La Notte Del Oscar

Things one shouldn't do while trying to write an essay due in less than 24 hours:

1. Watch the Oscars, which start at 12:30 AM Florence time, and that's just the red carpet!
2. Bash the red carpet with your buddies and mom on AIM.
3. try and write a paper while watching the oscars.
4. eat the snacks provided at the NYU sponsored Oscar screening.
   

Too bad thats how I spent my sunday evening.

Regardless--- Spring has Sprung in Florence and the weather was just gorgeous this weekend. Friday was spent sitting in the sunshine of the land at La Pietra, just sleeping and reading and relaxing out on a blanket like it was the beach... Spent Sunday the same way...

Chillin' in the grass

Artsy Photog

Not quite NatGeo

More Chillin

More artsy

Thursday we pre-gamed for Friday night... like this: Queso Dip and Tortilla Chips

Friday night Kelly, Bhargavi, and our new "roomie" Rustin went out to "Tijuana Ristorante" for a little mexican spice!! Ay Ay!! It was great... Just like being back in America... Bad Tex-Mex, Cheezy decor, and long waits to be seated... But with better drunk waiters and tequila. It was like a little slice of Home and it kept me smiling all weekend.

NICE Margarita blue icee!

Cheezy Decor?Nasty Guacamole: Beggars can't be choosers.

Sara's birthday is TODAY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA!! And her mom took us out to this great family style dinner at I Latini, where the waiters make fun of you, the bill is an estimation and teh owner is toothless. It was So great! especially the birthday candle they gave sarah when i had to explain to the waiter that it was her birthday and she was the girl in the blue shirt.

Me, Rustin, Linds, Dani, Bhargavi, Ari, Ginger, and Sara with her magnificent
candle! MMM what a great dinner with friends!

A little light reading on the streets of Flo?

Senza Foto

Ciao Tutti!

I come bearing no photo's this week, but instead the story of one glorious day in Florence, Italy. It all started at the crack of 1:30 pm, when I woke up, having missed breakfast, with a massive craving for some sustenance. Well, to appease myself i got all dressed and went into town so to satisfy my hunger for both new pants and a piece of pizza. I caught the bus just in time and rode into town. Got off at my usual fermata and walked the via towards the duomo. After finding no pants, I decided to take a pit stop at the Galleria Degli Uffizi. It was my first time in the museum, and I rushed through it simply because I felt like i was fighting for glances of the artworks with a massive pack of Asian Tourists. So once I saw all the staples I left and walked down the Arno a bit. Stopped into the sock store and stocked up for a good while and made my way home. No pizza :( After dinner we decided to go see an Italian movie called "Parlami D'Amore" No subtitles. Surprised by how much we all understood. Truly. Then took a little trip across the Arno to a bar for an Aperitivo, then to our favorite Disco, which ... to our dismay was only playing Disco :( Then we went to Piazza Santa Croce, watched some crazy Italians play hackey-sack with a soccer ball in the freezing cold, walked to the Kebab place and then back home to Natalia.
All around VERY Italian day, Sorry though because I left my camera's memory card in my room! :(

New Haircut!

And... HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE PAUL!!!


haircut not real...

Donna Di Cuore

Since Tuesday the girls and I have explored Florence quite a bit. Dani and I took a trip to teh church located and is the namesake for the main trainstation here in Florence, Santa Maria Novella. It's a giant black and white checkered thang with frescoes and chapels on every side. We had to analyze a fresco for our class and went to inspect it in person. Walking back to school we spotted some serious Carnivale leftovers, namely the confetti that runs like water through all the streets in downtown florence. The sunset was especially pretty coming home on the viale.

Thursday was a big day as we held auditions for "Lysistrata." We are almost completely done casting the show and it should prove to be quite the quiet riot here on campus. Many freshmen and upperclassmen showed up but we still have one more audition date on tuesday. Can't wait to read it through with the cast!

Friday morning Dani and I went to a fresco making workshop for class. It was truly therapeutic and so much fun. The teacher was a Doctor Pascuzzi or something. He knew a lot about art and how frescos were made back in the old days. We only got to make a portrait of Saint Francis from a giotto fresco (and mine looks like a character from Beavis & Butthead). EItherway hte doctor mixed freshwater sand and lime paste and then mixed a bunch of natural pigments together for paint.
Friday we had TOFU at lunch. Please see photo below. I was beyond happy.
Dani and i spent the evening casting the show. It was a fun time reading the script and stereotyping our friends and acquaintances so that they'd fill their roles. Then Ginger and I realized that Guinness beer's are all equipped with some funny little plastic ball.. for reasons we aren't so sure about yet.

