Maybe I should start with Amsterdam where I saw an entire arena of people from all over the world come together for one rave. Or I could start with the 16 hours of sleep that followed. Or with the Sunday that began with banana pancakes and bacon on our big wooden table. The last weekend is over but it's really been one of the best. And not just because it started on a Wednesday. But maybe.
Some cute stuff all us roomies did includes waking up at 3 pm every day and starting the discussion of cleaning the place up for move-out. We hit up the Christmas markets at Santa Croce to look around and eat Polish sausages. It was so pretty when the sun started setting and all the lights looked like magic. We watched Home Alone in a dark kitchen with these grocery store sugar cookies that may as well be crack. We walked out to the duomo and perfected the art of asking different people to take our picture in front of the Christmas tree. See you have to pick someone out that a) looks like they know how to use a camera b) is with a significant other so you can return the picture-taking favor c) isn't wearing a puffy jacket holding a baby wearing a puffy jacket. I almost asked this one lady to take the picture but when I realized she was in this puffy jacket baby situation, I knew better. And I did think about offering to hold her baby while she took our picture, but then we'd have a picture of all of us in front of the Christmas tree holding some woman's baby. And that's just awkward.
Speaking of babies I AM ONE, I left the apartment for a few hours today to finish up some paintings and already started missing everyone at home. Like I just wanted to go back and be with them. And we're supposed to say goodbye on Thursday? I'm so screwed.
Monday
Saturday
Grow slow
Going to another country for a semester, it's like all of a sudden you have to be smart like an adult. So much to remember for yourself. Keep your passport somewhere safe. Don't take your debit card out with you.. Be a smart drunk. I know this all was supposed to happen 4 years ago, and it did, in a way, but living in a different country is different. You have to be responsible not just for your classes and commitments, but for yourself, for your well-being. My mom wasn't here to drag me to get my ends trimmed or to tell me oh it's nothing, you're probably just dehydrated. And it's not even that I didn't have my mom, I didn't have anybody. It was me, 10,000 unknown street names and that god-forsaken language barrier. What do you mean no capisco??? But in the chaos of it all I had to remember all the important stuff. To shave my legs, keep track of important documents and figure out how to do stuff.
FYI, I am not good at that. My brain prefers long weekends and minimal common sense requirements. So in the wisdom of my roommate I had to learn to say, "if you don't know how to do it, just.. figure it out." 4 months later, I learned a little, fucked up a lot, and found that the roommates in kitchen when I get home is a cure for any bad day.
I'm not saying I know anything, and I surely don't know everything, but it is in these little things I learned while living in Florence that I found life can be really, really, so damn good. Or maybe I'm just a 89 year-old-man at heart. Either way, see if you agree:
1. When trying new food at the foreign grocery store, only buy a little bit in case you don't like it. But I went to Italy and I found that, more often than not, I liked it. The best is when you do actually like it but run out, so you leave class and go straight to the grocery store before you go home to get more. See: salami toscano
2. Ask your professor questions. That's so cliche but so something I needed to learn. You don't even know all the answers they got out there.....
3. Don't leave your keys at home. This crazy thing will happen where you'll be locked out and it will probably be raining.
4. Don't forget to fall in love with yourself, first. Then break all the hearts you want. Karma, bitch.
5. Do laundry before you run out of clean underwear. Or else it will be bikini bottoms in November and people will wonder why you smell like sunscreen. Also because we don't have a dryer and it takes +24 hours for my clothes to dry. Isn't there some kind of Chemistry law against that?
6. Look people in the eye. Especially at first when you don't know anyone. People say this all the time and I was always like ok ok sure, but when you start really doing it, you're like ohh. That's why.
7. When he offers you the world, remember you have your own. But who ever said 2 worlds weren't better than one?
8. End each day with a glass of wine. The 1.99 kind if you're going to be doing this every day. It's up to you/which day of the week it is to decide if by glass I mean 750 mL glass bottle.
