Last Thursday about 3/4 of the journalism group took a trip to Paris and four others went to Interlaken, Switzerland. I chose not to go on either of these trips because it was not on the top of my list of places to travel and I chose to save my money for those trips.
Making decisions is very hard and this is when I wish I was rich. I am very proud of myself for saving all of the money I was able to over the years, but Europe is expensive. I made this decision: When I come home I'm not saving up for a car like I was planning on; I'm saving up to come back. I would love nothing more than to buy a one-way plane ticket here, pick a place to start and then live my life pay check to pay check by writing for publications. I want to see everything and I can only do that if I'm living here.
I came to Italy almost exactly a month ago and it has changed my views on everything. I used to want to go to New York and work for a big name publication, but now I want to just run around Europe, not knowing what the next day will bring me.
Moving along, this past weekend was wonderfully relaxing and much needed after my past weekend in Rome. When you just go, go, go it hits you when you stop, and it hit me Friday. So I slept in until 1:00 p.m. and then mosied around the apartment. Around 3:30 my roommate Kate and I met up with Amy at San Lorenzo market and tried meeting up with a girl named Michelle, who I met last weekend in Rome.
Saying "let's meet at the entrance" was not the best idea. There are many entrances to this market because it just goes up and down streets. Needless to say, we had difficulty locating Amy, and then we never found Michelle.
After waiting about 10 minutes, Kate and I decided to walk through the market because we thought perhaps the girls went inside. Here's the thing about San Lorenzo: I love the prices, but I cannot stand the salesmen, ESPECIALLY the men. The deals are great because I can get three scarves for €12 or a top brand leather bag for €80, which was originally €140. You can also haggle with these people — although I'm not any good at it.
However, the salesmen, especially the men, are SO pushy, and it drives me nuts. The women are much more laid back. When I'm shopping I don't like to be bothered, but they are just over the top.
I also am not a fan of simply walking through the market because the salesmen are annoyingly forward and are just trying to get you to buy their product. Cheesy lines are tossed in you direction or they randomly link arms with you and ask you to be their girlfriend. I usually have to be in the mood to walk through their and deal with it. Kate and I just laughed every time someone said something and kept going.
After our adventure into San Lorenzo, Amy, Kate and I went to the Leather Factory store near my apartment because Amy wanted to look into buying one. I felt like I had stepped into a true Italian store. The men working there screamed Italian. Big men, Italian accent — it reminded me of the mafia, but they were the nicest men.
Of course since it was a leather factory store, its products were expensive so we headed back to the apartment. We cooked chicken parmesan, Caitlin style. It consisted of chicken nuggets mixed in with pasta, tomato sauce and parmesan. It was delicious.
After dinner Michelle came over, and the four of us played a card game called Dutch Blitz. It was a fun night to just hang out in my PJ bottoms with a few other girls.
Saturday morning I ended up sleeping in until noon, a little better than the day before. Around 2:30 Kate and I met Amy at the Uffizi museum. We were in there for a solid three hours, walking the beautiful halls with extravagant ceilings. The view from the top floor of the building was gorgeous as well, especially at sunset.
During this semester my Italian Art class goes to this museum twice, so I'm looking forward to going because Rocky, my teacher, will explain what is happening in the paintings and what they mean. We were able to decipher what some paintings were from what we've learned in class so far. Along with the sculptures and paintings were tags with who painted it and where the piece of art used to be located around Europe, which is interesting, but I'd like to know more about what I'm looking at.
Other than that, it was beautiful. After I go with my class I'll be able to write more about the history of the place and what I was looking at.
Afterwards Amy came back with Kate and I and we cooked dinner again. Beforehand, Amy and I went out to Billa, another supermarket here, and wow, it was crowded. I thought Walmart in Cranberry was bad, but Bill is tiny and with a ton of Italians running around the store, it was a mad house. I think we waited in line for 20 minutes to check out. It was dully noted not to do grocery shopping at 6 p.m.!
After dinner we played Dutch Blitz again. It is amazing how addicting the game can be. An hour and a half passed before we decided we needed to quit.
Sunday was a catch up on my life kind of day. I slept in again and then worked on scholarships, internship applications and homework. Yes, I actually do still have work here. It's rather upsetting.
I also downloaded a movie called Ides of March off of amazon. It was excellent! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It has Ryan Gosling and George Clooney in it. Enough said.
Today (Monday) I had my Italian class and Intercultural Communications class. I love my Mondays because I'm done at 1:30 and then I have the rest of the day to myself.
After classes Lydia and I went out to San Lorenzo because I wanted to buy a leather bag and she wanted to buy a leather jacket.
Last Friday when I was out with Amy and Kate we went to a leather purse store, where Lydia and I had actually been about two weeks ago. A woman who works there talked with Lydia and I for a while and she is the cutest thing! She told us where she grew up and she was giving us names of places we should travel to. She made me feel so comfortable in her store and their sales were great.
So imagine how happy I was when she was there Friday. I found a leather bag that I really liked, but I didn't have enough cash on me. She said she would put it back until Saturday afternoon.
I wasn't able to come back until today, and when I walked in she remembered me and said she still had it in the back for me. It was a brand new one, instead of her selling me the one off of the shelf. It was 40 percent off and then she took a few extra euro off of it. I love my bag and I love her.
Lydia ended up having good luck with her leather coat. It was originally €385 and of course they dropped it down to €200 euro. They have student discounts here, which is nice, but you just have to be careful. She said it was still too much for her and the salesman said he'd sell it to her for €180. She told me before we went shopping her limit was €160. Then the owner appeared out of nowhere and said he would give it to her for €150. SOLD!
As for the rest of the day I watched some TV and did about 2 hours worth of Italian homework. Somehow I still had the energy to blog!
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