Oh snap another weekend

So it is thursday night, and we are approaching another weekend. How crazy! It has gotten really cold here in firenze and I hear rumors that they dont turn the heat on until November. Well its not really that cold. The days are beautiful, perfect weather for walking around in my opinion. But at night I usually get cold, and in the mornings it is hard to leave the warm shower!

I ate the most delicious pasta today. I am learning that Italian food is simple but fresh and delicious. It was pesto mixed with tomato sauce. It was incredible though. I wish I could eat it every day. It was the sauce that my co-worker made and brought in for lunch today for us all. How perfect!

My roommate returns this weekend. I have been living da sola for about 3 weeks now. I have really gotten used to it. Leaving and cleaning dishes when I want, and making all sorts of noise whenever.

It will be nice having more people around, to speak and learn Italian.

Work was great today. I am still adding color to the wholes to match the original, and I am starting to get the hang of it. I am not perfect, but I am much better. When my boss came to look at it, he couldnt tell the real from mine! I wish it was like that al the time. Sometimes I get it good, and then other times I miss. I just need to keep practicing and keep looking at more colors! All the better to keep my brain more active.

I cant believe that my time here is coming to an end. I am on the second half of it. I wish I spoke and understood Italian better, but am comforted by a fact that I read….its take 5 years in a country or of studying to be fluent in a foreign language. I am so much better than when I first came, and I can speak and have people understand me, but it still is not very pretty!

I dont know if I will ever stop missing people! I have made new friends here, but it is impossible to make friends like I have in a few short months! I think this experience has really changed my outlook on so many things. I remember coming home from Vanuatu, and I felt so different, I had experienced so much. It will be hard coming back, like it was from Vanuatu, to feel so different.

The Alps, German style!

So Germany was great. I also went to Austria!
I got into Germany on Thursday, and after a little confusion met up with Mr.Horne and his work buddy Steve. We then drove to Garnisch. It was the sight of the winter Olympics, and our hotel was right across from the ski jump! It was so cool to see, its huge, I cant believe people do that!

On our first day as Mr.Horne and his friend were fighting off jet lag, we went to the highest point in Germany! I even saw a Shiba Inu and a German shepheard….both of the breeds that I have! I also got some great beer, and a cheese it break! I also had this really good beer, that was more like lemon ice tea. But we got food at the very top, and after I ate it…which I couldnt finish I was full for the next 48 hours it seemed

The next day we saw three castles!!! They were all great! I dont know why Castles are just soo cool, but its just fun walking down the places where real kings and queens walked!
Then we went to a famous monastery where they brew their own beer! We of course got some, but it wasnt that good……well it was great beer, but just too beer like for me! Ludwig, the guy who built the castles LOVED swans. The whole castle has paintings on the walls, and sculptures and other various things shaped as swans. The pons even today still have swans swimming around! It reminded me a lot of my Grandmother. We always have swans out at the farm, and they are always so beautiful.

Then we went hiking in the alps again, with Mr.Hornes friend Gunther! He was a tour guide, and is German, so it made getting around a little more easy. The alps are just incredible, the fresh air is impossible to describe, you have to breathe it yourself. We hiked down into this valley that had a cute little farm. The run a restaurant with really authentic german food. It was so cozy inside. We went outside and then started hiking up the mountain and heard the cow bells. The Italian alps side was silent, and the german side was filled with cow bells. I always need more cow bell.
I really enjoyed Germany because it felt like home to me. The architecture, the farms, the animals, the designs, the interiors, everything seemed like things in my parents, or aunts or grandparents homes.

The cool thing about the alps is that they are so accessible. I saw old and young….yes a stroller! The Germans that I saw were not especially skinny like the Italians I know. They were very healthy. They eat very hearty meals, but they are active people and stay in shape. It was nice being in that environment. Here most people are size 2 or smaller. So it is definitely a different feeling for me.

We finished that day off at a Thai restaurant, and it was great! German Thai food, is excellent!
Today we planned to go into this cute bavarian church in the town. We got there and the doors had signs on them that neither of us could read! Luckily the Deacons wife came out and told us that the church is under restoration and the service was in a local building. So we walked there and it was such a cute service. After the Deacon let us look in the Church. It was great to see a church in restoration. I had a lot to look at and learn. It was a New Gothic German Church, absolutely beautiful. The colors are much different in Germany art. The colors almost always have the same value which is interesting. It took me a while to put my finger on it.

But tmw it is back to work for me!

ohhh the madness

Today riding home from mass, I almost hit a car…..Yes I almost hit a car. A typical rear-end case. I wasnt paying attention when they stopped abruptly. So that was an exciting adventure.

Today a whole bunch of important people came to the lab. They had translators and everyone. It felt like everyone was speaking a different language. It was really intense, and everyone was VERY formal. Those are the times when you dont want to break anything, or do anything stupid!