9. Don't compare your sketchbook with someone else's gallery piece. You'll just start cursing at everyone and blaming your paintbrushes or attributing all your problems to the fact that you don't have a Mac.
10. Every day (I'm serious. Every day.) take an hour to do nothing but sit, talk, laugh, drink, and do nothing. You'll make the best friends, laugh the hardest you've ever and finally understand the whole happiness thing. Which, if you can believe it, is not standing at the stove eating pasta out of the pot in your underwear.
11. If you don't believe in magic, you won't find it. Oh, but if you do..
12. Learn how to say "go fuck yourself" out loud, with total confidence and no reservation to the filthy strangers on the street who figure out some way to disrespect you with their snakes of hands. Convince yourself that saying those words in public is totally respectable, in the name of your temple of a body. And if you're in Italy.... they are Italians, after all.
13. Grow slow. Make 13-numbered lists of things and swear to yourself to live by each one, but remember there's always something else. Something you didn't know. Something that will tell you you're wrong. About everything. Accept that, and keep growing.
When I get back I have so many people to thank, to hug, to remember again. I have debts upon debts to work back up, pounds my thighs and face could do without, two delicious black bunnies to snuggle. When I get back, I'm going to be happy, but I'm going to be so, so sad. I'm going to be the girl walking around with a bottle of wine in one arm and everyone I love in the other, refusing to believe we're anywhere else in the world besides Florence, Italy.
FYI, I am not good at that. My brain prefers long weekends and minimal common sense requirements. So in the wisdom of my roommate I had to learn to say, "if you don't know how to do it, just.. figure it out." 4 months later, I learned a little, fucked up a lot, and found that the roommates in kitchen when I get home is a cure for any bad day.
I'm not saying I know anything, and I surely don't know everything, but it is in these little things I learned while living in Florence that I found life can be really, really, so damn good. Or maybe I'm just a 89 year-old-man at heart. Either way, see if you agree:
1. When trying new food at the foreign grocery store, only buy a little bit in case you don't like it. But I went to Italy and I found that, more often than not, I liked it. The best is when you do actually like it but run out, so you leave class and go straight to the grocery store before you go home to get more. See: salami toscano
2. Ask your professor questions. That's so cliche but so something I needed to learn. You don't even know all the answers they got out there.....
3. Don't leave your keys at home. This crazy thing will happen where you'll be locked out and it will probably be raining.
4. Don't forget to fall in love with yourself, first. Then break all the hearts you want. Karma, bitch.
5. Do laundry before you run out of clean underwear. Or else it will be bikini bottoms in November and people will wonder why you smell like sunscreen. Also because we don't have a dryer and it takes +24 hours for my clothes to dry. Isn't there some kind of Chemistry law against that?
6. Look people in the eye. Especially at first when you don't know anyone. People say this all the time and I was always like ok ok sure, but when you start really doing it, you're like ohh. That's why.
7. When he offers you the world, remember you have your own. But who ever said 2 worlds weren't better than one?
8. End each day with a glass of wine. The 1.99 kind if you're going to be doing this every day. It's up to you/which day of the week it is to decide if by glass I mean 750 mL glass bottle.
9. Don't compare your sketchbook with someone else's gallery piece. You'll just start cursing at everyone and blaming your paintbrushes or attributing all your problems to the fact that you don't have a Mac.
10. Every day (I'm serious. Every day.) take an hour to do nothing but sit, talk, laugh, drink, and do nothing. You'll make the best friends, laugh the hardest you've ever and finally understand the whole happiness thing. Which, if you can believe it, is not standing at the stove eating pasta out of the pot in your underwear.
11. If you don't believe in magic, you won't find it. Oh, but if you do..
12. Learn how to say "go fuck yourself" out loud, with total confidence and no reservation to the filthy strangers on the street who figure out some way to disrespect you with their snakes of hands. Convince yourself that saying those words in public is totally respectable, in the name of your temple of a body. And if you're in Italy.... they are Italians, after all.
