Viaggi

Boston!

2009-08-27T18:28:00.012-07:00

The day after I got home from DC this summer, Team Duckweed was reunited, as Kristi came to NYC to visit. (I'd like to think she was coming to visit me, but most people just come to visit the city in which I happen to live. I guess I'll take what I can get!)

While Kristi was here, we did LOTS of stuff, including walking across the Brooklyn Bridge (of course), visiting the Rockefeller Center (looking for Tina Fey, of course), buying Italian cookies in Brooklyn, venturing through (and surviving) Coney Island, and taking a trip to Boston to visit our Roman roommate, Sandra. Here are some of the highlights in, of course, pictures:

Lower Manhattan from the top of the Rockefeller Center.

Tall buildings.

Central Park and the Upper East Side

That's my hood! If you follow my finger down, you'd pretty much hit my apartment building.

I love how the Rockefeller Center is pretty much in the middle of Manhattan, and from the top of it, you can see the very tip of the island. Here's lower Manhattan. That really big building is the Empire State Building, which, by the way, is visible for at least 30 minutes into Jersey (to the west) or the Bronx (to the north). Crazy!

Here's Kristi on the Brooklyn Bridge. I think I've said it before, but if you ever come visit me, I WILL bring you here. Bee-yoo-ti-ful.

OUR TRIP TO BOSTON:

When we got off the bus in Boston, our first endeavor was to gain a few IQ points, so we headed to good ol' Harvard University. I still feel smarter because of this trip. The campus was very beautiful, and very old-looking. This is one of the main gates that, I think, led into a square near a library.

After searching for almost an hour for a sign that said Harvard, we finally gave up, and took a picture inside the subway at the Harvard stop. We figured that Harvard is too cool to have a sign declaring it as Harvard. When you go to Harvard, I guess you already KNOW it's Harvard. It needs no signage! (But don't I look smart?!)

A view of downtown Boston from the Wharf.

Break-dancing on the Wharf.

Taking a rest after a tiring session of break-dancing.

I thought this ad was really funny. And I thought that Dad would appreciate it.

One of the main streets for shopping in Boston.

A sign outside of Fenway Park right off the freeway. I thought Dad would appreciate this one, too.

Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

A statue of George Washington in the Boston Common.

More break-dancing in the Boston Common.

The outside of the Cheers bar, where everybody knows your name.

Taking a nap in the Boston Common after spending too much time in the place where everybody knew my name.

MODEL SHOT! After spending all of that time at Harvard, Kristi and I were much too thoughtful for our own good.

Sorry!

2009-08-27T18:09:00.004-07:00

It's funny how I've had all this spare time over summer vacation and yet did not post ANYTHING before now... now that school begins in just two mere weeks. (Eep!) Over the next couple of days I will try to give a very quick capture of the last few summer months.

School ended with a bang on June 26. My students ended the year with an average of 1.17 years growth in reading, which made me monumentally happy. Math, however, I don't really want to talk about ...

To kick off the summer I met mom in Washington, DC, for the fourth of July. We ate some amazing food, saw some amazing fireworks and overall had a really great time. Here are some of the highlights:

The Watergate Hotel

Arlington National Cemetery

Washington Monument

Mom at the White House right before we dined with Barack and Michelle

MEAT!

Capitol Building

Mom, I think there's something in your teeth!

Washington DC, Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, VA

2009-05-18T14:16:00.009-07:00

This post is long overdue, I know, but I have had zero time lately for posting. But here I am, FINALLY. On May 15, 16 and 17, the fourth and fifth grades from my school took a very poorly planned field trip to Washington DC, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Baltimore, Maryland. Yes, folks, that was MY students on a WEEKEND-long field trip. Oye!

Luckily, I only took seven of my students (though it should've been six). Here's (L-R) Luis, Darilis, Daniel, Jesslyn, Steven, Davita and Naomy in front of the White House, Day 1.

The students were much more interested in a Sri-Lakan protest than the White House.

Luis got on a Martin Luther King, Jr., kick while at the Lincoln Memorial. He pointed out to me (I wouldn't have known) where MLK gave the famous I have a dream speech, then he stood there and continued to recite the parts of the speech that he knew. He was so good that several Japanese tourists took his photo.

Reciting "I have a dream..." in front of the Reflection Pool at the Washington Monument.

Floating in outer space at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

We stopped for dinner on our way to Richmond, Virginia, at this place that let the kids get out and run around. Here are some of the girls feeding some ducks. It was quite beautiful - right on the Potomac River between DC and Virginia.

Day 2 at Colonial Williamsburg. This place ROCKED. I liked it way more than any of the kids, though, who stayed up all night in the hotel (some making calls to 911 - oye!). Needless to say, they were not happy walking around for 5 hours in the Virginian heat and humidity.

The jail at Williamsburg.

Naomy, locked up in the prison cell (which had no air for the hot summers and no insulation for the freezing winters. quite a terrible place to end up, if you ask me)

Our tour guide taught the boys to bow and the girls to curtsy. It was kind of adorable.

After Colonial Williamsburg we stopped for lunch then headed to the Jamestown Settlement, which was totally cool. We had a very awesome tour guide who let us touch everything. Suh-weet! Here's Darilis pestling some herbs for our dinner. :o)

Some of the kid around the camp fire. Unfortunately (or fortunately) this was NOT where we had dinner.

Steven smelling some Powatan Indian leather clothing.

Some of the kids (and Mr. O) on a replica of a boat the first settlers came across in. In that tiny room, 50 men and boys lived (with no way to use the restroom other than chamber pots) for 3 whole months. And we thought our 5-hour bus ride there was long!

Mine and O'Grady's kids in a Powatan canoe at the end of the day. This place was so cool (Williamsburg, too) that Mr. O and I are planning a trip back ... without all the kids!

The next day we went to Baltimore, MD, to go to the National Aquarium, which was VERY cool. I haven't uploaded my pictures of that, though. I'll try to get to it soon.

Overall, I wish I could say the trip was awesome and uneventful, but that would be a lie. It would've been a great trip under different circumstances, but as it was, it was quite exhausting and slightly annoying. There were some highlights, though, including Luis's MLK obsession, checking in on rooms in the hotel on Night 2 (one of the fifth grade teachers, Mr. Wells, made quite the ordeal of busting into kids rooms who were still awake at 1 in the morning ... I ended up rolling on the floor in the hallway laughing so hard I nearly cried) and, of course, spending time with some of my favorite kids.

What's Next: There are only four more weeks of school! I never thought the teachers looked forward to the summer as much as students, but I have NEVER been this excited for a vacation. I am also spending a lot of time reflecting on the good and bad things that happened this year, and really looking forward to starting with a clean slate next year!

Final stretch!

2009-05-12T17:39:00.002-07:00

32 more days until the end of school! (Though 27 REAL days, excluding field trips and in-house work days)

To Baltimore!

2009-05-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

So my school organizes some crazy field trips. But probably the craziest field trip we've taken this year (and will ever take again) occurred last Friday, when the entire fourth grade went to Baltimore, Maryland to see the (drum roll, please ...) Great Blacks Wax Museum.

Now, I don't say this is crazy because we went to a wax museum. Or that we went to Baltimore. I'm just saying ... what is the point of paying for a charter bus to take a bunch of kids on an eight-hour bus ride through four states to see a wax museum, when we have Madam Tussaud's downtown, about a half-hour bus ride away?

Oye...

But even after the rambunctiousness and the three students who threw up on the bus (gross), it was overall a pretty fun, though still unnecessary, trip.

Oh my gosh, it's Barack Obama!!! In wax, anyway.

My kids (Steven, Jesslyn, Darilis, Daniel, Luis and Heriberto) pretending to be mummies.

Darilis and Jesslyn, saying: "Reading is COOL!"

Once I finally got the kids to start reading the signs, instead of just looking at the wax and moving on, they learned a thing or two. This photo was taken right after Luis, Daniel and Heriberto learned that George Washington Carver invented peanut butter. All three of them turned to the wax figure at once and said, "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

Bad idea: feed a bus full of kids at an all-you-can-eat buffet then tell them to get back on a bus for four hours. How do you expect them to NOT throw up?

Before we headed back to NYC, we stopped by the Baltimore harbor, which was very nice. Here, the kids were trying to feed ducks candy from their pockets. Oye ...

Darilis pretending to be Barack Obama giving a speech.

My kids! Well, half of them, anyway. L-R: Steven, Daniel, Khristian, Luis, Heriberto, Jesslyn, Darilis, Kimberly, Naomy.

Spring Break ... finally!

2009-05-02T14:44:00.000-07:00

From April 9 to April 19, the most wonderful thing happened: spring break! To celebrate my freedom from responsibility, I spent six days chilling with Robby in the deeeeeeeep south of Alabama, where we ate fried pickles at Hooters, conquered some Native Americans, chased tornadoes and watched the confederate flags fly.

The very first thing I saw in Alabama. A yellow pickup truck titled "BAMA." I thought it was appropriate.

Robby, pre-haircut.

I really liked the use of Zs and no Es.

Turns out Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, where Robby lives. Of course we had to visit her birth place! Robby claims there is a sign that says, "Helen Keller Birthplace: Come See What She Couldn't." AWESOME.

Right across from HK's birthplace is the Tuscumbia Art Museum! I didn't know they even had art in Alabama!

After exhausting ourselves at the extensive art museum, we took a ride to the park, where we conquered this Native American carved from wood:

But then we heard word that there was a TORNADO WARNING nearby. So we jumped in the car and went in search of the twister!

The streets turned Tornado-ey very soon, but, unfortunately, we didn't see any. We did find some cows, though.

