ADB+MAC

i don't know if y'all are ready for this corny love story, but hey, we're in florence which somehow makes it not as cheesy...

Once upon a time there was this boy who liked this girl. he asked this girl to go out with him, and she finally said "yes." he "picked" her up at 8 (aka she went downstairs and waited for him to finish getting ready. boys, pff.) they left the house with a warning from the parents roommates to be back by 11. after a scenic passegiata to the ponte vecchio, they ended up at a perfect little ristorante along the arno and sat on the terrace (it's getting warmer in flo! yay!). he held the door for her, pulled out her chair (well after she had pulled it out for herself accidentally... my bad!), and ordered the montepulciano vino. after a delicious steak/veal scaollpini meal, he surprised her with a dozen long-stem roses. they chatted for hours enjoying the wine, and left for home. they mosied on back over the ponte vecchio where the boy, nervous and adorable as could be, asked her to be his. and she said yes. and then accordions started playing. i'm serious. and they lived happily ever after.... or something like that...

<3

DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE

someone pinch me please. i think i just had the most incredible dream… yes, it must have been a dream... or did i REALLY take a ballet class? hold the phone. ladies and gentlemen, i have FINALLY fulfilled one of my new year’s resolutions… and it’s not even march yet (be proud, i am a procrastinator by nature)! and now i’m kicking myself for not having gone sooner! i definitely could have made more time last semester! bah! but whatever. that is in the past. I TOOK CLASS. sorry i just need to say it to make it real. don’t worry, the physical manifestation of jumping into dancing after my lack of activity the past 5 months has already started to creep in. my calves are seizing, my neck and shoulders are on fire, and my feet are cramping like there's no tomorrow. am i weird that none of that bothers me though? in fact, i’d have to say that being sore from dancing is one of the BEST feelings in the world. and it's comforting to know that i have my own personal masseuse to work out the kinks later (ahem:matias:ahem) and a professional massage calling my name (yes, mom, i’ll make the appointment asap!! promise!!). so i just had to share that with y’all. can’t wait to take another! [special thanks to kate for giving me the name of the studio!!]

ciao lovers

VENICE, FRANKFURT, BURRRR-LIN, AND PRAHA!

this was my first time in venice, and we could not have chosen a better reason to come. CARNIVALE. the venetians pulled out all the stops. amazing extravagant costumes, parades in every piazza, and a party in every bar! yoanna, matias, and i (with a near missing of the train a la yoanna, video to come) took a train from florence to venice at 4:37 in the morning and arrived in venice at 9:30 where a cool but sunny morning awaited us. after a quick visit to the calatrava bridge, we headed into town to see venice’s main cathedral in san marco flooded with acqua alta (the high tide that fills the piazza and the shops around it), the gondolas, and everyone’s crazy costumes. we had an amazing day just seeing the sights, attending the carnivale events, and finishing off the night dancing in the piazza dorsoduro by the academia.  the train ride back was an adventure in itself, as we only had tickets to get us to bologna, about an hour out of florence.  i ended up telling the conductor that we must have slept through the stop (it was 2 in the morning after all), and since i think he had a thing for california girls, he let us off the hook and just told us to get off at the next stop (firenze campo di marte, the stop we originally wanted) and take the train back to bologna… we just barely avoided a heavy fine. no big deal…

 

 

the next morning, yoanna and i had to catch a flight to frankfurt from pisa at 10 in the morning. we both overslept (we had gotten home around 4:30 am from venezia) and had to rush to pack and get to the train station before our departure. we finally made it to the airport and were entertained by an adorable little girl and her siblings who each spoke german, italian, and english! after a german lesson from an eleven-year-old, we were ready to danke, bitte, hallo, and tschüss our way into germany!