13. Grow slow. Make 13-numbered lists of things and swear to yourself to live by each one, but remember there's always something else. Something you didn't know. Something that will tell you you're wrong. About everything. Accept that, and keep growing.
When I get back I have so many people to thank, to hug, to remember again. I have debts upon debts to work back up, pounds my thighs and face could do without, two delicious black bunnies to snuggle. When I get back, I'm going to be happy, but I'm going to be so, so sad. I'm going to be the girl walking around with a bottle of wine in one arm and everyone I love in the other, refusing to believe we're anywhere else in the world besides Florence, Italy.
Live-action blogging
Scene: going in to work on stuff at school. Stopped to grab a panino at the bar next to my school. While I wait for the sandwich to heat up, I nod and smile at the two old ladies talking rapidly at the same time to me in Italian and waving their hands all over the place in my face. I give Mario, the man with a black ponytail who works there, the what is going on help me look. Mario winks and laughs, then wraps up a free pastry to go with my sandwich.
Now can you see why I'm in no rush to leave??
Now can you see why I'm in no rush to leave??
My friends have started a countdown
and,
So time to realize I actually have to leave this place. Yesterday I put some dirty laundry in my laundry basket, which concluded my first step towards packing. Also got some upcoming flight info sorted out, and by I, I mean my grandpa because he's good at things like getting upcoming flight info sorted out (my mom says its because of his NY accent- and I believe it). Also started buying less groceries because, well, not much time left to eat them all (don't worry I'll find the time, somehow.)
So those are my stay calm deep breaths towards accepting time's up. I'd say I'm getting better at it but hot tears were inching down my cheeks after watching Monsters, Inc. yesterday in Italian class so I don't know if I'm definitely getting better at it yet or not per say.
AND just so you know, a semester spent holed up in the pretty little studios (see: leaking roofs, crowded easels, sloped tables) of SACI Florence means I made a lot of stuff. I mean documenting it all should count as a final project of its own. So while there are tons of other things I could do with it all, I figure I might as well just show it off on here, aka tabs at the top. They don't have anything in them yet, but you just wait!
ps, is it towards or toward?
I miss everyone. See you guys soon. Readers in Taiwan, I miss you too. Prob won't see you soon..
Thursday
To: everyone studying/writing/working for/a/on finals
You got this.
Hang in there even when your paws start slipping on the floor
while you're just trying to eat a good breakfast before your exam.
And:
that.
Good luck/in bocca al lupo! (in the mouth of the wolf!)
Now you say, "Crepi"
it means die.
I know, we're so cool here in Italy
Tuesday
Leave the world behind girl
2 weeks and 29348093 things to do. Bet 99% of you agree. We've got big things going on over here in Florence and if I don't make it out of these last few weeks alive, I'll be the heap of plaster/oil paint/watercolor/ink/italian notes in my bed. Which could mean the one here or in America, depends how far I make it before collapsing. I went to bed early last night because if you can't tell I've been staying up really late.. working on stuff. Yea so that was a good decision because this morning was highly productive. And tomorrow morning, our fresco class is hopping *yep, like bunnies* on a train to head to the children's hospital where we are going fresco the whole place to pieces!! I'll send pictures. Then this weekend we're thinking about hitting up Rome, where I'll make the Colosseum and Kanye's house both priorities of sights2see. Equal opportunity, guys. Then NEXT Tuesday, my illustration class is heading to this French elementary school where we will read our children's books to the children. My prof describes the school as "aristocratic." Not intimidated at all. Then guess what's Wednesday? It has to do with Amsterdam, Swedish House Mafia and One Last Tour. ......?? Anyone??
Shut up how'd you know!
Until then, if you want to know what's up you can stop by the painting studio,one of the sandwich places the Oil Shoppe, or my kitchen while I'm frying butter and onions and thinking I'm such a good cook. Or iMessage me at 3 am. I'll probably be up.
Shut up how'd you know!
Until then, if you want to know what's up you can stop by the painting studio,
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