Probably the most interesting part of Alabama, to me, was the prevalence of so many confederate flags ... like, here, on this car:

And here, a flag flying:

And here, on a sign in the park:

It was about this time that I started asking myself, "Where AM I?"

Here's one last picture of Robby (post-haircut) making Rob-burgers. Man, I miss those Wickles!

Since I got home, and spring break ended, I haven't been up to much, except work and grad school work. We took a class field trip to Baltimore last week, so expect pictures of that sometime soon.

Coming up, I only have eight more weeks of school before summer (wahoo!). And in a couple of weeks, all of the fourth and fifth grade are taking a weekend trip to Washington, D.C., and Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, Virginia. I think I'm more excited than the kids are!

Spring is (sometimes) here!

2009-04-06T19:50:00.003-07:00

The past week has been quite excellent, and here's why:

1. My meanie-faced assistant principal actually (almost sort of) complimented me. He said my class doesn't look as bad as it used to. SHABAM!

2. There's a bar in Brooklyn that has indoor bocce ball. Suhweet!

3. K-Mart at Astor Place SELLS bocce ball sets. And it turns out Morningside Park is an excellent place to play. (Although I maintain that Rome's Circo Massimo has to be the best place on earth for the bocce.)

4. Two more school days until Spring Break. Alabama, here I come! (Never though I would say that.)

5. It's kind of almost feeling like spring. In between days of downpour and chills, there have been several absolutely beautiful, mid-50s days, perfect for bocce, parks and even a little outdoor napping.

Spring is almost sprung!

Morningside Park from atop the hill near Columbia University. That grassy area is where Dakota and I played a rigorous game of Bocce. (I won, by the way! Not that that is what is important ... )

Morningside park from the bottom of the hill. Nice day!

March Madness ... Only, without the Basketballs

2009-03-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

March has, so far, been a very good (and very productive) month.

At school, our State Math tests have come and gone. I think most of my kids did a pretty good job. Things, in general, are starting to look up. We've finally gotten to where we can walk in a straight (and mostly quiet) line in the hallway, and there hasn't been a real fight in my class in more than two weeks. Exciting! On two different occasions, different teachers have commented to me that they've noticed a change in my class. That feels really good.

In life, things have been looking up, as well. The weather has started getting warmer (meaning lows in the 30s instead of highs), and daylight has been lasting a little longer. It's about time.

Here's a review (in photographs) of the last couple of weeks, from most recent to ... least recent.

I had a very New York weekend, because on Friday I went to my first show on Broadway (I saw a very strange play starring Susan Sarandon, Geoffrey Rush, and the sherriff from "Roswell") and on Saturday I went to the New Museum on Bowery, just south of Houston. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the play (though that is a quite funny story). However, the museum did allow the chance for some cool photographs.

There were some pretty interesting exhibits, but the best part was the rooftop view. This was a much different view of Manhattan, because it's in the south part of the city. Most of the time, when you get "the view," it's of midtown, where all the tall buildings (Chrysler and Empire State, etc.) are. So the view from the top of the New Museum was unique in that sense.

The view of Bowery, looking toward Houston.

That's me, looking to the north. You can see both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in that shot. (They are the two tallest ones to the right of my head.)

My good friend, Dakota, with a view toward the south end of Manhattan (the Financial District and whatnot).

Saturday afternoon I got quite a different view of Manhattan once again. This time, from across the East River. After visiting a delicious cheese shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we walked to this nice park right on the bank of the river.

Nice view.

Delicious picnic! The cheese shop even had my all-time FAVORITE Italian Ringo cookies. Yum!!

On Tuesday this week, I took time away from school preparation to celebrate St. Patrick's Day the best way I knew how: at the bar. I didn't feel too guilty about it, though, because it worked out just perfectly that we had a field trip to Randall's Island on Wednesday. Fate, or excellent planning? I have no clue, but I was quite glad.

Perhaps the best part of St. Patrick's Day was that Becca and I got to wear our matching green shoes. And we made a green shoe dance on the subway. Here is our green shoe-leaf clover.

We started with dinner at this great Japanese food place, where you get to make your own cotton candy for dessert. Here's Becca trying her hardest, to no avail.

Dakota eating my cotton candy, because I am the cotton candy-making queen.

The night ended at a Karaoke bar in the East Village. Here's Bryan, Courtney and Becca swaying along to Dakota's rendition of "Piano Man." If you ever want to see video of mine and Becca's duet of "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid, then you're out of luck! 'Cause that video is C-L-A-S-S-I-F-I-E-D.

Today is the best day of my life

2009-03-02T04:28:00.001-07:00

SNOW DAY!!!

The first one that NYC has had in 5 years. AWESOME!

The rest of vacation and beyond

2009-03-01T13:06:00.004-07:00

Mid-Winter break has come and gone, and I'm now back into the flow of school. Our State Math tests are coming up this week, so my school-themed dreams (nightmares?) are back in gear full time.

So, of course, rather than continue preparing for this week at school, I'm taking time out to reminisce. Here is a low-down of my last few days of vacation, which I never posted about.

I stayed in Massachusetts with my dear roommate Becca through Wednesday, when I headed back to the city to "get some work done." That morning, though, we went for a hike through the woods around the lodge. It was extremely beautiful, albeit a little chilly. But it was a very nice end to a short vacation of doing absolutely nothing.

A little water fall at the top of a creek.

My attempt at a snow angel. Something seems to have gone terribly wrong (especially with my hands!)

Along our walk, I spotted a fallen tree branch over a section of the extremely cold, partially frozen creek. So, of course, I say to Becca, "Hey, you should go sit in the middle of that tree." She surprised me by actually saying yes.

Lovely!

After returning to the city Wednesday and trying to do some work on Thursday, I was ready to leave again. So come Friday morning, I went on a last-minute trip to Montauk with my friend, Dakota. Montauk is a town at the very tip of Long Island. Why did we choose to go there? No idea. But it was a very nice trip for the day.

It all began at about 7 a.m. when we arrived at Penn Station to catch the Long Island Rail Road. About three and a half hours later we arrived in Montauk, welcomed by freezing temperatures, blustering winds, and a very interesting cab driver named Peter.

Montauk was very beautiful.

But VERY windy!

Here we are at the fourth oldest light house in the U.S. (the oldest one in New York state). It was commissioned by George Washington.

Here's me with Peter the crazy cab driver!

The lighthouse from a very unglamorous, yet (I think) still beautiful view.

So that was basically the end of my vacation, if you include lounging around the city and then (finally) getting some work done. There are now 28 more school days until the next break, when I'm going to Alabama to visit Robby for a bit. Until then, it's just school, school and more school. Fun!

Fame

2009-02-25T15:44:00.003-07:00

There's nothing like teaching to make you feel like a rock star. No matter how angry your kids get with you at school, no matter how many times they shout "I hate you!" or "I ain't doing it!" in class ... if they see you walking down the street outside of school, you are Miley Cirus or (insert other appropriate "tween" star here).

Some vacation photographs

2009-02-17T16:40:00.004-07:00

After my last post, my Monday continued with a 4.5-mile walk to the grocery store (turns out the buses here don't run as regularly as they do in NYC), a delicious home-made pizza dinner, lots of wine, a hot tub, a sauna, and, of course, Scrabble.

Here are some pictures:

As Becca and I were walking (for about 1.5 hours) to the grocery store, we came upon a small playground covered in snow. So we took some time to see saw and swing. Smart Becca injured her ankle jumping off the swing into the snow. Our activities since this moment have been a little limited.

This is the resort where we're staying.

Some lovely scenic Massachusetts photos along our long, long walk.

Becca and me trekking it along the mini-highway.

Our delicious pancetta and arugula pizza. Yes, folks, that's home made!

Happy Vacation!

2009-02-16T10:46:00.002-07:00

It's only vacation day 3 and I've already seen many new places, eaten very new things and experienced something quite ... strange. Here's a recap:

Saturday:
I spent my Saturday hanging out with a new friend and traveling to new places in the city. First we went to the most magical place on earth: Economy Candy, a deliciously exciting candy store with many of my favorites (like a 5-lb bag of Sour Patch Kids) and several interesting new delights. (I tried these space ship-shaped wafers full of sour dust ... quite strange. I still can't decide if I like them or not, and I've already eaten most of the bag.)
After hopping up on sugar we traveled to the 5 Pointz in Queens, several giant walls of graffiti on the outside of seemingly abandoned buildings. Very cool. I unfortunately didn't have my camera on hand to take pictures, but here's the official web site's photo gallery: http://www.5ptz.com/5pointzgallery.html

Sunday:
My roommate Becca and I hopped a train to Massachusetts. Actually, several trains. We changed trains in New Haven, Conn., and Springfield, Mass.
We had about two hours before our next train in Springfield, so we decided to grab a bite to eat. However, it turns out that NOTHING is open in Springfield on Sunday. The one place we did find was called the Student Prince, and it turned out to be amazing German food. Yes! After a stein of beer, a bratwurst and an alligator tail cutlet (an extremely unique texture, by the way),
we stumbled back to the train, and I took the most glorious nap before arriving at our ULTIMATE destination: Pittsfield, Mass.
We came to Pittsfield because Becca's parents had an extra time share, and there is a lodge up here that is part of that. We walked into the lodge at about 4:30 p.m. and very quickly realized that we are the ONLY people here without children. How do I know this? We walked right into the recreation room in time to see dozens of families filling the tables in preparation of BINGO hour. Oh, and the recreation room is attached to an arcade. It took me nearly an hour of annoyance at the kids running around and screaming to realize that this is actually a GOOD thing. An on-site movie theater? A Dance Dance Revolution machine? Skee Ball?! Best vacation EVER.

