends, well I'm going to miss them. a lot. I feel like I have grown up so much this semester, I am a way better art history major now (thanks Daniele and Professor Stolte) and I just well feel more comfortable in my skin. Maybe all those "ciao bella"'s help after all.

All that aside, it's been a good week. Monday I went to Volterra in the morning with my roommate Jade. It was the last Tuscan town I wanted to visit, so I did it. P.s. for people who read Twilight that's where book two takes place, that doesn't mean anything to me but hey maybe it does to you. We had a nice morning, the town was cute and I ate the best "frutti di bosco" gelato of my life. De-lish. Monday night I went out to dinner with Emily, Ruby, Theresa, and Maggie. It was nice to spend time together.

Tuesday morning I took my Daniele exam, which apparently I did well on (I ran into him today and he complemented me on my big essay and told me he was about to read my paper). Tuesday afternoon I hung out with Ruby, Theresa, and Maggie for awhile before doing the oral part of my Italian exam. I had a fifteen minute conversation with Beatrice, my teacher, it was really low key. We talked about my exam that morning (con Daniele, her friend) and she told me that Daniele said I was a molta brava studentessa. It was cute. Tuesday I went out to eat again with emily, ruby, theresa, and maggie where I ate buffalo mozzarella pizza that was oh-so-good. seriously. We drank wine and cheers over everything. I cheers to better taste in men and Maggie jumps in and says "OMG Kari when I visit my brother in Columbia, Maryland I am setting you up and OMG we could be sisters! " Maggie isn't really that ditzy, but it was cute. I am going to take her up on her offer because it would be awesome to see Maggie this summer, for reals!

Today I took my Lifestyle in Renaissance Florence final, which turned out to be a 20 question multiple choice test. Weird, right. I ran into the British guy in my class later today and he asked how I did and I said "well I guessed on about five" and he said "well i only knew 6, so i bet you did really well." Oh, I don't mean to sound like a broken record but it really sucks that I met so many people who I really like and would like to continue getting to know but the distance thing is obnoxious. I mean at Mary Wash, I make my class friends each semester, except I get to see them after the semester over, especially art history people because we're all in the same 3 classes.

I am going to continue this cheese fest and end saying if you are considering studying aboard do it, I promise you won't regret it. All I know is I'm starting to seriously consider finding a job in Europe after graduation. I will make my way back to Europe sooner rather than later.

Oh, and fyi I don't mean to be a debbie downer for people at home. I promise mom,dad,brett,jess,matt,melissa,jen,alex,ash,allison,brad,etc,etc.........I AM HAPPY TO SEE YOU SOON! I just wish it was in Europe.

My last Italian weekend:(

Well it's Sunday night and I am not very happy because next Sunday at this time I will be not be in Italy and that's kinda lame.

really lame.

But I crammed a lot of stuff into this weekend so I think I did a good job of making it count. Thursday night I went out with friends to celebrate my roommate Caitlin's birthday. I had a pretty good time, but we went dancing at this club, Glamour, and a guy started dancing with me and I basically walked away to my friends because I didn't feel like dancing with him. Next thing I know my shoulder is wet because he poured his drink on my shoulder. I was so pissed off that I took the glass and threw the rest of the drink on his chest. Needless to say when the guy came back an hour later and wanted to dance again I still said no.

Friday I woke up early to climb the Duomo with Joe, Sam, and Katie (the girls are visiting Joe and are friends from Mary Washington)... the only problem was that I was the only one who woke up early. Alas, after waiting twenty minutes, I decided to do my own thing. I went to the Bargello, the National Sculpture museum to say my goodbyes to Michelangelo and Donatello. It was bittersweet. I was bummed because I didn't get to say goodbye to Donatello's bronze David because it was sent to Milan for an exhibitation. I followed up with a little shopping and a trip to the grocery store.

Friday afternoon I did some work in the library, ate lunch with my friend Emily, finally heard from Joe and went to climb the Duomo. It was nice to see Florence from above now that I actually know what I'm looking at. I joked with my friends that I could find my grocery store even from up the Duomo. Friday evening I went to Aperitivo with a bunch of friends. It was great, we got to try lots of new foods and got a drink... tutto va bene:) Friday night I got to meet Valerie's British neighbors with the girls, it was fun and sometimes hard to understand.

Saturday I went to Cinque Terre for the day. Basically it's the Italian Riviera, it's a series of "5 lands" each with its own different character. Although to be honest I only saw three of the five. I swam in the water, shopped, and ate focciacca bread pizza. All and all it was a great day.

Today I went to mass at Santa Croce and then went to the Pitti Palace. It was great, I sat in the Boboli Gardens for two hours. I ate lunch there and studied Italian, it was really peaceful. I went to the Costume Gallery, Modern Art Museum, and Pallentine Gallery inside. It was fun to look at the dresses in the costume gallery and it was nice to say my goodbyes to Rafael and my favorite room in the Modern Art museum. I walked through an antique market, but didn't see anything special.