On saturday Lindsay and i took a little field trip through parts of florence i'd never ventured to before. I found my future home, as well as a man in a space-age glass triangle creeping on all the people on the street... We walked back to school a whole new way and stopped at the esselunga grocery store for some quick snacks. Here is where i met the creeper of all creepers. He was trying to talk sweet to me in the shampoo aisle. Then he stared at me from the check out line out until we were a block away from eachother and i was getting on the bus. Too bad he was so creepy, he was kinda cute. Saturday night we got a glimpse into dani's gymnist past.

Then this evening we took a little adventure up to Fiesole (yes, dad, Again!) and we ate at the only decent indian food restaurant for miles. It was amazing and we each got a poem written for us. The bus ride back was a wild ride and now I'm trying to wrap this up so I can read a million pages and write a million more!
Ciao a tutti. Have a great week.

Confetti in the Streets

Viale Sunset

Thumbing through the script.

The dutch armani ad meets the dirty mess.

Cappuccino in the classroom. The Cafe man loves me, obvs

My fresco

My Tofu Lunch. You might wanna click on this one to fully
appreciate it's wonderfulness.

Yes, I am beaming from the tofu.

CASTING!

Birra!
treasures of the 9T9

Crazy triangle man, 10 o clock.My future home


THe "Messican" food aisle. at the grocery
Dani does the Worm
INDIAN FOOD!
TIMES 2
BUS RIDE!"A Diewon
Donna Di Cuore
Cuore forte
Cuore del pulsore intenso
cuore che é generoso
e sognatore
cuore sincero
e romantico"
"to Diewon
woman of heart
strong heart
heart of great heartbeats?
cuore that is generous
and dreamer
sincere heart
and romantic"

Super Martedí

Even though I am 6000 miles from my nearest polling place and the poor sad high school students working them, I voted today! I didn't get a sticker, or check for hanging chads, but I did get to witness the democratic 40y+ expat community of florence.They still ride bikes and have 4 cats in a small apartment and "can't take a vacation until the cat with the kidney issue dies." In such a great country! Che Triste!
Either way, I took an afternoon in the city today. It was a great sight that I witnessed without my camera but can tell you about. I saw 2 little girls dressed in bright pink pippy longstockings wigs and fairy wings and a 7 year old boy dressed like a warrior from ancient troy, sandals and all. A girl in a stroller dressed in a silver space-suit and the same skullet'd man in black trench coat who I ride the bus with more frequently than is normal.
Super Tuesday in the US, also Mardi Gras, is the final day of Carnivale here in Italy and I took it to validate all but the latter natives I saw dressed up today. It's kinda like Halloween, except it happens in the spirit of honoring a promise to yourself starting on Wednesday with the 40 days Lent.
There was confetti on every block and all around were quite jovial. In the spirit of it all I purchased by own Carnivale costume. That is all for now. Please see below.

Una Settimana in Centro!

Spent this past week with Dad, Alli and Ever. Being spoiled in Florence is such a treat! Got to try so many great restaurants in Florence and get even more familiar with the lay of the land. It did rain pretty frequently which is quite the downer :( but Florence is still great even with an obscene amount of puddles.
OK. NEWFLASH... this is terribly NOT politically correct but a NUN just walked into the library and I almost lost my cool. I immediately called up Kelly, who told me I should take a picture of her. But once I heard the nun speaking english I decided it would be a bad idea.
Anyway... The weather is still rainy, the food is still terrible (on campus), and I still it in my room far too often.
Tomorrow Tuesday Kelly, Dani and I will be venturing to the Syracuse U campus in town to cast our votes on the Italian version of Super Tuesday... We're not sure if they'll count the same but we're making the effort anyway.
And although it might be late, I have officially decided to drain Florence of all it's worth. As in go see every museum, club, bathroom floor, cloud formation, pizza oven, sale, Arno bridge, garden etc etc until I leave in May and return who knows when.
Lastly, I've decided to organize a play on campus and am holding auditions this coming thursday and friday. Hopefully all will work out for the better and come april there will be toga-clad NYU'ers flying across the garden stage in the historic gardens of La Pietra!

Here are pictures from this week. Obvs taken by Dave Irete.

Little Ever and the Big Italian Duomo.
Dits to that.
Here's to being Artsy in the Swatch Store.
Spying on Roommates (lindsay!)
Walking the Cyprus lined paths of La Pietra.
The Infamous Salad Bar!
The best dish at LP! Melanzane Grigliate!
Antica Porta Night!
and again.
"An American Girl in Italy"
For The original please see Here
Me and the Merry-Go-Round in Piazza Della Repubblica
What torrential rainfall does to tuscany. PUDDLES and MUD!