our hostel in frankfurt ended up being in the red-light district, but it was one of the nicest places i’ve ever stayed in.  yoanna and i went on the lamest pub crawl in the world (accompanied by salsa and cha cha lessons) on night one and hoped that our valentine’s day would fare better.  sunday morning, we decided to take a little walking tour of frankfurt. carnivale was happening in frankfurt as well, so we decided to hit it up. carnivale in frankfurt = grandparents and children dressed up throwing candy from trucks playing loud german music while barely-dressed cheerleaders yelled hallo! repeatedly to the crowd. strange but festive.  yoyo and i swerved on a museum by richard meier, a museum with a botticelli exhibit, one with a george seurat show, and another tiny museum with a really strange 20 minute video of some abstracted mechanism thing? i don’t know. for dinner we dined on the finest cibo cinese (chinese food) germany had to offer and met some people who were staying in our hostel—a girl from columbia, a guy from illinois, and one from argentina. they were really nice and ended up coming out with us that night on our valentine’s search for the perfect strip club. (i mean, we were staying in the redlight district…)

on to berlin the next day… kind of a waste of a day just traveling and waiting around.  we went on a hunt for this mexican food place our guide recommended, and we ended up getting there too late for dinner and the owner tried pulling together some nachos for us. we really miss mexican food. please send. the next morning, we headed to the brandenburg gate for our free guided tour of berlin. our tour guide was this absolutely adorable british guy, and it was his birthday! sucked for him. but we saw most of historical berlin and some of its newer architecture.  later that day, yoanna and i began our architectural mecca around berlin.  we saw rem koolhaus’s netherland embassy, libeskind’s jewish museum, mies van de rohe’s national gallery, the sony center, renzo piano’s building at potsdamer platz, and eisenman’s holocaust memorial. the next day, we stamped our passports at checkpoint charlie, hopped on the train to the eastside gallery of the berlin wall, hopped on another couple trains to le corbusier’s unite d’habitation :o!!!, peter behrens’ aeg factory, the bauhaus archive by walter gropius, and trekked it back to the reichstag, a walk that unexpectedly took an hour! in the snow! at the reichstag we went up to the new norman foster dome for an incredible night view of the city. that night, we went to the biggest club in berlin, matrix (for future reference in case you find yourself in need of a club in berlin, if you are asking directions, make sure you pronounce the “a” as in mat, not mate. the manager of the club didn’t understand us when we were asking him how to get to mayyy-trix…oy!).  we were only there for an hour and a half because trains closed at midnight, but we had fun nonetheless.

next morning, we had to catch an 8:30 am train to prague.  while waiting for the train to come, we met these two producer guys from la who had just been to the berlinale movie festival. we ended up sitting with them on the train and had a great time just talking about whatever. in prague, our hostel was absolutely brilliant. the “czech inn,” love the pun, was eco-friendly, had an adorable bar/restaurant, and had an incredibly helpful staff. later that night, we ended up going to this club populated by underage kids… we made friends with a girl from norway who was sixteen! accidenti! we ended up going to another random club and made it home by 4 in the morning…ahh to be young! exhausted the next morning…errr.. afternoon, we got up and again took our own tour of prague. we walked the charles bridge and along the river and ended at frank gehry’s dancing house. we were too pooped to do anything else, so we headed back home for a power nap, went shopping in town, and ate some traditional czech goulash soup while watching the olympics back at the hostel.

flight back from prague to milan was uneventful, and after chilling outside the train station for a couple hours where milan’s version of carnivale was beginning, we headed home on the train where we ran into alyssa and jeremy from our school on the way home. over all, a very unexpectedly eventful trip with yoyo by my side.

now on to the new semester today… wish me luck!

<3

OH HEY.... I REALLY AM STILL ALIVE.

i have failed miserably at keeping this up. i warned you, though, so i don’t feel that bad about it… well ok i feel horrible about it, but honestly, i told you so…

but this is what the new year is for, right? resolutions. along with my resolution to use the gift certificate to the spa i received for my birthday (yes, in october), take dance classes, do my portfolio, etc, i plan to keep up this blog. it may only be once a month (and far more abridged than my previous posts), but i know you’ve missed me, even if only a little, and i’m going to try really hard to make time for it.

here are the barebones, minimal highlights of the past 4 months:

milano for my birthday: the cast - yoanna, gaby, kevin, christo, matias, ryan, jeremy, alyssa, beth, ashley, rosie, max, jason, and danny—yeah, we roll deep; repulsive (I need a worse word to really describe this place) hostel (i still get the heebie jeebies thinking about it); amazing duomo climb/nap; the opera “orpheus” with gaby at la scala, a famous and beautiful opera house; shocking nightclub til 4 am; castello sforza and michelangelo’s pieta; waiting at milano centrale for 6 hours for an available train to come…exhausting weekend trip. amazing birthday.

