asleep on a sunbeam.

i don't know why, but sometimes i forget what a beautiful place arezzo is. there's not a lot to do here, so i haven't spent a lot of time exploring, but i stayed this weekend and was able to truly appreciate how pretty it is. liz, perry and jamie visited yesterday and maybe it was showing them around that helped open my eyes as well. i can't believe i've been in italy for two months now: it still seems surreal to me when i think about it. in some ways i wish i could've taken a year abroad instead because i can't possibly fit in everything that i would like to in just three months. at the same time, gotta try and live in the present and not worry about what ifs.

this week felt like it went really quickly: all of a sudden, it was friday. we had class up until dinner (ricardo served breakfast... mmm!) and then we got ready for the american decadence party that was being hosted at a discotheque called snob. admission was free for americans and costumes were encouraged, but none of us went the costume route. instead, we all dressed up (a few of us broke out the fanny packs again) and pre-gamed in the limo so we didn't spend all our money on drinks. the ADA was well represented at snob; we were some of the only people there for a long time, but we just had a dance party for a few hours, which was really fun.

yesterday, eva and i walked down to the market and got the most fantastic panini. whenever i'm here on a saturday, i make a point to purchase one of these sandwiches- that's how good they are. met up with the ladies at the train station and then gave them a brief tour of arezzo. we sat on the wall outside the duomo for a while, soaking up the view of the tuscan countryside. after a nice nap, we went back into town for life-changing pasta. it was actually pretty busy at the restaurant, so they sat us in this back room. i love eating there: the ingredients are just so fresh that even a simple dish tastes amazing. we got some gelato after dinner and ate it on our way to the bar. when we got back, we sat on the roof of the teatrino and took in the view of the night sky. bello bello bello.

after some coffee o'clock for breakfast and dropping the girls off at the train station, i took a leisurely walk back to the villa. put some chill music on and sat on a swingset in this park for a while. it's near the duomo, so there's a great view up there. i'm constantly with people, all of whom i like, but from time to time, i need some space. it was really peaceful sitting up there because most people were in church. might have to make it a sunday ritual.

this one's for you, al.

so i'm updating at allie's insistence, thus the title of this post.

anyways, greece was fun. i think our plans changed approx 5 times... our final plan was made when we actually got to athens. and even changed again because there was a strike when we were there. luckily, avoided the tear gas though. some highlights of the trip included: getting into the acropolis for FREE without planning it, paying under 10 euro for dinner a couple nights, jumping in the sea and climbing 999 steps to get to the nafplion fortress.

in terms of classes, this week has been going really well so far. today was awesome because we combined with the other undergrads and did an improv theater class for 2 and 1/2 hours. we have it again on friday and i am so excited for it. we didn't really get deep into the art of theater sports, but it was probably one of my favorite classes so far.

our cool down song in ash's class was tracy chapman's in the dark. if you haven't heard it, check it out.

planning is hard.

tonight, our spring break group decided to meet again and finalize our plans, write down details, etc. good thing. because not only was a hostel double booked and we didn't have one for athens, but we realized there was no conceivable way to get from paros to athens and make it in time for our flight back to rome. good thing we decided to not just wing it. another valuable lesson learned while abroad: planning is hard.

back to rome.

had a great time in rome this weekend... i would just like to give liz and her roomies a shoutout for letting bie and me stay at their apartment. not paying for a hostel and the ability to leave our stuff in a place rather than lug it around is fantastic. that said, we had a very relaxing weekend. went to le fate (translation: the fairies) friday night for dinner. they had a student menu and for a mere 10 euro we had an appetizer, a pasta dish and tiramisu accompanied by the house red wine. baller. since there was a italy vs. scotland rugby match the next day, there were lots of men in kilts all over the city and two of them came into the restaurant with bagpipes. not something i would've ever expected to encounter in italy, but i liked the merging of the two cultures.

