No good, very bad day.

Apparently bad days exist in Italy, too...

It all started when I woke up.

I actually felt really good! I slept in until 8:30 when I had to be in class by 8:50 ( I did this intentionally, so it was fine). I met Braxton outside of my apartment, and we walked to the Ufizi museum together because that is where we all met for Leonardo class this morning. We waited in line for about ten minutes or so, then finally got inside. Braxton and I just went to the Ufizi by ourselves the other day, and have been excited to go with our class so that our teacher could explain some of the artwork to us. 

We get to the very first painting, standing around it for about five minutes while my teacher rants about it, and there I am, taking notes religiously. I started feeling a little queasy so I kinda walked around from one end of the painting to the other, still taking notes, and trying to get my mind off of me not feeling well. It helped a little. We go to the next room to a painting that I was specifically interested in learning about, and I really start feeling sick, but I just crouch down and take notes on my lap while the teacher continues to talk. She looked down at me asking if I was okay several times and it was embarrassing cause everyone would look, so I just stood up and once again tried to get my mind off of it. Well...We walked around to the other side of the painting and there it was--

Cold sweats, the feeling of an ice cube melting inside my mouth, blurred vision, tingling limbs, everything that could hurt on my body, did. A lot...
I know the feeling all too well, I was about to pass out. I excused myself from the semi-circle and walked as quickly as I could out of the room found a bench that I'm still not sure was meant to be sat on, and I just crouched down and laid my head on it, and fell "asleep" for a second.--is it possible to be skilled in fainting? Cause I think I am. 
I got up and felt so foggy and numb, it was so weird and so unexpected cause it completely came out of nowhere! I was in the middle of hundreds of tourists, and I felt claustrophobic and just wanted to get out of there, but the nearest stairs were "entrance stairs". I asked the lady if I could go down them and that it was an emergency, and I felt like I was going to throw up. She said "ummm, no. This is an entrance." I again explained that it was an emergency and all she did was make a clicking sound with her mouth, shrug her shoulder, and turn away. 
I was pissed. 

I have had it with the people here, honestly. I have never met such rude people. 
So at that point, I wanted to cry not only cause I felt sick, but because I got a rush of homesickeness due to the stupid cruel people all around me, and because I knew how far away the exit was, since I'd been before. Literally a 15 minute constant fast walk just to get outside the building. So I started on my journey, having to stop to sit down every 2 minutes. I had no idea where the group was, so I just sat at the exit until they got there (I couldn't get my backpack from the front desk until my teacher was with me..) 
Oh and did I mention I puked? I made it to the bathroom on time, barely, thank goodness.

GAHHHH So angry.

After that I still had class, and I didn't want to miss since I'm not very good in the subject. (History of Florence) I was sitting down so it wasn't so bad, but I felt so drowsy. I came home after, took a two hour nap, then decided to take another nap right through my Italian class..So I missed that. But I'm okay with it, I think it was much needed. 


All I can say is thank goodness for this giant box of candy from my mama. And Dillion.

I forgot what "Spare Time" means...

Things are really starting to pick up around here in every single area. 

(Which results in lack of sleep, which then results in lack of blog. Sorry.)

For instance, today is the day that I start working on my eight page research paper for my Leonardo Di Vinci class. Hopefully I can get it done quick, so I can make time to work on the eight page research paper for my History of Florence class...

I'm actually really excited to start my Leonardo one, though!

Fun Fact: His name is not Leonardo Di Vinci. It's Leonardo. Di Vinci means "Of Vinci", as in that's where he's from. In case you didn't already know that.