  

 

 

october 9th florentine halloween: a night of rambunctions (i’m making it a word, k?). i was a french maid (classic) and we encountered an emo boy, a hobo, some indians, cows, an ipod, pippi longstocking, mafiosi, doug (our director), salt and peppa shakers, a devil, the incredibles, a one-night stand, bread man, chefs, etc… the entirety of csu was at the two ghibellina apartments. epic night.

field trip to roma with csu: tombs at cerveterai and tarquinia made for some awesome photo shoots; gabz, yoyo and i roomed together in the beautiful 4 star hotel da vinci; cal poly slo reunion with the kids studying in rome for the semester at campo dei fiori followed by a long walk/stumble with friends along the river back to the hotel; crazy tour day of the collosseo, forum romano, pantheon, fontana di trevi, spanish steps, st. peter’s, etc. but i really MUST go back. def have not spent enough time in rome yet. 

 

plp break - london, salisbury, and dublin: with jason, max, and andi in london plus sarah and seren in dublin. london = metro (mind the gap), architecture, fish and chips and other amazing (non-italian) food, london eye (with max at night = amaaazing views). salisbury = stonehenge tour (blew my mind). dublin = fun city (cute pubs, trinity college, did the guinness tour) but preferred the beautiful (though rainy) wicklow tour to the countryside and the last night with our new roman friends.

 

 

field trip to verona, vicenza, padova, and mantova with csu: two words—carlo scarpa. brion-vega cemetery and castel vecchio = architect’s heaven on earth. saw palladio’s villa rotonda, the colosseum in verona, rubbed juliet's boobies for good luck, the teatro olympico, a zaha exhibit, the libeskind 9/11 memorial, etc. an architectural feast.

thanksgiving in firenze: 3 different houses had thanksgiving potlucks. needless to say, we ate like kings. i made baked caramel brie with caramelized almonds and granny smiths and we had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, polenta, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green beans, macaroni and cheese, cornbread muffins, pumpkin pie, peach cobbler, and lots of vino. perfection! 

thanksgiving break in barcelona: i love barcelona. great hostel, amazing architecture, great food and company. yoyo, gaby, ashley, andi, beth, ryan, matias, jason, zach. gaudi’s park güell, casa mila (getting in with the group of spanish teens fo FREE), casa battlo. paella. block of discord. las ramblas with the boys playing soccer every minute with the ball dubbed “uno.” herzog and demeuron’s forum—way better in pictures. paella. toyo ito’s apartments. sagrada familia and running up the stairs illegally. calatrava’s bac de roda bridge and photoshoots in the middle of the street. jean nouvel’s torre agbar. sangria. olympic park with girls and the calatrava spire. mies van de rohe’s barcelona pavilion. tapas. loss of uno on the metro = purchase of dos and almost missing our plane (crazy metro antics—3 girls through one metro stall with backpacks)!

the holiday season festivities: ugly sweater day party (la festa di giorno di maglione brutte), csu catered holiday party and secret santa (i got potpourri from adam), hanukkah (latkes and candlelighting at yoyo’s), and SNOW in firenze (snowball fights at piazza michelangelo and beautiful snowy views of the rooftops of florence). 

winter break: paris with the entire family (mom, dad, briana, grandma christiane, uncle pascal, cousin raphaël) for 8 days filled with food, fun, and festivities. then down to the south of france with mom to avignon, arles, and marseille for new year’s (éclairs au chocolat and champagne, anyone?). down to milan for a day and florence for another 4 days then mom was off :(

the month of january: megan (and edward and haley) came to visit for a week (they’re studying in copenhagen for the year) and we had a blast exploring florence and being roommates. classes started up again, and now we’re already down to the last week before finals! heading to venice for carnivale and then frankfurt, berlin, and prague for break with yoanna! so much to do, so little time! 

well, that’s what’s going on in my little life right now. i really wish i could get into more detail for you, but then i’d be here for 17 days just writing. maybe one day i’ll go back to it and put in the details. until then, use your imagination :)

xoxo