Carnivale: Halloween on Steroids

This weekend was Carnivale which is basically the European version of Mardi Gras, a celebration before the start of Lent. On Friday, we stayed in Verona and watched the parade while eating outside at our favorite restaurant, the Ippopotumo (Hippopotamus). We hung out with our program director Claudio, who was wearing some kind of vampire-wolverine-zombie mask and running around scaring small children. Very entertaining to say the least. The floats in the parade were the coolest floats I have ever seen and included giant Captain Morgan and Obama floats. Awesome. Now Carnivale is celebrated all over Europe, but nothing compares to how they do it in Venice. We left for Venice Saturday morning around 10 and got there around 12:30. We bought some masks when we got off the train and we were on our way. It was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. Tamer than Mardi Gras (well there was no one flashing for beads) but more hyped up than Halloween. We saw all kinds of really intricate Venetian costumes and although it was crowded, we made our way through the narrow streets between the canals and after walking in every possible wrong direction, we found the main square. Took a ton of pictures and although this was a family event, we soon decided to find a liquor store. We settled on a bottle of champagne for the 4 of us and each purchased a soft drink and one of those pocket sized bottles of hard alcohol. Then we ripped shots in the middle of Venice and it was grand. As we took pictures curious onlookers also stopped to admire the audacity of Americans to just drink in the middle of the main city square. It was a friendly atmosphere and we received more chuckles than glares so it was fine. We weren't drunk by any means but tipsy enough that the dropping temperatures didn't seem so bad. We even made some friends including a man stressed as a wandering minstrel who stopped to chug half our bottle of champagne, then proceeded to try to make out with my friend Stephanie, lick her boyfriend's neck, and kiss their feet. Like I said: Halloween on steroids.

Ciao for now,
Mia

I'm On Italian Time Now

I have now officially been in Italy for over a month and now that I am a bit more settled, I am finally taking the time to really observe how the Italians live and I must say, I like their style. At first, I'll admit that I was thrown off by their complete lack of anything even resembling urgency. My mom and I have a saying "We needed that like yesterday!". We use it to describe when we are in a pickle and need something very quickly, emphasis on the quick. Here, I doubt this saying would translate at all in this language. If I told someone here that I needed something yesterday, they would probably look at me and tell me that I wasn't going to get it until tomorrow or the day after. Meals here take 3 hours+. Everything closes down for 3 to 4 hours right in the middle of the day so you can have a midday drink and people still get home in time to have dinner with their families. Teachers start class late because they don't feel the need to stress over a couple of minutes because what is a couple of minutes in the grand scheme of things?
Their average life expectancy is more than 10 years greater than ours. I'm just saying, maybe the Italians are on to something....

Florence: Can I have my dignity back now?

Hey people,
So I have been here in Italy for just over a month now which is crazy and awesome and sad all at the same time because it's been a great ride but I can't believe the first leg is already over. January was a great month overall. One of the best trips was our trip to Florence. We went in a group of about 10 or 11 and all stayed in the same hostel. The hostel we stayed in was a whopping 8 Euros a night and here you get what you pay for. However, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be but it was only the first of many to come so we'll see. The first night we got there around 6 pm and the city was lit up and amazing. We went out to eat at a place called ZaZa's and it was amazing. Then we went to a doscoteque called Space which is basically a huge club. I got incredibly drunk, enough said. Woke up the next morning to all my friends getting ready to go site seeing. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 9 AM and I was still wearing my clothes from the night before. Classy. New goal for this trip: make it into my PJ's before I pass out. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not trying to be awake before 10 at the earliest, noon when I'm still detoxing from the night before. I grabbed some Tylenol and washed it down with coffee and we were on our way. First stop was the Duomo, an amazing Cathedral in the heart of Florence. Next we climbed the Bell Tower and I learned my first lesson of the day: Do NOT pregame with a bottle of wine when you are site seeing and have to climb a 414 step bell tower among other things the next day. Once I reached the top and instead of enjoying the view I was contemplating whether throwing up in a corner or a window sill was more acceptable, I realized that this is a lesson I will never forget.
After getting it together, we saw some of the greatest art in the world including Michelangelo's David, and some work of Da Vinci. Honestly, it was incredible and unforgettable. It was much much larger than I expected and the precision on every single body part blew my mind. The Brith of Venus was another one that just took my breathe away. After grabbing a quick lunch we hit the street markets and I continued to take after my grandmother in grand fashion and blew a good portion of my budget on shopping. Oh well, I'm only in Italy once right?
Later we got a dinner at a restaurant called Dante's where the friendly manager served us up some free wine, lemoncillo, and Bailey's along with the best lasagna I ever had (Sorry grandma).
Something that really surprised me was how much more English was spoken in Florence than Verona. I know it's more touristy but geez, at one point we were in an H&M and the guys ringing us out were whereing "I LOVE NY" t-shirts. I had a flashback to my days working at Orland Mall.
On the way home, I and 3 of my friends opted to take the cheaper train with multiple stops and connections to save ourselves 14 Euro. Everything was going good until we were in Bologna watching the last train for Verona leave on the track across from us. Whoops. After checking times, we realized that the next train wasn't leaving for Verona until 4 am. Grande Problemo. Lesson learned here: If you want to try a train with multiple stops, do it early enough so if you miss your train, another should be coming within oh let's say, the next 6 hours. After thoughtful deliberation, Alex, Kailyn, Lauren, and myself opted to hop on an overnight train to Munich that stopped in Verona even though we didn't have tickets and see what happens. Lucky for us, we made it without getting our tickets checked. Lauren even taught us to play cards so not a bad time at all and other than the 10 different diseases I mostly likely contracted while waiting in the over night train station, I'd say the trip went quite well.

Overall, Florence took away my breathe, most of money, and a good portion of my dignity. Ahhh, I love this country.

Ciao for now,
Mia