Monday:
So far today all I've done is slept late, watched TV, ate an incredibly cheesey quesadilla, and checked the news online. But who knows what else is in store? The Skee Ball machine is just yards away, and my pocket is full of quarters.

One Week To Go!

2009-02-08T07:48:00.002-07:00

Only one more school week until our mid-winter break. YES!

It's reaching that point at school where I'm tired, the kids are tired, the administration is tired, and so everyone is just cranky. This break coming up is just what we need.

On the upper side of things, this last week was full of some good stuff, too. I started an after-school math club to help students pass the state test that's coming up in a few weeks. It's by invitation only, and the students who weren't invited are so jealous. They ALL want to be in the math club. How cool is that?

The weather has also been warming up (to a low in the 30s rather than a high in the 30s), so I spent a good portion of my time yesterday walking around the south end of Central Park, somewhere I haven't really been before. It was fun! But now I have so much work to do since I ignored it yesterday.

When's that break again?

Ice Skating in Central Park

2009-02-01T06:53:00.004-07:00

It's been a pretty crazy week since I last posted. One of my students locked me and the rest of the kids INSIDE the classroom for about 30 minutes by ripping off the door handles. The next day, another student got into quite a bit of trouble for a different incident. And on Friday we had quite the freak-out when a mouse, that had been living underneath my radiator, decided to make an appearance during math workshop. There must've been something in the water this week.

But it all ended on a high note, because I had the opportunity to take four of my scholars ice skating in Central Park for the afternoon on Saturday.

Here's the lucky winners: Daniel, Darilis, Davita and Jesslyn.

Darilis falling on the ice ... for probably about the fifth time.

Out of all the students, Daniel was the one who was glued to the wall the whole time.

Jesslyn enjoyed the skating so much, it was hard to get her off the ice.

Have I mentioned how much I love Darilis? She once told me that she wished I would adopt her.

This is just one of the outdoor rinks in Central Park. It's at the north end, about 10 blocks from my apartment. Here it is from a look-out point above it. It was VERY crowded on Saturday.

We had enough time at the end of the day to take a little stroll through the park before heading back to the subway. What we found was awesome: not only was the lake frozen, but there were still geese just walking around on top.

We also had time to take a bunch of extremely silly pictures. In each one, they decided to yell something else, ranging from "CENTRAL PARK!" to "HEY HO LET'S GO!" I wonder if they know that's a Ramones song ...

Waiting for the 2 train on our way home after a very fun day.

There's just two weeks (10 school days) before our week-long February break. My roommate, Becca, and I are heading to Massachusetts for the first part of the week. Her parents have a time-share at a ski lodge with an indoor pool and a hot tub. So we're going to leave our school work at home and just relax. I'm counting down the days.

Ice Skating!

2009-01-24T05:34:00.005-07:00

So I've been meaning to post this for about a week, but I guess the only free time I have any more is at 7:30 on Saturday mornings. I'm cool.

Anyway, last Friday, January 16, to celebrate the completion of our English Language Arts standardized test, the ENTIRE fourth and fifth grades went to Chelsea Piers to go ice skating. At first, I'll admit I was slightly terrified that one of my kids would lose their fingers or get stabbed by an ice skate or something else that is equally horrifying. But surprisingly, nothing bad happened. Even more surprisingly, it was really, really fun.

Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Zeinabe and Steven shortly after the latter crashed into the former and they both took slid about 10 feet across the ice.

Darilis, my adopted daughter.

Mohamed after a hilariously spread-eagle trip.

Brittney and her brother, my favorite chaperone. He keeps all the boys busy on the bus by playing with Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Awesome.

Some of my boys: Heriberto, Justin and Steven.

Khristian was posing for a picture and I snapped it right as Jesslyn came crashing into him. Perfect.

What's Next: Studying for our standardized math tests, planning a character study unit and figuring out my grad school admissions. Fun, fun, fun!

Stopping by Central Park on a Snowy Evening

2009-01-01T14:02:00.005-07:00

So I meant to post these photos weeks ago. They are from our first real snow on Friday, December 19.

I couldn't help but think of Robert Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening." I think I read that poem in about the fifth grade, and I still for some reason remember the words.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Blue turning grey

2008-12-06T13:01:00.008-07:00

So my beautiful orange, yellow and red fall was rather short-lived. The trees are now shades of grey (to match the sky most of the time these days), and the weather has turned from chilly to brrrrrr.

While all this was taking place outside, lots of stuff was also happening inside. Including, but not limited to, THANKSGIVING.

Mom came to visit for Thanksgiving, and we had lots of fun visiting PS 132, eating lots of food and doing lots of shopping. Fun. Here are some pictorial highlights:

Matt Sto ... I mean, Kermit the Frog at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The best part of the parade? The pooper scoopers! What a fantastic job!!!

Becca and Smurf!

Macy's lalalalalala

Mom taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me .... creepy, huh?

And later that day ....

Mom, Becca and Courtney cooking a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.

Bryan doing what men are supposed to do on Thanksgiving: watch T.V.

Here's me caught somewhere in the middle of the kitchen and the living room. As the official Thanksgiving photographer, I didn't really have a place.

There's a party in my tummy! Yummy yummy!

Later that weekend...

The Brooklyn Bridge, probably my favorite spot in Manhattan. Please know that if you come visit me, we will be taking this walk.

Lovely!

Hey mom, you look cold!

I don't have much coming up soon, except that there are only 12 school days until Christmas break. C-R-A-Z-Y. Can't wait to go back to Phoenix and eat some Mongolian, some Ethiopian Christmasy stuff, Caffe Boa and Four Peaks. Oh, and see you all fools again, too. :o)

I recall Central Park in fall ...

2008-11-09T14:49:00.006-07:00

My first real fall:

The North Lake

Leaves!

I made Courtney pose for a dramatic falling leaves photo.

Follow the Yellow Brick (Leave?) Road

Kicking a pile of leaves!! How I've always wanted to do that.

Two more reasons to love NYC

2008-11-02T11:13:00.004-07:00

6. The leaves are changing. I walked by Central Park on the way to brunch this morning, and all the leaves are shades of red and yellow. Expect pictures sometime this week.

7. I went sailing in the harbor last night with a friend from high school who has the very fortunate job of being first mate on a boat. The city never looked more beautiful. Pictures below:

The Brooklyn Bridge from the East River

Downtown and the Brooklyn Bridge (to the right) from the Harbor

The Financial District from the Hudson River

And in other news:

Frodo Baggins and an evil Gladiator on Halloween.

5 reasons I love NYC this week

2008-11-01T09:48:00.002-07:00

1. I found the only Ihop in Manhattan, and it's only 20 minutes away!

2. It snowed! Sure, only for like, three seconds, and only in the Bronx. But it was awesome.

3. Bruce Campbell (of the Evil Dead series) is here this weekend for screenings of his new movie, answering questions and stuff. Jealous?? You should be.

4. Halloween in the East Village is AWESOME.

5. This morning I randomly walked into a street festival in midtown. Turned out to be a Greek Festival. Yum!!

Recap of good times

2008-10-13T07:32:00.003-07:00

I don't have a lot of time to recap the last couple of weeks because I have a lot of school stuff to get done today, my day off (bless all these random holidays).

Shon came to visit last week, which was really fun. We ate fried chicken and waffles, went to McSorley's (the bar downtown that is the oldest bar in the US -- Abe Lincoln used to drink there!), shopped along Fifth Avenue, saw all the sights (Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Little Italy, yadda yadda), visited NYU and visited PS 132.

Here are some highlights:

Our second round of fried chicken in the East Village.

Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge

Some policemen on horses who seemed shocked when they learned I taught in the Bronx. A little too shocked, if you ask me ...

Anyway, besides that, it's been all school for me. Still trying to figure things out. It's hard, but it already feels rewarding.

Until next time, which I promise to be sooner rather than later, ciao!

Best Day EVER

2008-09-30T15:49:00.002-07:00

So I took a walk around the neighborhood today to take a break from unit planning, and I noticed that they're building quite a few large structures over on 116th and the FDR. After some investigation, I found out they're building (drum roll, please ... ) a TARGET! Whahoo!

Best day of my life!

I went to Coney Island and all I got was ...

2008-08-30T17:49:00.005-07:00

To celebrate my last Saturday before school starts for the year, I dragged Stephanie to Coney Island quite against her will. At the very southernmost tip of Brooklyn sits Coney Island, the beach and small amusement park that has seriously declined in cleanliness and popularity since it's pique early in the 20th century.

After an hour and a half ride on just two subway lines, we arrived, and went straight to the original Nathan's Famous Hotdogs, which was founded in about 1916, or so says Wikipedia. Here is Stephanie in front of Nathan's:

After hotdogs, lemonade and cheesy fries galore, we felt ready to hit the amusement park. But first, we stopped for a little balloon racEing ... notice that extra E in there. God bless Coney Island!

Here's a view of the amusement park from the beach/boardwalk:

I took this photo for Robby:

Unfortunately, we did not ride the pirate ship, because Coney Island rides are absurdly overpriced. However, we did end up riding the Cyclone, the roller coaster that I think was built in the 1960s. It was very scary. Not in the scary roller coaster way, but more in the way that you think constantly "I just saw the wood creak, omg the coaster is going to break and we are all going to die" sort of way. Quite the adrenaline rush. I guess I forgot to take a photo of it. Here's a pretty picture of Stephanie and the beach instead:

After sticking our feet in the Atlantic Ocean, we decided that we'd had enough heat, humidity and hot dogs for one day, so we headed back to good Ol' Manhattan.