I think the class is SO interesting for a few different reasons:

1. Leonardo was a complete genius, it's unbelievable. The reason he was such an amazing artist is because he was an even more amazing scientist. His perceptions and observations of EVERY one of his masterpieces was completely thorough-- inside, outside, all angles, all emotions, and all perspectives! With the little knowledge I have of Psychology, it actually seems as though he had some major ADHD, or an OCD of some sort. Basically, he had a learning "disability" that worked to his advantage. ( I think that's how every disability works, though. Just because you are unable to do things a certain way doesn't mean you're not capable of doing it. Leonardo was a great example of this) He couldn't possibly begin any piece of work until he completely studied and understood what he was trying to depict from all aspects. For example, he dissected animals before he could paint them, and that actually took place in one of the church/museums here where I plan on going in the next couple of days. I do't even know. He is such a genius, it is mind boggling!

2. Without realizing it, I grew up already knowing a lot of Leonardo's techniques because of my dad! I know for a fact that my dad's amazing art ability came from him studying the way Leonardo did things. It's really cool to actually understand and know the history behind what I watched my dad draw and paint. DAD YOU'RE A GENIUS! I'm hoping to be able to text him later and ask him about it.

3. I've learned that I look at art in a really deep way! I seem to always make the right comments about a painting that we are looking at as a class, and it excites my teacher (cutest lady ever) and always sparks a good conversation. It's a cool feeling because I always thought it was kind of common sense to be able to pick certain qualities from a painting, but I guess it can be pretty difficult! For example, Braxton and I were walking through the Ufizi, and part of me just wanted to get out of there, because all of the paintings of baby Jesus were absolutely hideous! I couldn't see them as realistic, and didn't even want to try. I was saying in my head the whole time how ugly they made him look, and that they made him look like an adult just naked and in a smaller size. And I didn't understand why they made him that way. So I mentioned it to my teacher in class today and turns out it was a big part of our lesson plan already! Artists prior to Leonardo did not draw babies, just little versions of adults. They didn't really know how to do it, because nobody ever had a baby sit in front of them while they painted--it just didn't happen. But Leonardo couldn't do that, and was the first to study a baby and figure out the difference in features, and actually draw a realistic baby, like here in "The Madonna of the Carnation". (there is another name for it, that I can't remember right this second)

See how he made him chubby and baby-like? He even has the deformed head shape so you can see the "soft spot".
 He does NOT look like this in others. It's gross.

I just find it all so interesting! Which is why I'm excited to write my research paper on The Mona Lisa. I asked if I could take that topic because I've always been curious about why such an ugly, small painting could be probably Leonardo's most well known artwork of all time. So we'll see...

I'm not grasping History of Florence like I should be. I'm worried about the paper for it. But Braxton is doing well, he grasps this sort of information so easily! It's definitely his forte. I mean, it's definitely interesting, but I really can't retain the information, especially because we learn in such large quantities everyday, it all kind of starts going over my head. I think that similar to Leonardo, I learn with a "scientific approach" (Leonardo was the first to use that approach). Sitting and taking notes just don't do much for me. So clearly this means I'm a genius just like my friend Leo....Right?

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT SCHOOL! 

TRAVELING IS PICKING UP AS WELL. IT STARTS THIS WEEKEND AND THEN, WELL, DOESN'T STOP UNTIL WE'RE BACK IN UTAH ONCE AGAIN! MY LEONARDO TEACHER EVEN SAID TODAY THAT WE SHOULD JUST "SAY GOODBYE NOW" BECAUSE THINGS ARE GOING TO FLY.

OUR TRAVEL ITINERARY---

FRIDAY: VISITING A CASTLE

WEEKEND AFTER THAT: GOING TO VENICE

WEEKEND AFTER THAT: GOING TO MILAN

WEEKEND AFTER THAT: VINCI AND MIDTERMS AND RESEARCH PAPERS DUE

WEEKEND AFTER THAT: MOM AND DAD ARE COMING YAYAYAYAYYY!!!

WEEKEND AFTER THAT: STILL WITH MOM AND DAD YAYAYAYAY!

FOLLOWING WEEKEND: BUDAPEST, VIENNA, AND SALZBERG. (We just booked this trip a couple days ago. SO excited!)