At the house I finished my paper and started cleaning the apartment, our landlord is coming by on Tuesday and we have to have things in order. Since I am the best cleaner I attempted to rally the troops by cleaning the bathroom... hopefully the will catch on. Either way I only have a week with three of the messiest girls on the planet.

farewell to arms

ciaoooooooo!

Well two papers are printed and turned in and each is paper was a full page over, so don't be fooled I am actually doing work in Italy. I'm starting the last one today and hopefully finishing that sucker ASAP. I don't want to have to worry about it next week.

At the end of my art history classes this week my professors have all gotten quite sentimental. I think they are just so grateful to teach students who came all this way to see the art. My lifestyle professor is a Florence native, well Daniele is as well, and he finished class saying "I hope you have come to realize Florence is a special place. In the Renaissance in Florence the families of bankers, people like you and me, were commissioning portraits by Raphael and wedding gifts by Michelangelo." When you put it like that, Florence is pretty awesome. I am lucky to have seen so many original pieces of art, walked on so many of the same streets, and been into the same churches, as people like Michelangelo and Leonardo. It's unreal.

My friends are all getting equally sentimental about our time here. Unfortunately I am essentially down to single digits for my days left in Florence. It's so sad. I just don't want to think about a life that doesn't include seeing the Duomo everyday and all my new friends. I am going to miss it, so sorry to everyone who has to hear about Florence all the time when I get home. Or if I'm being spacey and quiet, don't worry I'm just daydreaming about my love, Italy.

Brett gave me this book of short stories of women's experiences with love in Italy. It was really cheesy at first, but as I've been here I realize a lot of their stories are now mine. I naively came thinking I would find the Italian man of my dreams and be swept up off my feet. I suppose I found that for a period here, but that was merely lust. What I fell in love with was the art, the wine, the tiny little streets, the adventures of wandering Florence at 3 o'clock in the morning with my friends. I fell in love with being completely, utterly happy and carefree.

Florence may not be perfect, but I would not trade my time here for anything. If only there were a way I could snap my fingers and be back in Florence with all of my friends whenever I wished I would be the happiest girl.

Get around get around, I get around!

I'm been so busy these last few days cramming in as much fun stuff as possible and unfortunately writing papers. I know the end of the semester does mean papers and finals, but it is extra annoying here. I'm surprised with myself I've actually being staying on top of things and not being grouchy. Who knew that was possible for me during paper-exam-extravaganza? I guess I should just stay here after all.

Rachel, Morgan, and Emily
Maggie, Ruby and Theresa
A really cute little Italian boy who LOVED Morgan

me and Ruby (my art history buddy!)

Sunday I went to the soccer game with a bunch of my friends (Emilies, Ruby, Theresa, Maggie, Morgan, Valarie, Rachel, and Anisa). The weather was perfect it was a great game and Florence even won. The stadium is just into the suburbs of the city, and above the stadium is a great view of the little Tuscan houses built into the hill. I have certainly never been to a stadium like it before. We got a lot of laughs from the Italians before we went in the stadium because we were drinking beers outside. Apparently Italians don't drink at their sporting games and they do not have good concessions. There were no hotdogs, no cotton candy, no nachos, and no peanuts! I had to settle on the Italian version of oreos--lame! So that was that little outing.

Monday was a big paper-writing day, luckily my friends have equal amounts of work to do for their classes so I usually have a library buddy. Emily, Bonnie, and I have a table that we pretty much excusively use. Also the librarian knows my name! He knows my favorite book in the library (on Klimt which I used on my paper) and was sad when I told me I needed new books because I finished that paper. Monday afternoon my Italian class took a field trip to a Florence Univeristy for design, so we talked in Italian and English and it was surprisingly fun. Monday night was the Farewell dinner. It was pretty sweet only they didn't really have enough seats so my group of friends got split up:( Emily G, Emily B, and I got stuck with a bunch of Clemson kids (to which Emily Grubbe responded... great I get to sit with the people from home who I choose to NOT associate with). Dinner was good, we got bread, two pasta dishes, a creamy chicken dish served with vegetables, wine, and tirmusu. It was nice to eat a big Italian meal.

Yesterday I gave my Klimt presentation (finally) except we went over time, so I ended up only presenting to Daniele (my teacher) and my two friends in class (Ruby and Theresa). It was pretty low-key and Daniele said he loved it! I wanted to say I love you, but I refrained, ha! Daniele gave a really heartfelt speach (since it was technically our last class) about how even if you don't make a cent in art history it's worth it. Art is powerful, everything in the world relates to it in some way. I really think spending time with art makes you a better person, it makes you whole, complete. Whatever I do in life, this much I know, I never want to remove myself completely from art.