On the way home, in a random subway station in Brooklyn, the most remarkable thing happened. Bogart was resurrected!! An advertisement on the wall somewhere near the Manhattan-bound Q train contained a picture of, I kid you not, an exact replica of my precious, prized and now very sadly broken ceramic coyote. Here is a picture of my dear Bogart from the Subway station:

Anyway ... While I was uploading these pictures, I realized I never posted pictures from when Mom was visiting. Here are a couple of those:

That's really all I've got going for now. School starts on Tuesday, and I'm temporarily at the awesome PS 73 in the Bronx. I just don't know how long that will last. My future plans include reading some Wheel of Time, eating a cupcake and maybe, just maybe, seeing the sing-a-long version of Mama Mia! that is playing in Chelsea ...

A Week of (non)Vacation

2008-08-10T07:15:00.004-07:00

I've officially been free from Institute for eight days now, and while I haven't been waking up at 4:30 a.m. anymore, I wouldn't say that the last week has really been a relaxing vacation, either.

Mom flew out on Saturday morning to help me move from the dorm at St. John's into my new apartment, which was quite the process. We rented a small SUV, piled it full of mine and Becca's (my roommate) stuff from St. John's ... for having such small living quarters at the University, you'd be really surprised how much junk we actually had. We filled the car to the brim. One of several times we would do that over the next two days.

After several trips to Ikea, Costco, Canal Street (everyone should check out the free stuff on Craigslist, btw... it's awesome), Lowes and Home Depot, some in a car, some on the subway, we finally furnished the apartment. Whoo hoo! But then we had to build everything. Thanks, Ikea furniture in a box.

Mom left on Wednesday, after working 10 hours a day, with only one tourist day thrown in there on Tuesday when we took a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty and ate dinner in Little Italy.
I finally finished unpacking and building furniture on Friday. Good times. Here are some pictures:

My Room:

View from the living room window:

Though this week has been a lot of work, it's been fun too. It was nice having mom here for a while, and it was definitely fun doing the touristy stuff we did (Little Italy, tour of downtown, walk through central park). I've also eaten a lot of cupcakes, and yesterday I went to a music event at the museum PS1 in Long Island City with Stephanie, who was one of my roommates in Rome.

This week brings TFA orientation at New York University downtown, where we'll start writing our investment, management and unit plans for school, which starts in about three weeks!

Thoughts on the eve of my last real day of teaching summer school

2008-07-28T19:33:00.002-07:00

As the title of this entry suggests, tomorrow is the last real day of teaching I have left of training this summer.

Wednesday we are going on a field trip to the Prospect Park Zoo, which I am more excited about than my kids are. Then Thursday all we are doing is administering our end-of-summer assessments for math and reading, and, of course, having a pizza party. (Our rad class won the perfect-attendance pepperoni party! yeah what!)

In between debriefing with my adviser, making posters for tomorrow's math lesson, trying to sort out last-minute apartment details (who needs electricity, anyway?) and trying to stay un-sick, I've done a bit of reflecting of what I've learned the past several weeks.

I think my biggest take-away is, still, something a speaker said on the first day of training: You have to forgive yourself every night and recommit every morning.

After days like today, it's harder than it seems to forgive yourself. But after a month like the past one, I think it's even harder not to recommit.

A New NYC First!

2008-07-27T13:55:00.002-07:00

I saw my first rat in the subway yesterday, waiting for the E train on 51st and Lex.

I can't wait to tell Rinaldy.

The sweaty, sleep-deprived, partially terrifying adventures of Miss Brite

2008-07-19T07:21:00.004-07:00

I am very sorry that I promised I would post at least once a week, yet it has been two weeks since I have posted anything at all. But, as it turns out, TFA training is quite time-consuming. Who'd have thought?

My last two weeks have been spent waking up every morning between 4:30 and 5, taking a heat-stroke-inducing school bus from Queens on a very slow and agonizing drive along the BQE to southern Brooklyn to P.S. 001. That's when the day really starts.

The next 9.5-10 hours are the best of my day. That's when I get to eat breakfast and spend time in the classroom with Abel, Abiel, Gabriela, Anthony, Jonathan and Rinaldy, my six ESL 3rd and 4th graders. They are so far behind in math and reading, but they are also extremely astute and perceptive ... Like when I talked to Jonathan on the first week about how we have huge goals to accomplish by the end of the summer and he asks me for a detailed plan about how we're going to do all of these things at once. It's awesome, because they get it. They know they're behind and they know they have a lot of work to do to catch up. But that doesn't get them down. That only makes them want to work harder. Which makes me want to work harder.

So that's basically why I haven't posted like I promised. I've been up at 5, in bed at midnight, with no rest in between (except for the afternoon nap I attempt every day on the bumpy, sweat-soaked bus ride back to queens) just so I have a slight chance of not messing up those six incredible little people too badly the next day.

Work hard. Get smart.

2008-07-03T20:37:00.002-07:00

I'm almost finished with my first week of TFA Institute. These past four days of waking up at 4 a.m. and going to bed between 12 and 1 have been insane. I've never worked so hard in my life. But at the same time, I don't know if I've ever had more fun.

Here are this week's highlights. Unfortunately, I don't have any picture yet.

Monday: My first 6 a.m. bus ride to the school in south Brooklyn where I'm teaching summer school 3rd and 4th grade ESL. My first impression? This place is incredible. From my classroom I have a clear view of the Statue of Liberty. With a little leaning, I can see the Manhattan skyline. I wish they were hiring for the school year.

Tuesday: The work is really starting to get tough. I took a seminar on administering reading assessments. It's not just theoretical knowledge. I have to administer them to my new students tomorrow. I took another seminar on backwards planning. Not theoretical either. I have to create a plan of all the summer's objectives now, so I can start lesson planning later this week. Thank god for my collaboration group, the three other new TFA teachers who I am working with this summer. I really lucked out getting them (Allison, Patrick and Chana) as teammates. I think we'll work really well together.

Wednesday: We learned how to write lesson plans today. I have to write two tonight for next Monday and Tuesday's writing lessons. I have no idea what I'm doing, but at least I don't have to teach math ... yet.

Thursday: Even though this week has seemed like two months, the work I am doing feels so rewarding already. I was in the resource lab in my dorm at St. John's, where TFA has provided thousands of books that we can check out and utilize in our classroom, and I came across so many of the books that I loved when I was in the third and fourth grades. A Wrinkle in Time. Matilda. Shiloh. Then I realized that there's no way, based on my students' reading diagnostics, that they would be able to get through even a chapter of one of those books. The most advanced of them (some of whom are entering the fifth grade in the fall) are reading at best on a third grade reading level. But most of them are barely on a first or second grade level.

We have so much work to do.

One week done, five more to go!

2008-06-29T10:31:00.003-07:00

Teach For America induction week is over, and boy was it a good one! We heard from so many different speakers all week who were so inspiring. And we also heard from so many people who were very real. So all in all, I'm scared, but very inspired to get going.

Institute begins tomorrow, and I find out today where I'll be teaching summer school (which starts July 7). So before the heavy work begins, I took some time yesterday to hang out in the city with Anjali and her cousin, who were in town from D.C. We spent our day on one of those bright red hop-on-hop-off downtown tour buses, which we rode from Times Square to Battery Park. We got off to take the Staten Island Ferry around the Statue of Liberty, but we never got back on because of the torrential DOWNPOUR we encountered. One packed, sweaty, wet and smelly subway ride and one sketchy gyro dinner later, we wound up at a comedy club that Jerry Seinfeld sponsors (or something like that). Here are some photographic highlights:

Times Square on the big red touristy bus. Our tour guide was quite the comedian. He asked the tourists who was from the South, and asked us if we knew what southern hospitality was. When everyone shouted "yeah!" he told us: "Well, you're not getting any of that here. In New York, hospitality is not getting hit in the face by a stranger." He also told us after we put on the white provided rain ponchos that we looked like members of the KKK. Strange sense of humor, that one.

Along our walk toward the Staten Island Ferry we found the Department of Homeland Security!

The view of Manhattan from the Staten Island Ferry. I wish it would have been sunnier out, but I still think it's beautiful.

The Statue of Liberty from the ferry.

What's next: Like I said before, Institute starts tomorrow, which means that the cakewalk is over. Luckily, since Friday is the fourth of July, we get off around 1 p.m., so that will be a fun little break. Other than that, I'll be in classes all week learning classroom management techniques, how to write lesson plans, and everything else that comes with the classroom.

Battles

2008-06-24T18:57:00.004-07:00

It's the end of my second official day in New York, and I can say now that I'm facing a lot of battles in my future. The real work hasn't even started yet (the last two days have just been full of workshops, registration and what we like to call "Drink For America" activities), but I've already begun the fight against my own insecurities about leading a classroom, my concerns about finding a place to live and, especially, the ridiculous humidity that has made me look less like myself and more like a creature from the "Critters" movies.

But the humidity is just the beginning.

I had dinner tonight in the East Village with a Teach For America alumna (of the 2005 Bronx corps) who reiterated how many times in her two years she wanted to quit. Her school was a nightmare; her principal was even worse. Everyone has told us in the past two days that it's not even a question: we ARE going to fail. Every single one of us. I just hope I can learn from my mistakes like we are supposed to be able to do. I'll find out soon enough. Institute starts on Monday, and I start teaching summer school July 7.