WEEKEND AFTER THAT: FREEEEEE AS FAR AS I KNOW

WEEKEND AFTER THAT: MUNICH

WEEKEND AFTER THAT: HOME......

whoa.

And that's not even including all the school related work, plus activites with the school such as playing soccer, or little tours or cooking classes. Plus visiting all the museums just here in Florence!

...So see you all soon, I guess..?

Time to wind down....

Am I allowed to "Vlog" on a Blog?? Well, I'm going to start doing just that. Here's a super casual attempt at making a video of our day. It was originally just made for a friend back home, but I kinda wanna keep doing it. They will be cool to look at later! So here's the link to that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPxwTUX0lKw&feature=c4-overview&list=UUsL0T9OOsk7KbtCZ3ebUwpw


Anyway, things have been great here! I'm getting a little tired of the food here, and feeling like I constantly need to be out doing something. (Well, I don't feel that way but my friends do, which makes me feel like I have to feel that way....make sense? haha) But today I stayed in basically all day long, I'm pretty sick so I had a good reason for it-I even had to miss a class, which sucks. But everybody here seems to have come down with some flu type thing, so I figured it was best to rest before it gets any worse. Plus my foot is like twice its size and it hurts pretty bad. But other than those minor things, this week was a great week and it FLEW by!

Thursday is our friday, and I'm excited to just wind down and relax for a while, maybe visit a couple museums...

I was talking with some friends from home, trying to explain what it's like being out here. And to be honest, it's a lot like being a toddler who can't read or communicate- constantly trying to learn and grow. Everything is new, everything is fascinating and intriguing! In a lot of ways, it is such a cool feeling! But I can't blame the toddlers for crying as much as they do, cause man oh man it is difficult. Even going out to dinner can dish out so much anxiety because even that doesn't come natural, even that isn't relaxing. It's hard! I guess it's culture shock, maybe? When people warned me about culture shock, I didn't really know what it meant exactly, but I think I do now. It has its upsides and downsides, but it's pretty simple to focus on the ups because it's amazing being out here!

OH! BRAXTON AND I BOOKED A TRIP TO MUNICH!!!!!!!! We are going to the first concentration camp, which is something I've always wanted to do (look it up, I don't want to butcher the spelling, haha) and we are going to be able to visit so many different places and I can't wait! It's not until the very last weekend that we are here, so November 28th is when we leave, I believe, and we are gone for three days. The actual package that we booked is a Christmas themed one, because there is a huge Christmas event that goes on there at this time apparently. So that's what I'm most excited about. It'll be nice to feel the holiday season out here! It seems so far away, but it'll sneak up on us for sure.

My migraine is forcing me to go now, so bye!

FIESOLE

Today has been odd. 
It's Friday, which is the first day of our weekend since we only have school Monday-Thursday (with the exception of random Friday class field trips), and I. Have. Been. So. Sick...
Braxton and I signed up for the optional activity to take a short trip to Fiesole for the day. It is a little outskirt of Florence, with even more ancient architecture than there is here! It was really little, but beautiful. We had to leave at 9 AM which sucked because I woke up in the middle of the night and just felt so much pain everywhere. In my back, my stomach, I felt congested, and I had the most intense pounding headache. I considered texting Braxton telling him to go without me, but I made a pact with myself before I left (knowing I get sick quite often), that no matter how sick I feel I will go to every excursion. We're only here once and I don't want to miss anything. So I went back to bed until my alarm went of at 8:00AM, and even though I felt worst then than I did before, I got up and got ready to go. 

We had to walk about a mile to the bus stop where we all met up as a group with one of our awesome staff ladies, Felica. She brought us on a jam packed bus, and we had to stand and cling tight to our bags because of pick pocketers with one hand, and keep ourselves from falling over with the other for about a half hour until we arrived. We got off the bus and walked... and walked...and walked...and walked up the biggest steepest hill of all time (we seem to do this a lot), and I regretted being there so bad. I wasn't saying a word, I could hardly see because my pounding headache turned into a full on migraine, I felt so nauseated..It was bad. But then we got to the top of the hill

and we got this amazing view of Florence... It was absolutely breathtaking. Pictures never do anything justice, but here's at least a taste of what I got to see today! That big building is the Duomo, in case you're not familiar with it.

