This past week has brought with it many more adventures and happy times. I would gander that the presence of actual sun and warmth made these adventures at least 80 times better. On Thursday of last week, my housemates and I even took a random walk in search of a tower we can see from one of our windows in the distance. We had just finished our first oral midterm (the written one was the day before) and I am happy to report that I did wonderfully! Italian level 1 is now officially under my belt and I still can't believe I just did an entire quarter's worth of a language in under one month! So anyways, we went off galavanting in the sun and I didn't even have to wear a coat!! It was magical and just feeling the sun beat down on our faces and actually raise our temperature a degree or two (something that I took SO far granted back home) felt unbelievably wonderful. What a difference something like the sun can make in life!
This last week was filled with many new things as well. On Wednesday I volunteered in an after school program which teachers children english. I got placed with the preschooler's and they are beyond adorable! There are only 6 of them total, but they sure are spunky! It is wonderful to be able to actually understand what they tell me in Italian! I have also noticed that I am quite good with getting them to repeat after me and learn english more (this having to do, I am sure, with the fact that I did that the entire summer!). The hour I was there flew by and afterwards I grabbed a coffee with Megan, the teacher of the class who is only 23. It was so nice to talk with her and I am excited to be volunteering every week! On Thursday night I had a coffee with my exchange partner Martina and we had a great conversation. I need to start using my Italian more, though! I can understand it quite well, but I just flub all over the place and end up using spanish more than Italian when I try to speak it!
Now for the fun part of the weekend! Thursday night some girls from our program threw a large "finals are over" party in their apartment. I had such a blast and it was great to see everyone in a different setting, rather that slaving over their desks and speaking in mangled italian to one another. I felt very comfortable and talked to so many people I hadn't had the chance to speak with yet. We ended up all going to two different dicoteca's that were filled with gross, old Italian men but we just all danced together and had one of my favorite nights so far. Friday was spent getting some homework done, cleaning, doing laundry, getting our masks for Carnival, finally eating at the Jersey Shore pizza place, visiting the chocolate festival for the last time, and resting up for the next day.
VENICE CARNIVALE HERE WE COME!!!!! I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and happily got ready and had some breakfast. My apartment started off for our 35 minute walk to the bus meeting place at around 8:30am. By the time we got to the station, got checked in (they had my name as "Michela Ria"), and boarded the bus, it was almost 10am! We were stuck on the bus for almost an hour just waiting for everyone to arrive and do things I don't even know of. The buses finally departed and the 3 hour ride was spent with me trying to force my heavy eyes open and onto the amazing scenery we were passing by. I am sad to say that for at least 30 minutes of the ride my eyes failed me, but I still have lasting memories of the areas of intense snow, the small villages in the background, the wide open spaces, etc. Oh, by the way, we went to Venice with this travel program that we booked separately so many from our program did go but there were also a lot of people from just Florence in general. It was nice to see new faces.
We arrived in the actual city of Venice, after taking a disgustingly muggy train ride into the city, at around 2pm. I was ASTONISHED when I finally walked out onto the area right outside the train station. The first thing I noticed, of course, was the large canal (just like in the movies!!!). The second thing was the weather (it was sunny and warm!!!), the third thing was the amount of people (it was PACKED), and lastly was what the people were actually wearing. There were costumes galore! Halloween will never be the same for me. We started off as a rather large group but within minutes separated into smaller groups that were easier to control. It is so difficult traveling with a lot of people in such a crowded area especially because everyone wants to take pictures here and there and most people just move to the beat of their own drum. It became taxing constantly counting heads and wondering where so and so could be. We continued to just walk through random streets and over random bridges of the numerous canals. We were constantly passing by crowds of people decked out from head to toe in costumes, or at least in sparkly, colorful masks. Italians in general are very stylish and I thought it was awesome to see them so composed and still so stylish while dressed in these ridiculous outfits and masks. Anyone would feel comfortable here!