On the brighter side of things, I am loving New York (despite the damp, damp heat). We are staying in residence halls at St. John's University in Queens, and it takes about an hour and a half to get into Manhattan by an intricate system of buses and trains. I went into the city for a happy hour last night (as part of Drink For America week, of course) and then again tonight, like I said, for dinner with a former corps member. It's incredible, and I don't think I could be happier with my decision to move to NYC. I've met a handful of incredibly smart, talented and nice people in the past two days, and I'm really looking forward to working with them for the next two years.

At the end of the day (the second day, anyway), my overall impression, so far, of Teach For America, the people and the city, is that I know I have so much work ahead of me. But when I think about the success stories I've heard, and I realize the difference I can make, I don't think there is anything worth fighting for more than this.

Back in town

2008-06-04T11:20:00.004-07:00

So I'm back in Phoenix (for several weeks now), and while I'm missing Roma, I'm pretty excited for everything that's coming up.

Even though I won't be traveling to exotic locations and sampling strange foods in the years to come, I feel like I'm still traveling through life. (Every day is a journey, right?) So, if you're interested, you can keep up with this blog, hopefully, for the next couple of years to see what I'm up to as I move to New York City and start teaching elementary school. I'll post all the best stories of the crazy things my students do. (But hopefully they won't be transfixed on their hands and use their sock elastic as dental floss.)

So here it goes:

Since I've been back I've traveled to Oklahoma and New York, seen a lot of movies (in English!) and eaten a lot of hummus dip.

Here are some photographic highlights of the last few weeks:

A lovely State Press mini-reunion.

New York City from the reservoir at Central Park. I went to the city for a job interview, which I failed, and some teacher certification tests, which I owned. I also marched in a pride parade. So at least it wasn't a worthless trip.

The gigantic praying hands at ORU in Tulsa, OK. I went to Tulsa to hang out with Kristi on her graduation party weekend. It was quite the experience.

The Taco Bueno was the best part!!

Except for the giant golden oil driller. If you squint, you can see me down by his left foot.

What's next for me? I'll be spending the next two and a half weeks saying goodbye to Phoenix in the best way I know how: Four Peaks peach ale and hummus dip.

Il fine

2008-05-08T02:42:00.002-07:00

Questo e' il fine dei miei viaggi in Italia. Sono triste, but un po' eccitata a ritornari a casa mia. Anch'io sono felice a laurearmi and trasferirmi. Ci sono molte cose buone che devo fare, ma molte sono cose buone. Arrivo a Phoenix sabato alle 5:10. I prossimo due giorni daro' il mio ultimo esame della universita', compero' molti cannoli e vedro' tutti i miei amici qui a Roma. E, tristemente, diro' addio a l'ottima citta nel mondo.

Grazie a tutti per leggere questo blog. Ci vediamo fra poco!

2008-04-28T08:26:00.004-07:00

It's been a beautiful (and almost stressful) week in Rome ... with papers due and finals in sight. Luckily, I still made some time to enjoy the incredible weather we've been having. Here are some highlights:

A post-nap photo in the Villa Borghese. After this nap I walked (for almost three hours) to the Villa Ada, which was beautiful, but crowded (and exhausting).

The Piazza Del Popolo, the largest piazza in Rome.

Last Wednesday Annalis and I went row-boating on the lake in the park. Che romantico! Here's when I rowed us into a wall and we got stuck in a plant. Believe or not, but I was the better rower.

On Sunday Stephanie and I went to the beach at San Marinella, about a 20-minute train ride north from Rome. It was our last attempt to avoid studying for our final (which was today ... one class done!)

Mostri, Sole e Ninja Turtles

2008-04-21T01:02:00.018-07:00

It's been a fun (and random) week here in the land of the pasta. Strange, too, with actually having to do schoolwork.

Anyway, instead of writing the papers that are due very soon, here's what I've been up to:

Last Monday I took a nice, long nap in the Circo Massimo, what used to be a large arena area for chariot races. Now it's a soft, cozy park. It is, also, I suspect, the best place in the world to play bocce ball.

This may look like any ordinary fountain in Rome. But here's the story that makes it so cool: Apparently, many many moons ago a young man suffering an extreme case of writer's block stepped out of his Roman apartment and took a stroll through the Jewish ghetto. He stopped for a rest in the Piazza Matteo, where this here fountain sits, and was suddenly inspired by the four small turtles that perch at the of the fountain. What a great idea, he thought, to create a story about four turtles. And better yet - name them after the four great Italian Renaissance artists: Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Rafael and Donatello. Voila! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were born.

On one magical evening last week I was walking home from Via Del Corso (where I bought some very rad neon green jelly sandals) and after randomly walking down a side street for a nice detour, I ran into the Associated Press Italy bureau. I'm going to go back during the day sometime this week and ask for a job. :o)

I spent nearly my whole weekend in Trastevere, my absolute favorite part of Rome. Trastevere is home to the Porta Portese, which is one of the largest outdoor flea markets in Europe. It is also home to the best gelato and cannoli shops I've ever frequented. Oh, and it's beautiful.

On Friday I went on a class trip to Bagnaia, home of the Villa Lante. The Villa is famous for its giardini (gardens), which have served as inspiration to several Italian literary Gods, including Boccaccio. I spent my time in the garden enjoying the beauty ... and climbing on things that I was probably not supposed to touch.

Pretty!

I giardini.

I am Queen of the Fountain!!!

Meet my roommate, Stephanie.

A part of the villa. The only thing missing from this photo is the chain link I jumped to get in there, which may (or may not) signify that that particular table was out of bounds.

This is why Stephanie and I are friends. Did I mention she lives in New York? Fun!

Resting among the garden bushes.

The cutest gatto ever! (Besides Juno and Hex, of course)

After Bagnaia, we took a bus to Bomarzo, where there is il Parco dei Mostri (the Monster Park). The park was apparently at one time part of a forest, and someone (I think it was Leonardo Da Vinci?) was strolling through the woods and he found all these crazy statues buried beneath the brush. Now it's a national park.

Don't eat me!

The best part about the park? The playground! My bum still hurts from this teeter totter. We noticed on the way out that the age limit for the playground is 12 ... I wonder if it counts if you ACT like you're 12 ...

Buon Tempo = No Posts

2008-04-07T06:10:00.010-07:00

Ciao amici! Sorry it's been so long since I've last posted anything on this blog, but Rome has been experiencing the most beautiful weather the last couple weeks, so I've been out enjoying it.

Here are a few photos to keep you updated on what I've been up to:

I've been spending a lot of time in Rome's various parks and cemeteries (sounds morbid, I know, but they're beautiful) and reading a lot, both for school and pleasure. I'm about half-way through with Harry Potter e il Prigionerio di Azkaban, by the way. It's getting much easier to read. I don't even have to look up many words anymore. Whoo hoo.

Here's the Cemeterio Accattolico, one of my favorite places in Rome. It's about an hour trip from where I live by foot/bus/metro, in a neighborhood just outside the old Roman city walls, but it's worth it, I think. It's quiet and not at all touristy, as the center of town has exploded into tourist season in the last month.

It's not only a good place to sit on a bench and read or write, but it's also good for making friends (of the feline variety, anyway).

I also spent some time walking around the Prati area, which includes the Vatican. I've been meandering in that area because I heard you can still buy indulgences from the Catholic church and I thought I'd pick up a few. However, everyone I ask looks at me like I'm crazy, so maybe it's not true ...

But wherever I've wandered the last few weeks, this is all I've seen:

I took this picture after I woke up from a pleasant nap in the Villa Borghese, one of Rome's ginormous parks, and the place where I've basically spent morning, noon and night the last couple of weekends.

Hallo, Hi, Hola da spring break

2008-03-25T04:15:00.058-07:00

Hello all. I’ve just returned from a weeklong travel extravaganza, full of food, fun and more food. Here is a pictorial timeline of my viaggi to Sweden, Norway and Spain:

It all began on Saturday, March 15, as Kristi and I said farewell to my beloved Roma and embarked via the ever-trustworthy (cough cough … ) Ryanair. Our first stop: Stockholm, Sweden.

We were very happy to finally arrive, after a cab to the Termini, a bus to the Rome Ciampino airport, a three-hour flight to somewhere near Stockholm and another near two-hour bus to the city. After finding a place to sleep and grabbing something to eat, we walked around the city and found the Baltic Sea:

We soon realized that there isn’t too much to do on a Saturday night in Stockholm. Or probably any day in Stockholm for that matter. So we took random pictures with every statue, bench and road sign we could find:

We decided that night to take the first bus to Oslo we could get on the next day (Sunday). But before we headed out, we stopped at a little place called the Taco Bar for lunch, where I gladly consumed the first burrito I have had in more than two months.

After a nearly eight-hour bus ride, we finally arrived in Oslo (to the tune of Of Montreal’s “Oslo in the Summertime.” Even though it was below freezing, I feel the song still fit.)

We stayed the night in what I thought must have been the skeeziest hostel on earth (it resembled a halfway house more than a hotel). Despite the crummy accommodations, it was in a great location, and right down the street from …

… a Lord of the Rings store! I knew I would love Oslo, and this was proof that Norway and I were meant to be.

We ventured up into the mountains surrounding Oslo for cheaper (and far cleaner) accommodations for the rest of our trip. We found the best hostel up in the woods on top of a hill, which I wasted no time in rolling down. I felt it was a sort of vindication for all those times that I could never roll down the hill in front of North Canyon High School, since I was either wearing a dance costume or, you know, in high school. Check out that incline!