I started adding color to the gesso on my staute, and it is soo much fun. Im not that bad at it either. I dont have the colors perfect, but its not bad. Its really challenging to figure out which color to add, but it is so much fun. Its also nice to give my hands a break from gripping the razor so tightly leveling the gesso.

These past two days I didnt go home for lunch, I stayed and ate some of the pasta my co-workers always make. It was really good too. I love having the option of staying there and leaving early, or taking a break in the middle of the day. In this job it is more important what you get done, not which hours you are there.

Tmw, is my last day of the week. And then it is off to Germany! I am meeting Mr.Horne there who has a conference there. It will be great to see a familiar face!

cosi giovane

Alright, soooo si sposi. literally your marrying.
I thought that it meant you are married! So I was confused for a while. no one was really to excited when I told them I was engaged. Here in Italy it is normal to get married at thirty or so, and be engaged for a while.
But when I told people im getting married on August 22, 2009 and that they should come, they were all shocked!! My friends were so excited.
My work friends were soo confused, and kept saying i was much to young. One of them said that I should wait. But shes not going to hold me back!

Work has gone by slow/fast this week as usual. I am still working mostly on my staute man. But in the mornings I have been working on the painting. I can only do it in the morning because Paola wont let me work on the painting, but the others think it is fine. So its just a little secret.
Danni, has been my best friend at work. He is the only one that thinks its great that im getting married so young. He always tells me when im doing something stupid, everyone else just doesnt say anything.
He also explains thing for me, like random words in Italian, Slang and movies, and songs and what not. I have been so appreciative of how outwardly nice he has been.

I am loving riding my bike to work. It is great to get so much exercise in one day, 2 hours every day! It can be so thrilling going thru roundabouts and what not. It is just great.

This weekend I may be making macaroni and cheese for my Italian friends, they are completely confused about the concept. So I figured I would just show them!

the beautiful!

Here is a picture of my bicycle. Complete with wine and lemons in the basket, normal purchases for me.

Today I went grocery shopping and bought eggs. On the bike ride home one of the eggs didnt make it and broke, and dripped every where. It was super funny.

random thoughts of the day

Today I was suppose to go to the beach, but I felt a little under the weather when I woke up, so I figured I should keep sleeping.

So when I got up I did some cleaning around the house and headed into the center, to go to SACI’s library and read up on some Art Conservation and learn more chemistry. Buuuuut the library was closed. So I went to this fancy Italian wedding dress store instead. It was so fancy that you had to ring the door bell, and the lady would let you in. Of ourse you had to make an appointment, but when I said my wedding was in august, she said that I would want to wait for the new stuff to come in, in november. Oh well.
I had intended to read until mass at 5, but I still had 3 hours after that…..so I went museum hopping. I saw the Bronze David by donetello, though they are doing restoration on it. There was a really interesting guest book that all the visitors signed in the david room. There were so many languages in it! A lot of people were really sad that it was under restoration when they went to visit it. But I thought it was such a treat!!!!!!! He is laying down, and there are tons of machines all around. Supposedly during the days you can watch them, but I usually work so I dont think I can do that. But I of course signed the guest book, in Italian, though Im sure it had grammatical errors.

But I noticed two things today. When you press the button for the crosswalk here (not in the center, but outside the center) they light immediate turns to yellow for the cars.

Also there is a distinct black culture here. There are alot of immigrants from africa here, and they either know each other, or always nod or wave or shake hands when they pass each other.

Today was weird

Ohh Fridays, how i love them.
For some reason it is still really hot in Firenze, which I am not happy about. But I am going to the beach tmw, so I am happy about that.

Today was a weird day though. I met up with this guy who studies art restoration, who is friends with one of my friends. We put together a small speech for the exhibition on impressionism here. Later we went with about 20 people to the exhibition and gave our little speech. But I didnt really know what I was doing the whole time. I like I new sorta of what was going on, and I thought we were just talking about impressionism, but he had notes and stuff. So then when we got to the exhibit, he expected me to talk to the crowd of 20 people, and I was like uuuhhhhhh I cant do that! And it was really bizarre.
But the exhibit was great. It talked about a whole bunch of new diagnostic methods in art. But with testing paints, and different types of rays, you can figure out what is orginial and not, or not even those. But Its really interesting from a restoration point of view, because you dont know what is original. If the painted re-did, or changed a peice of the painting, or someone else.

Its was fun though, because before I went to my friends house for dinner. Classic Italian dinner again, and it was super hot and i didnt stop sweating the whole time. But man I cant wait for it to cool down here

Allora

Its crazy how fast/slow weeks and days can go by here. Today I had a half day, and went to Ikea. Thats the best place for cheap food. Me and my friend Katie split 20 meatballs, in my opinion not the best choice, but it tasted good for a while!