      We sat and took pictures and just stared at the view for a few minutes, then we continued to explore the little town of Fiesole. Only a couple more minutes up the steep hill there was a church that is still in use today, but is also open for people to come walk through. It was little and really pretty, and different than the cathedrals and other massive churches we have been to. This one was smaller and simpler, but to me, had cooler stories than the others. I won't tell any of the stories here, but Braxton takes notes everywhere we go which is awesome 'cause we'll always remember the cool things like this. It will do wonders for his History teaching career as well! 
We went down to the bottom of the hill afterward and saw where the people use to bathe and it was actually really neat, then we went to a museum in the area that had some beautiful sculptures and little artifacts, and then.. FOOD! 

      We walked DOWN the hill (thank goodness) for about 15 minutes to an adorable cafe, where we had the most amazing brunch I have ever had in my entire life. There were items from bruschetta, to scrambled eggs, to roast beef, to lasagna, fruit, dessert, proscutto, salad, and a new favorite of mine, cheese WITH honey. SO GOOD! 
I just had some scrambled eggs, some bread, and obviously the cheese with honey. I downed the eggs like there was no tomorrow since they are never anywhere to be found out here! I haven't had one single egg since I left St. George, and they are my favorite so that was very very fun. Plus, there was meant to be 15 people on this trip, but only 6 of us ended up going, so we got plenty. It feels cool being one of the few that actually got up to go, it's been that way a lot with Braxton, me, and our little group of friends. I think that's why we all clicked so well--because we are all here to learn and have these kinds of experiences rather than to go party every night til 4 AM.

      ALMOST DONE! 

      We had our food babies while we walked back to the bus, and got home around 3:15 or so. Me and Braxton both came back to my apartment and crashed. We both just fell asleep on the couch for two hours, then woke up, then I fell asleep in my bed for another half hour. Then we went to Braxton's house and he did homework while I slept, and now I'm back home in bed, about to go to sleep... I am so exhausted. And this migraine is really getting the best of me!
But on the positive side, I get sick alllllllll the time-so considering that, I have been doing pretty well out here! Headaches have been pretty consistent, but there's always a pain killer for that, so I'm happy and consider myself lucky! It must be the Product B. ;) Thank goodness for Isagenix out here. 
Seriously though.

Okay time for more sleep. 
Goodnight!
Or I guess Good Morning to all my fellow Americans!
 XOXO 

WAKE UP CALL

Today was filled with some very dramatic events.. 
I woke up at about 11:00 AM, which felt fantastic by the way, and saw that I had a text from Braxton. I read it and it says, 

"So I guess we got broken into last night..."

      And that's all it said. He was already at class at that time without wifi, so I couldn't get anymore information from him. So I got out of bed, got dressed, and pretty much ran to the school to see if I could get anymore information. I ran into Dan who lives next door to Braxton, but he had heard nothing about it. He was worried though so he called one of Braxton's roommates, who also apparently didn't know about it. So I get the thought that they had played a trick on me which pissed me off and relieved me at the same time! But unfortunately when Braxton got out of class, we find out all the details and suddenly it's the talk of the school. They got broken into while they were home! Luckily, one of his housemates sat up which startled the guy, and he ran out. They're all pretty terrified about it. We all are! Tonight we bolted the door locked and double checked every door and window.. It's kind of scary. They warned us that this stuff would happen but it always seems like a extra safety type thing, but it really CAN happen! But the good thing is, everyone is safe, everything is safe, and they are getting new locks and will start being a lot more cautious-as will the rest of us! We're all scared to sleep tonight. Especially all the guys! 
But enough with the scary stuff, hopefully no more info like that has to be put on the blog!