The interesting thing about Oslo is that it’s half mountain town (think Flagstaff) and half way-modern, uber-European, metropolitan city. And, of course, it’s part fjord on the Baltic Sea. Here are some extraordinarily beautiful pictures of the Oslo fjord and downtown area:

This is inside the city hall, situated right near the port (pictured above). The inside of the city hall was full of these obscenely cool murals, some painted by native Norwegian Edvard Munch (whom you might recognize from the famous “Scream” painting).

This is a photo for Kim. ANCHOR!

Peace at the Nobel Peace Center. I’ll be returning here some day to collect my Nobel Peace Prize.

After a delicious meal at McDonalds (I know .. sad, right? But it was the only thing we could afford. Oslo is e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e.), we took a public bus to Bigdoy, one of the peninsulas of the Oslo fjord. There, there are many museums, including the Viking museum and the folklore museum. However, we saw none of that. But we did walk around and see lots of pretty scenery (and met several pretty people).

The next day (Tuesday) began with a trip to Oslo University and the National Gallery, where we saw Munch’s “Scream” in person. The Edvard Munch exhibit was one of the coolest exhibitions I’ve ever seen. It was beautiful and full of emotion, which, being an art idiot, is hard for me to recognize. That just shows what an amazing job he did. Here’s my personal rendition of “Scream”:

The rest of the day included a public ferry ride to the islands in the fjord (it was too cold to get out and walk around the islands, so we just went along for the ride), and lots of walking around the city. Here are the highlights:

Weeee!

Rar!

Since Kristi left for the second half of her spring break before the sun rose on Wednesday, and my plane for Spain (wow, that rhymes) didn’t leave until late that night, I had the day to spend alone getting to really know my new love.

I took a public train up the mountain to check out Holmenkollen, the largest ski jump in Europe (which was used in some Olympics sometime in the 50s I think. Or maybe the 70s.) The first thing I saw?

Snow!

But once I looked up off the ground I saw:

Holmenkollen

So I lugged me and my rolly-suitcase up through the woods … which was tough, if you know how out-of-shape I am …My arms still hurt from the expedition. But it was worth it. I shelled out my last 60 kroner to walk through the ski museum, where I learned how snow forms. Awesome. But I also got to ascend the ski jump, which allows an amazing view of Oslo.

I learned this day why they say you should always travel with someone else: It’s a lot harder to take a good picture of yourself than it looks.

That’s one hill I would NOT want to roll down.

My last stop before I had to catch the bus to the airport was the Vigland Park, which hosts more than 200 sculptures. Apparently this is a nude park, though I saw no skin when I was there (most likely due to the freezing temperatures). Part of the lake in the park was even a little frozen over.

I was very sad to leave Oslo. But little did I know that when I FINALLY got to Barcelona, Spain at about 3 a.m. (after a two-hour bus ride, a delayed wait in the airport, a three-hour flight and another hour and a half bus ride), that I would find warm weather, beautiful beaches and incredible food.

My first meal in Spain was a little intense. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to eat it, or if it was going to eat me.

After wrestling with lunch, my Roman roommate Annalis (whom I reconnoitered with at the hostel) and I took a stroll down Calle Las Ramblas all the way to the beach, where I inadvertently sacrificed a sock to the sea.

The best thing about beachside Barcelona was the plethora of insanely strange art. My favorite was:

A lobster!

In an attempt to do something touristy, we took a cable car over the city up to the mountain Montjuic.

Beautiful ...

But scary!

Once atop the mountain, we made friends with the locals!

And took a bus to the Sagrada, an unfinished church.

Take a closer look at the top:

Yes, that’s fruit. Annalis made the comment that it’s kind of like Christ meets Candyland.

Thursday night was a rather crazy one filled with lots of Sangria and new friends. Needless to say, the next morning we were looking for some greasy food to satisfy our munchies, so when we saw a restaurant called Burrito, we were beyond excited. However, they didn’t sell burritos at Burrito. But they did have a fun photo op:

The rest of my time in Spain, more or less, was centered on food. Some of the best meals included:

Chocolate and churros! (The first of several trips)

Sangria

Tapas

More churros

Paella

Even more sangria

In between all this food, we went to the Picasso museum, which was incredible (and magically free), went back to the beach and saw a pretty sweet water fountain show.

After such amazing food, beautiful scenery and great memories, I didn’t think my week could get any better. But in the Girona airport on the way back to Rome, Europe sent me one last incredible surprise …

Peach Smints!!

I didn’t think I would be so happy to return to Rome after such an incredible week, but on the ride back to the city, I felt completely fortunate to be going home … to Rome. I think now I eternally belong to the Eternal City, and I’m never leaving again.

A rainy (and snowy!) weekend in Napoli, Pompei and Capri

2008-03-10T07:09:00.018-07:00

Before I get started, some good news: the Backstreet Boys are performing in Rome on April 30. If AIFS doesn't kick me out before then, my roommate Sarah and I are SO going.

Anyway, the whole AIFS group took a trip to Pompei, Napoli and Capri this weekend. We crossed our fingers for good weather, but it rained (and even snowed) most of the time. It cleared up a bit Friday afternoon as we walked the archaeological site, but as soon as we were going to head up to hike Mount Vesuvio on Saturday, it poured. Therefore, we spent ALL day Saturday in and out of a string of semi-interesting museums. Yawn.

Quite luckily, the weather cleared up for us on Sunday and created the P-E-R-F-E-C-T day for traveling to the island of Capri, off the coast of Naples. After about an hour boat ride (I, of course, napped the entire time ... it really made me miss my water bed!), 150 20-something American tourists were set loose on the small island. There, I had some of the best pizza I've ever eaten, conquered my fear of heights in a single-person chairlift to the top of a mountain and took some of the strangest public transportation I've ever experienced. Overall, Capri was amazingly beautiful. It goes down in the books as one of the prettiest places,I think, on earth.

But enough words. Here are some pictures:

In Pompei, "breakdancing" again. This was an ancient amphitheaters where gladiators used to battle. Sweet!

Another theater in Pompei. The people in the background of this picture left promptly after I began singing ...

Mt. Vesuvio.

Pompei.

Naples is really ugly up close ...

But very pretty from far away.

At dinner, I asked our waiter what his favorite pasta dish was, and he brought me this. All I could think was: "Stop looking at me, Swan!"

The remains of my dinner -- shrimp, mussels and clams. When in Naples ... do as the Napolitani do, right? It was actually pretty good.

The view from right outside our hotel, in a small town about 45 minutes from Naples. That's Napoli in the background, and the mountain is Vesuvio.

Me in Capri, an island about an hour off the coast of Napoli.

We took a chairlift from Anacapri up to the top of a mountain, where there are remains of a castle. The chairlift was the scariest thing ever, because the mountain was very tall, and it was just single chairs that shook way too much for my liking ...

I was just praying that I wouldn't fall ... didn't Kevin fall/jump out of a chairlift once? I thought I remembered hearing that story at some point, but maybe I made it up?

Remains of a castle on the top of the hill overlooking Anacapri, a town on the island of Capri.

Queen of the mountain!

This is Annalis on the chairlift on the way down from the hill - scary (but beautiful)!

P.S. Saturday (March 8) was National Women's Day in Italy. So happy belated women's day to all of you out there!

Il Torre Eiffel

2008-03-04T05:41:00.002-07:00

So I just read through yesterday's post and realized that I really can't speak (or write) in English anymore, since there were like, oh, a bajillion typos. Fixed now. Sorry about that. Who knew that trying to really learn a new language would leave you more or less speechless in ALL languages ...

OK, so I've been trying all during class to post my Eiffel Tower video, and it still hasn't worked, so ... sorry. I'm trying to set up a flicker account, so maybe I can get it up there ... eventually!

My cherie amor

2008-03-03T07:27:00.017-07:00

On my second trip to Paris, I realized just why it is dubbed the city of love. It's not really that you fall in love when you're IN the city. I think it's that after a while, you can't help falling in love WITH the city.

Here's how love finally hit me:

My traveling companions and I decided to take a boat tour Friday night along the river Sienne, which runs through the center of the city, right as the sun was setting. Despite the freezing cold (and wind!), I decided to sit on the top of the boat outside (there was a much better view), while everyone else sat inside. About halfway through the tour, we rode under a bridge, which as the boat's automated tour dictated, is nicknamed the bridge of love. Apparently, when you pass under the bridge, you're supposed to close your eyes and make a wish, then as you emerge out of the other side, you fall in love with the person sitting next to you. Since I was, in fact, alone on the top of the boat, I instead fell in love with Paris, right as the city's lights began to turn on.

Anyway, here are some photos of my now beloved Paris:

Who could NOT love a city where there are signs like this in the taxis? In case you can't see properly, that certainly is a "Don't Pass Gas in this Taxi" sign. I love it.

The Arc de Triomphe.

Sarah, me and Lenny in front of the arc. We didn't look so happy after we climbed the million stairs all the way to the top...

In fact, I almost jumped off just so I wouldn't have to walk DOWN the stairs. That's the Eiffel Tower behind my right leg.

The Torre Eiffel/Eiffel Tower/Tour Eiffel (in Italian, English and French, respectfully). I learned something new on this visit: apparently the tower is re-painted every five years with 45 tons of paint. It takes two years to complete the job.

The Eiffel Tower, illuminated at night. I took this picture from the top of the boat during the tour.

The Louvre, which houses something like 38,000 works of art. I heard that if you spend 10 seconds looking at each artwork, you'd spend three months wandering through the halls of the Louvre. But other than art, the Louvre also holds proof that Jesus and Mary Magdalen had children, whose bloodline continues to present day! (Thank you, Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code .... )

Mona Lisa. The funny thing is that on the opposite wall, there's a HUGE painting that covers nearly the whole wall. Then there's tiny little Mona, who somehow holds much more weight.