in campo that night we met quite a few scottish/irish men. one of the two important things i learned this weekend was how to properly pronounce the name "craig." apparently, i've been saying it wrong my whole life. saturday, the weather was absolutely fantastic and reminiscent of goucher in the spring. we soaked it up the sun in the area outside of the galleria bourghese before we were allowed to go inside. there, i made important discovery number 2: i liked bernini's david so much more than michaelangelo's... just goes to show you that some things get WAY too much hype.

even though we weren't in arezzo this weekend, the days seemed just as relaxed. which is perfect because starting tomorrow, we're about to get our asses kicked by a crash course in the fine art of butoh!

life is full of lessons, i wonder what i'll learn tomorrow.

things i have learned:

1. its hard to keep up with a blog. partly because i start posts in my head but when i sit down to write it, it's all gone.
2. i'm glad i took french... helps with italian.
3. i am capable of carrying on a rudimentary conversation in another language.
4. showing any sort of interest (ie a smile) is considered an invitation. gotta be rude to the boyz i'm not interested in.
5. boys will lie about their age and possibly their name or nationality just to seem more appealing.
6. however, lying about my name isn't that bad an idea because courtney doesn't seem to translate.
7. zara is cheaper here than in america. score.
8. the things i'm learning do not seem very deep.
9. except when it comes to philosophy class.
10. gotta let go of my inner perfectionist if i'm going to learn anything while i'm here. slowly, but surely it is happening.
11. my roommate is an awesome singer/songwriter. she will be famous someday soon.
12. merce was right. this is not for unsteady souls.

bonus points- name the movie my title is from. no cheating.

eyes wide open.

so monday was the festival of the madonna di conforto. basically, there were all these earthquakes in arezzo a couple hundred years ago but then the madonna appeared and made it all better. so they have a festival every year in her honor. monica told us it was "italian culture at it's finest." after modern, my roommate and i made the trek into town to check it out. it was a strange mixture of religion and festival atmosphere. it was hard to capture:



on the walk back from town, we encountered these:



luckily, the trip to venice had helped us avoid all the heavy wet snow for the weekend and by the time we got back it had almost all melted away. i also finally got a picture of the villa from afar. not the best photog skills right thurr, but it gives the general outline:

if the form vanishes its root is eternal.

so, venice. carnevale. absolutely ridiculous. our train arrived around 9, only for us to discover that our hostel was about a 20 min drive away from there. poor planning. anyways, it was pretty nice and not too expensive, so it was def worth the extra money for transportation to and from the city. pre-gamed in the hostel a bit, and then it we were off! friday night wasn't really that crowded, but we also didn't get into the actual city until maybe 11:15, so maybe most of the crowd had returned already. meet some other americans in our travels to the bars. one of the guys was named wolfgang, or so he claimed. his tongue was pierced. i interrogated him for a long time about that.

after only a few hours of sleep, we headed back into venice for the day. one thing i learned after this weekend: if i'm only staying for one night and i'm going to carry my bag around, then i'm not going to pack a heavy bag. i thought i had packed really light... but it turned out that wasn't the case. regardless, i still had a good time traversing the city and experience lots of other tourists, italians included, doing the same. although all 18 of the undergrads made it to venice, it was necessary to split up. i travelled around with a couple of other girls and for the most part, it was a really relaxing day. we bought breakfast, then went in search of masks. after finding them, we donned our festive attire and just took in the sights in sounds, slowly meandering our way towards the guggenheim. on there, i ended up running into my roommate (yay!) and our little group of 3 became 4. by around 5, i was ready to leave. the crowds had really picked up and everyone was just pushing, but there really didn't seem to be a destination in mind. we bought our train tickets, and that's when our real adventure began.

since there wasn't a direct train to arezzo, we decided to ask someone that was selling tickets. he had us go to bologna and then pick a train up there to arezzo. unfortunately, he did not do his job well and we ended up being in bologna for 5 hours. we decided to make the best of it and went to a bar for a caffeine pick-me-up and made some friends back at the train station. we got lucky on the train and found seats, although sleep was nearly impossible. finally made it back to the villa around 5:30 am. it was bound to happen sometime, so like they say in up, adventure is out there!