       Another "event" that happened today was the realization that we are here for school. It's weird pulling homework out of your backpack and feeling swamped with so much crap to get done, when this whole time we've felt like we're on a huge vacation. That's not the case... I haven't had homework like this in a while, but it should be fun. I lucked out with my teachers! Oh my goodness, they are all so great and smart and funny and very passionate about what they're teaching, I'm super impressed! It makes hard work seem less like work. And living in the place we are learning about makes it a lot better too. So even though a big wake up call on why we're here hit today, I still can't fathom how lucky I am to be here.

But, we all say things like
"Yeah you got robbed, but you got robbed in ITALY!"
"Yeah you got stitches, but you got stitches in ITALY!"
"Yeah you have homework, but it's homework in ITALY!"
Etc...

And it's very true. We're lucky to be here! 

No matter how many times we pass it, seeing the Duomo never gets old. I'ts BEAUTIFUL!

Waiting in line to go see the original David.. Found out the wait
was two hours so we left. We'll definitely be back later!

 As great as the Italian food is, I need my favorites. We went grocery shopping and I was able to find every single favorite food, which made me feel right at home! 

Yogurt with fruit and granola

Soy milk

Isagenix shake, of course!

Crackers with cheese, lunch meat, and pickles

Here's one of my outfits.. One of the funnest parts about being here
is being able to dress up everday! You won't find one person looking over casual
walking the streets. It's fun for a wannabe fashionista like myself!

Settled.

    OH MY GOODNESS, FLORENCE!

FACT: EVERYTHING YOU WOULD DO IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE IS 100X BETTER WHEN YOU DO IT IN ITALY.

    Braxton and I get to call this amazingly historical, beautiful place our home for the next three months. I really can't get over how lucky we are! It's amazing to think that we are living one of our dreams right now. Today was our first official day of school, and it really helped me feel settled and like this is home. It felt like a really long vacation for the last little while, and I was getting extremely homesick! It sucked, and it worried me a lot, but I knew if I waited it out things would get better and I would feel exactly the way I'm feeling now. SO HAPPY.

I look like butt, but these are some of our friends. We had a welcome dinner on our first night here in Florence at this beautiful restaurant. Here is Susan, Maggie, Katie, April, and me. We were the first ones there, like always when there's food involved..

The dessert at the restaurant. Everything was so good! Like always. #italia

    Neither of us had school today until 4:20, so we had the whole day to just explore, and I think we got a pretty good feel of our surroundings (at least we think), I may or may not have done a little shopping, we saw some of our friends, and we realized how close we are to everything! It was really surprising and kind of funny, cause everywhere we turned we were like "WHAT? We're here already?!" Haha, definitely a good thing. School went really well though, I have class early tomorrow morning, and I'm excited to see what they'll be like. I have a Leonardo Di Vinci class which will be fantastic, then after that I have a History of Florence class. It will be interesting I know for a fact, but a lot of work..Thank goodness I am taking these history courses with Braxton since he's an expert. I'm picking up on the Italian speaking pretty quick, so we figured we could tutor each other. Everything is really working out so well! 

My favorite part of being here is the simple things. Like sitting with Braxton
at an outdoor cafe to have breakfast or grab a snack or drink, or just to sit and talk
and people watch. I love all my friends here and being in groups of people, but I've learned that you can't
get the full experience unless you leave that aside and live like the natives do. Just keep it simple.

Haha... :)

    I love being able to walk everywhere and see something in a new perspective everyday. We are walking a ton! I actually have an extremely hurt foot right now, I can hardly walk and that is not good considering all the walking we do. Definitely have some torn ligaments so I'm gonna try out some shoes with better support for a while. Stupid arches... But pain or no pain, I love the walking and I don't know if we will every grow accustomed to the beauty here. Natives walk around like it's nothing, and I don't understand it. Some of the buildings literally look fake, like It's A Small World at Disneyland or something! I'm not kidding when I say it's all unreal. Even right now, I'm sitting in my apartment alone (people are usually parting until about 2 or 3 AM), blogging, and listening to Sara Bareilles and it couldn't get any better than this. 