Even the French are taking sides ... this is a political ad in a metro station.

The Pantheon in Paris. There are catacombs underneath where many people are buried, including the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, chemist Marie Curie, author Alexander Dumas, and my personal hero:

Me and my satirical buddy (and literary hero), Voltaire.

Notre Dame Cathedral in the center of Paris. Apparently, all maps and signs that tell the distance between other cities and Paris measure the distance to the courtyard right outside Notre Dame.

This is Jim Morrison's grave the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery. The flowers I laid are the purple ones in the center. RIP.

Atop the Eiffel Tower, with my beloved Paris.

Tomorrow I will try to post a video I took of the Eiffel Tower's light show at night. First I have to figure out how to edit video on my computer ... and eat dinner. :o)

What's next:

This weekend the school organized a trip to Naples and Pompeii, so that's where I'll be. Weather permitting, we'll even get to hike up Mt. Vesuvius, so cross your fingers for me that the good weather we've had the last couple of days will continue through the weekend!

Photos from the land of the Bratwurst

2008-02-26T05:28:00.018-07:00

Thank goodness for my Italian cinema class, or I would never have had enough time to upload all of these pictures on the school's extraordinarily slow server. Here is a (more or less) chronological presentation of my German adventure.

This is me in front of the smallest airport in the world, a.k.a. Rome Ciampino airport, at about 6:30 a.m. Friday morning. It was quite a trek to get there, but when you only get about two hours of sleep, everything is far more exciting than it should be.

We flew on a ryanair flight, which was my first small european airline. It was a little sketchy, because for some reason, people weren't allowed to sit in rows three or four ... they said it was for safety reasons, which was a tad disconcerting

But we made it to Germany, and immediately embarked on our search for David Hasselhoff. If he's not in Germany, where would he be??

A cool church we found on our hunt ...

A delicious bratwurst lunch for just 1,50 euro on the side of the street. YUM.

When we got lost that night trying to find a restaurant for dinner, we stumbled upon this giant, brightly-lit EU sign in the middle of a park. Apparently Germany is very happy to be a part of the union.

Me and my buddy, Frankfurt.

This was the most amazing place I've ever been -- a gummy bear store, with more gummies than you could possibly imagine. I bought a bag of sours and a bag of regular gummy bears, and now, three days later, they're all gone. I almost bought this gargantuan red gummy bear (I swear it weighed a pound) for Liam, but I was afraid it would go stale by the time he would get it. I also would have mailed it to him if it hadn't weighed a pound ... seriously, it was amazing

We took a train to Mainz (pronounced mines), a small town outside of Frankfurt, because someone said it was cool. They were wrong. But we thought David Hasselhoff might be there, so we walked around a while, anyway. Turns out he wasn't there. We left immediately.

This is the mall in Frankfurt. It's so weird, because it's all built up. It's about 100 feet across, but seven stories tall, with a million escalators in the middle. Strange!

In a train station on our five-hour trek back to the Hahn airport. It was very easy to get to Frankfurt, but very difficult to get back!

The only American flag I've seen anywhere in Europe ... on a giant dancing hotdog ... in the airport ... in Hahn, Germany. You can tell that Europeans (especially Germans) respect Americans enormously...

That's all there is for now. This week I am just going to school and still recovering from all the weekend's Apfelwein. Friday, I'm off to France for Versailles, Paris and who knows what else?

Arrivederci!

Woo ist David Hasselhoff?

2008-02-25T09:45:00.010-07:00

My last weekend was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. After a ridiculously early morning commute to the airport outside of town and a somewhat sketchy Ryanair flight, I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, (and by in, I mean technically 70 km west of the town) with no place to stay and really no idea what there even is to do in Frankfurt.

Turns out, there's not too much. But after finding a hostel (and a new half-German half-Italian friend -- and unofficial tour guide), I saw the sights, did some shopping and drank far too much Apfelwein (apparently what Frankfurt is known for).

I also discovered, with my extremely limited German vocabulary, that people will be much nicer to you if you just try... no matter how you butcher it. Luckily, one of my roommates here in Rome spent six years in Germany, so she recorded some phrases on my personal recorder, which basically saved my life. My German for the weekend included:

*Woo ist ... toiletten/hostel/David Hasslehoff (Where is the bathroom/ the hostel/ David Hasselhoff?)
*Ine grosist bier (I would like your largest beer)
*Entschuldigung Sie (Excuse me)
*Danke shon (Thank you very much ... but FYI, they don't think it's as funny as you do to sing the Wayne Newton song)

I don't have much time to post all my pictures, but here are a few to get by until I can get them up after (or during?) class tomorrow:

This is me break dancing in front of old-town Frankfurt. The arc in the background used to be a gate that closed off the city. And of course, by break dancing, I mean that I tried to a cartwheel and I just looked like an idiot. :o)

Here's me and my grosist bier. I got a hefeweizen in honor of Kim ... :o)

This is me in front of the capitol building in Frankfurt. That's the EU flag, Germany flag and Frankfurt flag, left to right.

This is Frankfurt's financial district as viewed from the top of its mall (which was the most bizarre place I have ever seen). Apparently, Frankfurt is the second largest financial hub in Europe, behind London.

This is Frankfurt at night from across the river Main (pronounced mine), where our hostel was located.

Finally!

2008-02-19T06:02:00.007-07:00

So I have been in Rome for nearly two weeks now, so I'm thinking it's about time for a post. The internet situation is really weird here, because the connection at school is very slow and I don't think I am going to get Internet at home (it would apparently be slower than at school). So, sorry, but this is the best I can do.

I haven't taken a lot of pictures here, but here are a few from my first weekend in the city:

This is me atop the Vittorio Emmanuele building.

Here is an anti-Vatican march. It was really interesting -- there were hundreds of people marching to separate church and state. Even though the vatican is technically its own country within Rome, there is a lot of political involvement there ...

La Fontana di Trevi. I already threw in a euro, which means I'll return to Rome someday. :o)

The Roman Forum. The column behind my right arm is where they beheaded Cicero.

Il Coloseo!

That's all I have time to post for now. I'll be honest -- I'm in class, and it's about to end. I have a bunch more pictures (including from my trip to the hill behind Trastevere and my excursion to see the Pope!) from the last week and a half to post. So I'll try to do that ... sometime.

For now, my plans for the next few days include a wine tasting tomorrow night, then very early Friday I head off to Frankfurt, Germany, for three days. Whooooo....

Arrivederci!

Il mio aparamento a Roma

2008-02-11T05:37:00.001-07:00

Ciao amici! Well, I've finally made it. I arrived in Roma last Thursday, took a taxi to my new beautiful apartment and things have been great ever since. Rome is amazing, and I'd love to post a thousand beautiful pictures, but the internet connection here at school is being stubborn today. So here's what I managed, some pictures of my lovely new Roman apartment, just minutes walking from the Pantheon.

I share the apartment with seven other girls from the program, and most of them are great. We've spent the last couple of nights cooking each other dinner (even I cooked!), wandering around the city and eating plenty of gelato ... luckily, there's a gelato shop with more than 50 flavors right around the corner.

Here is my itty bitty shower. At least I haven't flooded it ... yet ...

This is my bathroom. It's cold, but it's spacious ... for an Italian apartment.

This is one of my lovely roommates, Sandra, in her's and Kristi's bedroom. My bedroom is very similar, but the curtains are red. The beds in all the rooms are ridiculously tiny. But if you comment to an Italian about the size of anything (beds, showers, whatever), they will, in true Italian style, tell you that it's because Italians aren't as fat as Americans. That was the first lesson I really learned here ... there's no political correctness in Italy. They say things straight up, so if you don't want to know what they're really thinking ... don't ask.

This is our living room, complete with TV (but no English channels) and two tables for eating and working. That's my roomie Sarah on the couch, reading a trashy romance novel.

And this is the view from my window. If you take the first right there and walk straight for three minutes, you hit the Pantheon, which I'll try to post pictures of later ... if this Internet thing ever gets worked out.

That's all I think I can manage for now. But I'll hopefully be able to post plenty of pictures soon of Rome, hands-down the best city in the world.

Carnivale a Venezia

2008-02-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

I spent the last three days in Venice for Carnivale season, and even though it rained the entire time, I can honestly say that I've never had more fun in my entire life. From seeing an Italian ska band to riding in a gondola, and meeting gypsy accordion players to wearing a cape and playing with a plastic sword, this entire weekend was incredible.

I don't have all of the pictures here, but this is a start. Most of the fun at-night pictures are on other peoples' cameras, so I'll post some when I can get them e-mailed to me.

Anyway, this is how Carnivale went down:

We got to Venice after a 4-hour bus ride and a 30-minute boat ride. It was rainy and freeeeeezing! I think it was under 30 degrees the whole weekend. But once we got there, checked into our hotel (a nunnery), broke away from the tour of church after church after church (pretty, but once you see 100, you've seen them all) ... Anyway, after all that, we, of course, got lost. But we found a carousel and some candied peanuts, and we didn't even care that we had no idea where we were.

Here's me on the carousel. My roommate, Sarah, who is also from ASU, is behind me there. She'll also be one of my seven roommates once we get to Roma.

Here's me and Annaliss, another of my future Roman roommates, at dinner. We ate at a place called Ae'Oche, which means goose. This was the place mat. We thought it was funny. Despite the humor, I had the best pizza I've ever eaten in my life - pizza with eggs and asparagus. DELICIOUS.