I have really been enjoying my bike and biking around Firenze. I especially love roundabouts! I think that every ride i go on I have a near death experience. I always come away from it thinking,man I am super lucky to be alive. Despite the drivers here being crazy, it is a controlled crazy….and they are actually quite good and aware.

I got a brava today. Yesterday I got super frustrated with how many mistakes i was making. But today I got much better. I just need practice and patience. I know how the pieces and work should look, btu my hands just arnt skilled enough yet to do it!

Well Im going to get some soy milk im thirsty!
But im going to another beach this weekend woohoo!

Cinque terre or doggy heaven

So me and my friend Katie went ot Cinque terre yesterday, once we got there we decided we want to stay an extra day, even though we didnt bring anything with us. But we were both really proud of ourselves for being so spur of the moment and adventurous, because it is soo unlike us.

for some reason it was ridiculously hard to find a hotel, and we walked around for an hour before we found one. the map we were given was super weird. But then we finally got to the beach and crashed in the sun. Then I heard some one say “Look there are people tyring to sunbathe in the shade” And I woke up and we were in the shade. That was kinda funny. So we moved to the sun again.

But we saw soo many injured dogs! The first one we saw had a wheel chair, because his back legs didnt work. His back wheels got stuck on the edge of this tire, and he couldnt move but his owners kept walking, it was really funny.
But then we saw this dieing dog on the side of the road which was really depressing.
And then we saw a three legged dog. To weird huh, and then we saw a lady walking a cat on a leash.

But the towns were beautiful. It is a costal region, with 5 small cute towns. We only stayed in the major ones, but the towns are connected by train, and cute walking paths. It is very touristy, but soo wonderful. The water wasnt too cold, and it was so clear. It was great to get out of hot sticky crowded firenze and breathe some fresh air!

Last week work went well. I helped make this really cool gel solvent, and I ironed a some new canvas onto an old one. That was exciting to do something new.

It has been getting tough to be here in Italy though. I just keep waiting for something to get easier, like understanding people talking to me, or speaking, or not getting lost, or knowing whats going on. But seriously I still feel uncomfortable in most situations. Its just im trying to hard to learn, and i feel like i should start feeling it at some point!
But I am really excited because my friend Francesco invited me to another dinner, and also Katie!! Its just so exciting to be invited to something, and to know that people are interested in me hanging out with them. I mean, you dont even think about it when you are with your own friends, and its so easy to hangout with them or call them. Its really hard to be a foreigner and know nobody. I think it is a challenging and worthwhile experience though indeed. It being a challenge is what makes it good. Its so easy to feel sorry for myself at times, especially when I feel like i have no friends here (which is not true). But it is so important not to feel that way, because that will just hold me back from so many experiences, and possibilities.

BUT DID I SAY I GOT MY OWN BIKE. my roommate that left and said that she would leave a bike for me, didnt, so i bought my own. Its an old white city bike with basket, and it is soo fun to ride around with. I can get everywhere soo fast! And I love going to work in the morning on my bike, because I can get exercise. And I can go to my friend Katie’s house for lunch, or I can even go back to my house for lunch. It is so much more fun leaving work for lunch, and going somewhere or doing something. It makes the day go much faster. And Im so glad i dont have to be so lazy all the time sitting in a bus!

oggi ho imparato

quanso sono arrivato a lavoro stamatina, ero pronta imparare. Danielle mi e insegnato dei solventi e pulitura dei quaddri. Era difficile, ma piu facile che normale, perche le nome chimica sono uguale in inglese. Adesso c’e niente in inglese per me. Abito con Italiani, e lavoro con Italiani, e i miei amici sono Italiani. volgio imparare velocemente, ma anora mi sento che non capire niente. Ma tutti dicono mi, piano piano….e vero! Va bene.

Okay, so i think I am starting to feel a little confident with my Italian. I make tons of gramatical errors, but people understand what I am saying most of the time, and I can understand what they are talking about, though I dont understand every word that they use.

Today at work was really fun because I learned all about solvents and cleaning paintings. It was fun to get into chemistry again. I never though I would say this, but I miss organic chemistry, everything I learned was soo interesting, and so useful.

So I was working on this frame, and it took me all of two days to put the gesso on and level like 1/8th of it. And then because the gesso was bad we had to remove it. Then Danielle just did it and finished it in like 5 hours. I wish I would be fast!

So im pretty sure my american roommate left for america without paying her rent. Thats pretty lame, and me and Luciana are going to have to cough up 400 Euro, which is pretty depressing. It seems no matter where you go there are people that will screw you over. Its just strange to me that it was an American. You would think that I could read Americans better than Italians!