After aimlessly exploring and taking hundreds of pictures and oohing and aahing at the gondolas and adorable streets, we decided to follow the signs on many of the buildings leading us to "San Marco". We took very random side streets and most of the signs seemed to be haphazardly written on the corners of buildings, but we eventually made it to a small piazza we thought was San Marco. Here, there was a carousel, ice skating rink, balloons, food, literally a carnival! We were all in Heaven as we ate up our yummy treats and soon realized we hadn't even made it to San Marco! We continued our scavenger hunt and within minutes, knew why so many signs had been leading us this way. San Marco was PACKED!!!!!! We could barely move around and there were costumed people every which way you turned. I tried snapping my camera for a while but pretty soon I just gave up and enjoyed my surroundings. It was absolute chaos! But such wonderful chaos! We zig zagged through the crowd towards the sea ahead of us. It took a good half an hour to make it there (some girls insisted of getting pictures with every single costume they saw), but I was speechless when we finally reached our destination. A large sea (oh how I miss the ocean!!!) was spread out in front of us as the sun glimmered off the calm waters and the gondolas were made into silhouettes against the water. As I found my breathe again, we talked to the cuttle little men in striped shirts and hats who were giving the gondola tour. Their prices for a ride were much too expensive so my friends and I separated from the rest of the group in search of some smaller canals offering much cheaper rides. We eventually found just what we were looking for and we jumped into our gondola (super scary) with huge smiles plastered onto our faces.
The ride lasted around 30 minutes and it was just gorgeous. The sun was setting as we came out to the open sea and slithered through the smaller canals. My friend Meaghan had told me that she greatly regretted never riding a gondola, and I can sure see why! This was the highlight of my trip and a major item I can now check off of my bucketlist.
Side note: This city is EXTREMELY romantic! So I strongly suggest going with the person who holds your heart :)
Now that the sun was setting, the cold was taking its rightful place next to it. We put on our extra layer of clothing (we come prepared for the weather now) and found a place to eat some food and drink some wine. With the sun gone, the streets grew even more crowded and crazy. We meandered for a while in the streets, not having the slightest clue as to where we actually were, and suddenly my friend Christine started going ballistic and hugging a random stranger on the street! Turns out, it was her friend studying in Rome!!! What a small world! She had already been there for a day with her friends so she grabbed us by the hand and led us to a dance party she knew about. I followed the bright red, blue, pink, and yellow feathers and held on tightly to the hands of my friends as we made our way through the ever thickening crowds. We started to hear the thumping of music and before you know it, we were smack dab in the center of the largest outside dance party I had ever seen! The music was awesome (they always listen to American music here) and we danced for a good hour. Costumes upon costumes passed us by and we were constantly laughing, smiling, screaming, singing, and having the time of our life.
We sadly only had 2 hours left of our night so we decided to make our way back to San Marco and see what it was like at night there. We were disappointed when all we found was a surprisingly thin crowd listening to rather dull music. It was nice to be able to see our actual surroundings with less people around, but we soon sprinted back to t dance he party to move the night away. We had a little problem actually finding the place (the streets in Venice all look the same and each canal seems to lead somewhere entirely different) but we made it with 30 minutes to spare! We boogied away to the less great music (it was all techno, which the Italians seemed to LOVE but we hated) and very sadly exited the dance area. Before this, I had vin brule' (hot wine) for the first time and it tasted AMAZING!!! Just like apple cider :)
30 minutes and three wrong turns later, we made it back to the train station and finally saw some familiar faces. We followed the director of the program to the train and boarded with hundreds of other masked people. Here came the major downfall of the day. We were stuck on trains that were packed like sardines, hot and stuffy like summertime in New York, loud, obnoxious, and just horrendous. The train waited in this state for at least 30 minutes as people kept trying to cram on. When we finally left I couldn't thank anyone enough and by the time we arrived back to the bus, I was EXHAUSTED!
Another downfall: One girl in our program never got on the bus. We waited for an hour and no one had seen her or heard from her. We are treated like adults, though, so she did have the option of staying there if she wished. We finally left and I slept like a baby. When we arrived in Florence at 4am it was pouring so we all just got a cab back to our apartment.
I have never slept so well. I woke up at 1:30pm!! (something that very rarely happens to me)
Long, long story short: It turns out that girl that was "missing" was had decided to stay with a random guy, didnt have a phone, decided not to find a phone/internet to let anyone know, and came home this morning. She has a WONDERFUL time as everyone her was insanely worried and the police were even called.
Okay time to study. Another midterm this week!!! AH CRAZY BUSY LIFE!
But.......KATIE VISITS ME THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!! I am soooooooooooooo insanely excited and thrilled :D
Ciao!
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