There are several pictures missing here in my chronology of my trip to Venice. I apparently took NO pictures from Friday night, but in a rundown, a group of us were heading to la Piazza San Marco, where there's a large church and the Doges Palace, but we never made it. Along the way we found a live ska band playing (in italian) in a piazza, and it was a blast. We hung around, met the band (and my future husband, Domenico, the trombone player) and bought some CDs. All in all, a great night. Unfortunately, our 1 a.m. curfew in the nunnery called us home before Domenico and I could elope. Oh well.

(update: in the meantime, here is a picture of Domenico off the band's web site:)

This is a picture from Saturday morning of me with some Carnivale folk outside the Doges palace. We never made it inside, because ...

We got our faces painted. Much more my type of art, anyway. ;o) This is me with the clown who painted my face.

Here's a closeup of my face. The clown was excited that the purple matched my hat, and the gold matched my hair. Fun.

After some shopping (btw, I'm broke now. Wire me some money?), a group of us took a gondola ride. This was one of the best experiences of my life. We got to see some parts of Venice that we wouldn't otherwise, and our rower was really awesome. Although, he wouldn't sing for us ... Sad!

But he did teach Annaliss how to row the gondola.

The best part of the weekend? CAPES. Sarah and I bought our Carnivale capes, which keep you surprisingly warm. Which was good, since we were outside watching acrobats, dancing, getting lost, being led back by a gypsy accordion procession and talking the nuns into letting us back inside well past curfew ... I again, somehow, took NO pictures of that night, but I know for a fact that Annalis did, so I'll post those when I can.

Here's me, way too bright (and too early) on Sunday morning at the Guggenheim museum.

Here's me and Sarah on the Accademia bridge over the grand canal, before boarding our boat and bus back to Firenze.

What's next: We're in Florence for the next few days, finals for our intensive language classes are on Wednesday, and Thursday, we're off to Roma!! I can't wait, but I do think I will miss Florence. I ended up liking it much more than I thought, but it will be good to be able to stop living out of a suitcase and to have an apartment with internet access 24/7. Until then ... Arrivederci!

I miei viaggi a Siena, Cinque Terre e Pisa!

2008-01-31T05:07:00.001-07:00

Ciao! Sorry it's been so long since I last updated, but I've had a pretty busy week (and remember, in Firenze, I can only get online at school). Saturday, I went with some people in my school group to Siena, a small city in the hills of Tuscany. I spent the day walking around, eating in a restaurant overlooking Tuscany and of course, sampling the local gelato. Here are some pictures:

This is an overview of Siena. The city is built throughout hills, very close together, so the streets are small, and the roads are steep. But from the top, it's very beautiful.

This is the duomo, or cathedral, in Siena. The inside is completely made of marble, and it's remarkable. I took some pictures, but they didn't turn out well enough to post.

This is near where I ate lunch. A group of us spent a good 30 minutes coming up with the best poses for this wall. This is the "Iesha" pose... a winner. Hope you enjoy it. ;o)

This was a fountain I found on my search for gelato. My calling - a unicorn!! I don't know if you can really see it in this picture, but the water dripped out of its horn. Needless to say, I was excited.

After an exhausting day walking around Siena, I went to bed early so I could get up early, take a train to the coast and do some more walking around (and eating gelato). This time, Kristi and I went to the Cinque Terre National Park. Cinque Terre is a series of five small towns (and I mean tiny ... probably only a few hundred inhabitants per town) built into the cliffs of the Italian Rivieria. We spent six hours hiking the 9 kilometers and walking through each town. It was absolutely beautiful, and probably the most amazing (and exhausting and physical) thing I've ever done in my life. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

This is me, sleepy, on the 7:51 a.m. train. Sure, 7:51 doesn't sound too early, but it is when you get there 30 minutes early after a 30 minute walk to the train station.

My first Italian beach, at the town of Monterosso.

This was about 30 minutes into our hike, the town of Monterosso in the background. It had been an easy hike so far ... we had no idea what was in store!

Here's what a good portion of the hike was like. If you've ever seen me on a stairmaster, then you know how horrendous this was. Kristi almost left me behind.

I made friends with the local wildlife -- several stray cats -- along the way. One, which I didn't get a good picture of, looked just like Hex.

Two hours later, we got sight of the next town, Vernazza. This one, I think we agreed, was the most beautiful. It's also where we stopped for lunch.

A street in Vernazza.

My nutritious lunch.

This is the back of Vernazza, as we were hiking up and out the other side.

And almost an hour later, we caught sight of the next town, built higher onto the cliff (thank God), Corniglia.

The fourth town, Manarola, was probably my favorite. We didn't stay long, because it was going to start getting dark soon, but as we were walking through, an elementary school band was playing in the center square, and it was pretty fun.

Luckily, the last town, Riomaggiore, was only about a 30 minute walk from Manarola. By this time, we were exhausted, so we ate dinner (the first of three that day, for me anyway), and bought our train tickets home. After a delay in Pisa, where we had to switch trains, because of a sciopero (strike), we finally made it back to our hotel ... many hours later.

Come Monday, there was still no rest for my aching legs, as I went on another after-school excursion, this time, to Pisa. (It was rather difficult going back there, seeing as how Kristi and I spent several hours in its train station about 15 hours before.) Luckily, we weren't there for very long, because, as it turns out, there's not much to see in Pisa. That is, except for the leaning tower, of course. It leans. It was pretty sweet.

I don't know which I liked better - the tower, or the gelato.

While we were there, the tower starting falling even more. But no worries, I was there to push it back up ...

And now, I'm taking it easy for a few days. I've been taking long hot baths at night and drinking plenty of wine to help me recuperate. Tomorrow, however, our entire program is heading off to Venezia (Venice) for Carnivale. We'll be there through Sunday, and I'm pretty excited. So you can expect some more pictures of that excursion in probably about a week, when I recover.

Arrivederci!

La Piazza Michelangelo

2008-01-23T06:09:00.000-07:00

Ciao amici!

It is now my fifth day in Firenze, and it's crazy how much Italian you can remember when you have to. It's also very cool to go to class in the morning, then go out and use what you learned in the afternoon, just by walking down the street, going to eat, or asking for directions.

Before I get started with what I've been up to, here is a picture of my school:

It is located in the Piazza San Spirito, which has a cool little market in the morning, and usually some entertainment in the afternoon, like these jugglers:

As an update on what I've done the past few days:

Yesterday I walked up the hills of Firenze with some of my fellow study abroad-ers to la Piazza Michelangelo, which provides an incredible panoramic view of the city. Here are some pictures:

I took the opportunity on the way down, as it was getting pretty dark, to take some night shots of the city, here:

In the above picture you can see the Duomo (the dome toward the right), which I believe I posted a picture of yesterday.

Below is the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Firenze. On the left side of the bridge is the Uffizi Galleria, one of the most revered galleries in Italy. And to the right of the bridge is the Palazzio Piti, which is where the Medici family lived. (The Medicis basically ruled Florence before there was a united Italy.) The way it used to go was that the rich families in Italy, like the Medicis, used to sponsor artists, meaning that they would feed and house artists who would then paint for them. Thus, the Medicis basically supplied the paintings in the Uffizi. My Italian teacher last semester told us that there is a secret passage underneath the Ponte Vecchio where the Medicis used to keep the prized paintings so no one could steal them. And one day, when the River Arno flooded, they ran around frantically trying to get all the paintings out before they were ruined. So I'm pretty sure they don't keep anything valuable down there anymore.

Lastly, this is what I've been doing when I get home at night after dinner (which, since Italians eat so late, is usually between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.):

That's right. That's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In Italian. I'm only on about page 10, but it's awesome. :o)

My itinerary for the next several days includes trying to get tickets for Madama Butterfly, the opera that is showing here on Friday, and taking a bus to Siena to check out the Tuscan countryside on Saturday. Then on Sunday, I am registered for a bike tour of Tuscany, where I should bike from about 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the hills, with a stop for lunch and, of course, wine tasting.

But of course, the most important item on my agenda, is staying away from the giant river rats. Seriously, these things look just like rats, they're about two-feet long, and they swim in the river. I found a picture online, here, that describes them as Coypu. Gross.

Anyway, check back, because there are more pictures to come!

Ciao di Firenze!

2008-01-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

Some photographs of my hometown for the next three weeks, Firenze, Italia:

This is the river Arno, which runs through the center of Florence. This is the view about three blocks from my hotel. I have to cross the bridge to get to school.

I just thought this was cool.

I found what might be the only 99 cent store in Italy, and I bought a notebook for class. I thought it was appropriate.

Talk about art:

Il Duomo:

London recap

2008-01-21T09:27:00.001-07:00

As I spent my first morning walking around Firenze (Florence), I decided I needed an avenue to share all of my pictures with all of you. So here's a blog for you all to visit when you get a chance to see what I am up to in bella Italia.

To recap the last few days, I spent last Wednesday through Friday in good ol' London, where highlights including seeing "Lord of the Rings: The Musical."

Lord of the Rings is the one story in the history of literature that should NEVER have been made into a musical. Once Gollum starts singing, it's all too ridiculous. Nothing that a glass of wine wouldn't fix, though ... The best part about the play was that I purchased a souvenir mug that reads: "May the hair on your toes never fall out." Che bella!

I also got the chance to visit Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. An awesome opportunity for Harry Potter freaks like me ...

Some photographic highlights from London:

Mmm, bonaffee pie. Kim, this picture is for you:

I don't know if I have time to post any Firenze pictures right now, as my school is closing in 15 minutes. But I'll try to get them up in another post. If I don't make it, check back later this week!!

Arrivederci!