Goodnight. XOXO <3

Buono Notte. :) 

Last day in Pietresanta and FINALLY FLORENCE

Well well well...

Braxton and the boys did this "last supper" pose on our last day at the hotel.
Oddest thing of my life.

Saying bye to Pietresanta by taking one last walk

A few events have happened since last post, so I figured I should fill you in.
Things got pretty busy in Pietresanta, and wifi got kind of crappy, so it was difficult to keep up with things back home, and impossible to connect with my computer--though the business alone was enough to keep my mind off of home!
So Tuesday night after the long day at Lucca, we went back to the hotel to study for our quiz the following morning.. So Wednesday, we went to school, took the quiz, had class, then went back to the hotel and got a quick snack and hopped back on the bus to head up to the Alps. We went on a tour through the cave up there and it was BEAUTIFUL! I don't have pictures yet, but I'll put some up soon.
The next two days consisted of a lot of cramming and test taking. I did pretty well on every test and quiz, and see the results to my final tomorrow. I'm kinda nervous about it!

As sad as we were to leave Pietresanta and the amazing people we befriended there (It's 2 AM, so I'll make this quick) we're FINALLY in Florence now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO!!

I'm currently laying in my bed, in my fully furnished bedroom, with my clothes unpacked, with perfect wifi, and it feels nice. I feel settled, and I feel a lot better. Seriously our apartment exceeds my previous expectations by miles-it is perfect and huge and so adorable, and my housemates are lovely as well. Braxton's apartment is a 2 minute walk straight up the street from mine, and his is nice as well. We really have had such a great experience with AIFS and their accommodations so far. Anyone wanting to study abroad, I strongly recommend this program!
Florence is unreal. Literally, it looks unreal. It is the opposite of Pietresanta, it's a bigger city than I expected and there's cobble stone and tourists everywhere! It feels like we're in Italy now, and it's so surreal. I can't wait to explore the area more and get to know the city. I'm loving it!

Goodnight!

Too much to blog.

TWO WEEKS DOWN:

      I have such a food baby right now, same as every night. Anna (the owner and chef of the hotel) is a SWEET HEART! She feeds us until we can't possibly fit anything else in our stomach, and is just the nicest lady. It's super nice to be able to sit down to an hour and a half long dinner every night, because we all need time to unwind. It's always go go go go here, all day everyday, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. There is no way I have only been here for two weeks... We have done so much! I'm not complaining, I've enjoyed every second of it, but man, I didn't know it was possible to do so much in so little time. It makes me excited for all the upcoming adventures! 
Today at school we had our second exam so far, and I feel like it went well. I got 18.5 on our last one, which was shocking but exciting, and I'm anxious to see what I got on today's. I have high hopes! We have learned so much Italian it's insane and almost seems impossible. Our teacher is great and knows how to really throw us into the language. After school we had about an hour break, and then we left to the city of Lucca. 

Here's one of our good friends. Ironically, his name is Dylan! And he acts so much
like Dill back at home. Even though our Dill is definitely not replaceable, it's nice to have
one around for the next three months ;)

Braxton and our friend Sam

Yes, another kissing pic. . .

They call Lucca "Italy's best kept secret", which is nice because there weren't many tourists around while we were there, and it is absolutely gorgeous and so interesting there! I'd never even heard of it, but there is actually a ton of history in the area. Braxton took notes during our tour. It's cute. I'm getting attacked by bugs as I'm writing this, so you're welcome. 

Gosh dangit, I don't know what to say. I'm tired and sore and overwhelmed and yes, I'm homesick. I'm terribly homesick. Mekenze had her baby and I want him and miss him and love him. And I'm homesick.

But I'm having fun. 

Here's more pictures. 

If they ever load.

Cause not only does wifi suck, but my computer charger makes noises and sparks when I plug it in, so hopefully this blog thing continues to work out!

Goodnight!