Ruby, Theresa, and I got burritos for lunch at the new taco place. It was good, exactly how I wanted to celebrate my presentation. In Italian class we had "skit parade" and each class performed their skit. My class did a skit called "Via Violenta" which was a spin-off on Sesame Street where everything is messed up. I was one of the kids and we learned how to pick-pocket, pick up guys, roll a cigarette, and heard a song from a bear who sang about wanted to eat us. It was pretty funny. In case you were wondering the theme song translated is "Puoi dirmi posso arrivare, arrivare in Via Violenta!"

After class I cranked out more pages for my Michelangelo paper with Emily in the library. At 9:30 we peaced out and went back to her hostel and ended up eating dinner there. By 11ish we got back to my apartment and I dropped off my stuff and then we went with my roommates to Bebop for Beatles night. Bebop was pretty fun, but two of my roommates got really drunk so I got stuck babysitting with Bonnie. kinda lame, but whatever. I got to clean up alcohol-induced vomit for the first time, and I do not ever want to do that again. MODERATION PEOPLE! besides you don't need to drink to listen to the beatles.

me and Emily at Bebop!

Caitlin, Bonnie and Julia

Under the Tuscan Sun

Hello friends:)

I have been trying to cram a ton of daytrips in this weekend around Tuscany. Yesterday I went to Cortona and then today I went to San Gimignano, they were both gorgeous little Tuscany towns they each have such distinct character. It's crazy that you can sit on the train for an hour an end up in a town totally different from Florence and the other neighboring towns. I love it and I will miss it so much this summer.

I have been wanting to go to Cortona for awhile, it's where they filmed the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun," it was kinda cool seeing the piazza where they filmed, the villas were all outside the city so we didn't see them. I went with Emily and Maggie, Maggie definitely kicked our butts powerwalking up the huge hill (fyi Mom and Dad I think it was worse than Assisi) to see the church and castle. There wasn't a ton to do, but it was nice just walking around, popping into the little shops, eating pizza and gelato. Oh how I will miss gelato this summer! Getting back to the train station at the bottom of the hill was a little rough. The connector bus was running weird hours because Friday was Italy's labor day, so we decided to hitch hike down only we failed and ended up just walking to the next bus stop. Then we sat at the bus stop for a while, waiting, and then of course at least three cars proceed to stop and do the typical "ciao bella, etc" but at that point it was easier just to wait for the bus. It took forever buying train tickets at the machine and we literally ran to catch the train, Maggie had to hold it for me and Emily for a good minute with the door slamming against her every 5 seconds:(


Then today we hit up San Gimignano, this time it was me, Emily, and Emily Baird. Last winter break I was substitute teaching and a room dad told me if I was going to study in Florence that I had to go to San Gimignano because it was his favorite place in Italy. Well props to that room dad, but San Gimignano was great. It has tons of towers from the Middle Ages when the rich familes showed off their wealth by building towers. We climbed one of the towers and hung out at the top for awhile, Tuscany is just so pretty. We ate gelato from the "world champion" gelateria and it was really good. Emily Grubbe and I bought wine to take home, hopefully customs won't search my bags. Emily's teacher told her you definitely can take two bottles in one bag, so I should be safe. Tonight Emily Grubbe and I made Ruby's mexican dip recipe and feasted on tortilla chips and dip. Walking back from Emily and Ruby's I felt really nostalgic. It's going to be sad when we go home, because we all live so far apart. Emily lives in South Carolina and Ruby in Missouri... not exactly close:( I'm going to miss my florentine bffs big time!

Secret Bakery Man!

Last night I did it, I finally found one of the secret bakeries in Florence! I went out with my friends Emily, Theresa, Ruby, and Maggie and we went to an Irish pub and watched Ruby given a drunken geography lesson of Ireland. That was amusing, for sure. Then we wandered into to the Duomo where Ruby and Theresa gave a drunken art history lesson.... it was such an educational evening. We crashed in another bar, Astor, and then took a lap around the Duomo and ended up in another bar. It fun to have a girls night.

We ended up heading over to McDonalds to satisfy Theresa craving for a cheeseburger, only to realize they were only making hamburgers. Who knows, Italy is weird when it comes to stuff like that. Finally, Emily led the way to the Secret bakery in the Santa Maria Nouvella district. Basically in Florence there's a few secret bakeries which are open only at night (like after 2am) because they don't have licenses to sell. They bake all night and supply bread and pastries to the resturants and hotels in Florence, but if you can find one they're happy to sell you something in the middle of the night. I got a cheese pizzette that was straight out of the oven and was so good. I wanted to get a pastry too, but I decided it would be best if my stomach didn't explode...but next time I'm getting one!