Finally Home

I should have arrived home on Saturday the 19th, but on Friday night it decided to snow in Florence for the first time in about 10 years or so...

The Ponte Vecchio is somewhere in the background

On our way to Friends Pub for one last time.

A snow covered Duomo

The view from the terrace.

The view on the train to Rome.

It was definitely gorgeous and the experience of a lifetime to see snow in Florence, as well as have the opportunity to have a snowball fight and annoy all the Italians, but it ended up being hell the next day when it was time to leave. There wasn't actually a lot of snow, but the next morning when I went to catch my 7am train to Rome, there were already delays of up to an hour and eventually my train was even canceled. Unfortunately for me, it hadn't snowed in Rome and there were no delays flying out of there, so when I finally did catch a train from Florence it was about 9:30pm and I didn't make it to the airport until about 12:30...my flight was at 12:15.

And here's where the bitterness really kicked in.
I had no cell phone, barely any cash (because I expected the most money I would need was when I arrived home), and had to buy an entire new flight more or less. Since I hadn't missed my connecting flight in Dublin, technically, I could call the airline pay a penalty fee and buy another ticket for the difference, which is what I did, however I couldn't get a flight until Monday and the price was still astronomical. It was almost what I had paid for my round trip flight.

Luckily, I didn't get stuck at the airport for 2 days... I actually ended up in Gaeta, which is a whole other story within itself.

The Season is Ending

Real World Firenze is slowly coming to a close. Not that I really watch the show, but I feel that it's almost impossible to not at least have the gist of what it's about. Regardless I think I have been educated enough about it after reading Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman, who says:

"I tend to consider myself an amateur Real World scholar. I say "amateur because I've done no actual university study on this subject, but I still say "scholar" because I've stopped watching the show as entertainment."

And with that said, although my housemates and I are eight people and not seven (arguably seven at some points), we were certainly strangers thrown into a house of the proper Real World age and social demographic, except in a foreign country where none of us can speak the language and to study. All that's missing is a confessional booth, but we've certainly had the drama, conflicts, interactions, and absolutely random experiences to probably be just as interesting to watch as a season of the actual show.

We had always joked about this in the house and we still do from time to time, but as the days wind down, I find myself in more of a contemplative mood and trying to summarize everything that has happened in the past 4 months, or give my last "confessional." I came to a pretty big realization about my time here last night and as I was talking to Julia today about it, one of her only responses was that my experience really was like the Real World and that was my last time in the confessional booth and more so that is what this entire week will be (with a few finals and last minute sight seeing in between).

It really isn't going to hit me until I am stepping off the plane in JFK on Saturday. So much has happened, yet nothing has really happened at all.


I will leave it at this.

The one creative thing I have done here other than write and take photographs:

(I'm surprised I still know how to even draw at this point.)

Every Twenty Minutes I Write a Paragraph

At this rate, I should be finished with my paper in about 3 hours, or so I hope.

I am writing about la Finestra di Fronte (Facing Windows), by Ferzan Ozpetek and the ideas are there, but I cannot find enough time to focus.



I cannot find one of my favorite clips from the movie, which are basically the scenes where the main character, Giovanna voyeuristically looking out her window at her neighbor across the way longing for a better life because she is unhappy with her own. The way the scenes from the window are shot, as well as the idea of observing the world outside your window and looking into the lives of other people actually reminded me a lot of the Gail Albert Halaban exhibit Out my Window, which was more or less my motivation for writing about this paper.

However, in this scene, the elderly man, "Simone" recites an important quote in the movie:
"Don't be content to survive! You must demand to live in a better world, not just dream about it." And has what my Cinema teacher likes to describe as one of the best scenes depicting food that she has ever seen in any movie.

As much as I am procrastinating writing about this paper and that I may have complained about this class at times, it has definitely been one of my favorite this semester. I had no idea how big Italian cinema actually was before this and I cannot wait to go home and start watching more foreign movies.

**Edit**

I realized exactly what is taking me so long to finish this paper.

It's because I hate writing papers for a good professor, especially a when it is criticism, opinion or review of something because I am too afraid to insult their intelligence. Also, because it is a personal and private dialogue between the professor and I, a one-on-one, without ever actually having to be in front of each other, which prevents me from feeling stupid, embarrassed, or unintellectual about my opinion. The only thing they can hold against me is whatever they use their red pen to mark down and we never have to talk about it.

I've been Thinking

And so I've realized exactly why I want and need to go home.

It's 5:17am, I'm a bit drunk, but I am finally catching friends I haven't talked to in a while. And yet tonight has been a roller coaster of emotions. My roommates and I went to dinner and theater with our Cinema teacher and it was absolutely amazing. I didn't quite understand the theater part, which was about wine because 1) it was in old Italian and 2) my mind was wandering half the time.

My emotions have been more than a hot mess in the past few 2 weeks and I am ready for something new, although I have quite a bit of sorting out to do when I get home.

I am ready for a semi-image change, a return to my regiment, a reintroduction to climbing, and working at the Trattoria. I will certainly miss Italy, but there are so many people I have left behind, that I absolutely miss from my life and in my semi-drunken state I am realizing that to its full extent.

10 days. Wow.

Also, I am well overdue for an escape from the absolute confusion of my house that is more or less the epitome of the Real World. But what else would you expect from 8 different people living in close quarters for over 3 months, who coincidentally go to the same school, but have never met and would probably never meet in their lives. (And of course, the famous just friends situation + you have a boyfriend, but who's judging).

And like I've said the whole time. We shall see what happens when I get home. haha.

I found this picture while rummaging through my computer bored out of my mind during class the other day and I love it. It's from a used furniture store in Chicago.

Imitation is the Greatest form of Flattery

Lately I have three obsessions:

The White Stripes,

the Dead Weather,


and the Kills. (especially Midnight Boom) Let's just say Alison Mosshart his my new idol.

That and I have a new found desire to learn Italian, to move to another country, to stop being lazy about making art, and an addiction to sandwich shops in Florence such as Antico Noe and I Due Fratellini.

It hasn't quite set in that I will be returning to the states soon and I don't think it will until I am on a train to Rome the morning of December 19th, or when I find myself freezing to death when I walk out of the airport later that day.

I have quite the list of aspirations to fulfill and a head full of realistic fantasies and ideas, that should last me through the winter.

I'm ready to start a new life when I return, or at least take the steps towards it.

We shall see what happens.

Roma

I have not exactly been the greatest at keeping up to date with my photos. My digital camera is officially dead, so I have been trying to deal with that and I have been shooting film as well as growing lazier and less motivated to take pictures. Since finals are coming up, I will probably be spending lots of time procrastinating, so I will try my best to be counterproductive and edit and post more pictures.