Le Distrazioni

So, I will go ahead and apologize on how long it has been since I have posted.  I have literally done so many things in these past two weeks.  I am living in Italy, so I can't really apologize for not wanting to sit down and type up a blog, when I could be out exploring.  Can you believe that I have been here a month now? It has completely flown by!  In the past month, I have seen more sights than people see in their lifetime.  I love this country and culture more and more everyday.  And I get sad to think I only have 2 more months here!

Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence

To catch up on the past 2 weeks, I will begin with my Florence and Venice weekend.  Thursday February 3, we had a day trip to Florence for our Art History class.  I had been to Florence a couple years ago with Ms. Doss's trip, so it was really neat visiting a place for a second time.  Of course with my luck, we had another mishap at the train station.  The original plan was to meet our professor around 2:00 in Florence, but a group of us wanted to catch the earlier train, so we could grab lunch and walk around before our class met. Well, we got out of our first class late, so that put us running to the train station to  catch this train.  Most of the group split into pairs to the automatic ticket machines, but I was the odd one out so I went on by myself.  I clicked right on through picking the cheapest train to Florence.  We quickly ran out to the platform and we are all looking at our tickets to figure where to go.  We then realize that we have different tickets, so we split getting on our correct trains.  Beka, Emily, and I get on our train and sit down laughing about how we always have mishaps at the train station.  The ticket man comes up and punches my ticket and then grabs Beka and Emily's, and immediately the look on his face tells us they have the wrong ticket.  However, instead of paying the fee he just tells them to check better next time.  Thankfully they came with me anyway, because I would have had no clue what I was doing by myself because this train actually went to the wrong train station in Florence.  So, we had to take a cab to the right one, to meet the rest of our group.  We finally got to the place we needed to be, but barely had time for lunch.  So we grabbed a quick gelato and met with our professor.

A classic view of Venice

After a wonderful afternoon of exploring Florence, It was time for Beka and I to depart for Venice!  Before returning to the train station, we stopped at the leather market and I finally bought my Italian leather journal I have wanted so badly!  I couldn't wait until Venice to finally write in it!  A few hours later we finally departed for Venezia!  When we finally arrived, we walked out the doors of the station and you  could hear the water hitting against the sidewalks.  We found the correct water bus to the hotel and we were more than ready to find our Best Western Albergo in San Marco.  We arrived to the San Marco piazza and with the help of a police officer finally found our hotel.  My feet were absolutely killing me by then, so we crashed for the night. Thank God for Continental Breakfast!  Finally we had a full breakfast (or at least European style).  We had cereal, pastries, yogurt, fruit, nutella, and American coffee!  A wonderful way to start the day in Venice.  So for Friday, we got dressed and literally walked most of the city.  Being offered a gondola ride every 5 minutes was tempting, but neither of us were willing to pay 80 euro.  Pizza and pastries for lunch and then the Hard Rock for dinner.  Tupelo chicken tenders have never tasted so good!  The servers loved that I was from Mississippi and immediately made the connection to Elvis of course.  After dinner Beka and I walked around some more and found a jazz club/bar and decided to check it out.  We sit down at the bar and order some drinks and then we look up and there are hundreds of bras hanging from the ceiling.  Come to find out, this bar was famous because girls could exchange their bras for t-shirts.  Don't worry, neither one of us got a "free t-shirt."  Saturday we got up and explored some more and did some shopping!  Saturday we went to an opera.  The show was the Barber of Seville!  Being all in Italian, we surprisingly understood what was going on and enjoyed it very much.  The musicians were so talented, at one time the lights flickered off so they could not read their music sheet; however, they continued without any error.  It was a classic Venetian experience!

Beautiful countryside of Malta

Even though, being in my dream city of Venice, I was ready to be back in Bologna!  With Florence and Venice being such a tourist trap, we never were able to use our Italian, everyone spoke English with us!  I was glad to be back where I was one of the few Americans and English speakers.  Before even being able to settle down, we left for Malta the very  next weekend.  Malta, was an interesting experience you could say.  Being in the middle of the Mediterranean, the sights were absolutely gorgeous.  Being a previous British colony, English was spoken almost everywhere.  However, "Malta-zuma's revenge"  hit almost have of our group.  From the carsickness on the bus through the countryside, to not feeling so well after a meal we all had our time that we just wanted to lay down.  Thankfully we all got over it and made it back safely to home sweet Bologna!


As you can tell I have had many distractions, "le distrazioni",that have hindered me from posting.  But to say the least I am enjoying every single minute of this journey.  It isn't just a physical journey around Europe.  Just in the past month I have discovered so much about myself.  I have made bonds with people around me that I know I will never forget.  Just thinking that I am leaving in May absolutely scares the hell out me.  I have gotten so comfortable with my surroundings and I haven't honestly been this happy in oh so long.  Traveling the world has always been a dream of mine, but now I am living some of it out now and don't want to stop living this fairytale.  There is something really unique about living in a culture different than your own.  Adapting  to the language, the day to day routine, and other habits makes you take a critical perspective of your own country.  It will either make you appreciate it more, or you may find that you prefer the lifestyles of the one you are experiencing.  The Italian culture is definitely one of kind, and I fall in love with it more and more every day.  I am living this experience "toto corde" (whole heartedly).  When I have to leave at the end of this semester, I don't want to leave with regret.  One of my Italian friends made the comment the other night that what we do in life is just a distraction from the end.  But we both agree that naming life experiences "le distrazioni" is not a bad thing.  It is how you engage in these distractions and apply them your life and the ones around you.  Maybe everything this semester is just a distraction for when I have to return back home, but I can't hesitate to engage in everything and everyone around me.


Off to live out my Dolce Vita!


J