I did it! I bought my ticket... I paid a little more than I had thought I would originally, but that's ok... I got it. It's not exactly the flight I had hoped for, but hey, it'll get me where I need to go! It was hassle to find, because I really wanted to leave from Venice, but there no flights within my price range leaving from there or Milan... SOOOO, I have to leave from Rome, which sucks because that means I have to take a night train to Rome in order to make it to my morning flight, and it also means that I might be cranky from sleep depravation when I finally get into LAX, but whatever! I leave Rome at 11:15am and arrive at LAX at 7:13 pm, after an hour and a half layover in Washington D.C. Sandra, this means you don't have to pick me up during rush hour traffic after all!!! However, I still do want to get something on the way home, because I doubt the airline is going to serve us dinner, so I will be famished!
Then on the way back the flights suuuuuck! I have 2 layovers instead of just one.... I leave from LAX at 7:55am (sorry in advance to whoever is going to drop me off) and arrive at D.C. at 3:45pm, then I leave D.C. at 6pm and arrive in Vienna at 8:30am, and leave Vienna at 9:30 am ad arrive in Venice at 10:55am, and then it's a relatively short train ride home! Fortunately I won't have to deal with that flight until the end of August!
So, yes friends, I will be home for about 5 months more or less! I can't wait... I miss you all so much!
I am not really bringing a lot of stuff home with me... mainly because I need some new clothes, so I am only bringing some necessary things with me and will get the rest out there over the course of the 5 months, and I am only bringing one bag with me with the 2nd bag inside it, so that way I have one getting out there and 2 coming back. All this means that if there is anything you guys need me to bring you from Italy... let me know, since I should have the space for it! There are some stuff I am already planning on bringing home and I get a feeling I already know what Regina is going to want me to bring her.... and then I am bringing home some chocolate that you can't find in the U.S., but if there is anything you guys want let me know... as long as it doesn't cost tooo much! See you all in a little over a month!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
$500 IS A BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE
I fucking hate Orbitz and all other websites like that. Why do they list one price if it isn't the real price????? I was about to buy my flight, that was supposed to cost $861 taxes included... and this thing pops up that says the price for your flight has changed to $1,304!!!!!! Thats like $500!!!!!! and I tried different dates and NOTHING... ALL THE SAME!!!!!!
I'm too tired to deal with this bullshit! I am desperately hoping it's because they are having some techincal difficulties with their webpage... if not I am going to be forced to fly out of Milan or Rome... which would be a pain in the ass and super inconvenient!!!! And the only flights I am finding are through Germany and I can't fly through germany because of Visa issues.... and the only other flights I am finding are to fly through London and I know this may be stupid, but I just don't feel safe flying to the states out of London, I know tons of planes do it on a daily basis, but I sitll don't feel safe with it! UGH... I AM FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!
leave it to air travel to fuck up the perfect evening!
I'm too tired to deal with this bullshit! I am desperately hoping it's because they are having some techincal difficulties with their webpage... if not I am going to be forced to fly out of Milan or Rome... which would be a pain in the ass and super inconvenient!!!! And the only flights I am finding are through Germany and I can't fly through germany because of Visa issues.... and the only other flights I am finding are to fly through London and I know this may be stupid, but I just don't feel safe flying to the states out of London, I know tons of planes do it on a daily basis, but I sitll don't feel safe with it! UGH... I AM FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!
leave it to air travel to fuck up the perfect evening!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and.... the Holocaust???
The kids I teach english to have the book The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Now this book has pictures from the movie in it, I have never seen the movie but I recognize some of the pictures from the commercials. Well their Grandma was over at their house today and the little girl, Sara, asked her if she could read it to her. The Grandma, Nonna Lucia as I call her, did what I usually do she looks at the picture and made up her own story to go along with it.... so far this is seems completely normal... but you didn't hear the story I did. What follows is more or less the way she told the beginning of the story:
Picture: A bunch of kids crying and being loaded onto trains (for those of you who haven't seen the movie, like me, the kids are being sent away to a safe place because it takes place in wartime England)
Nonna Lucia: There was a war going on and all the kids were being shipped away, taken away from their families, their mom's and dad's and brother's and so on to go to labor camps. You know the kind where they used the children, young children like you to make war machines for the Germans. These children had to work all day long, got nothing to eat and had no one with them. See (points at the page) that is why they are crying. Wouldn't you cry too if they took you away from you mom, dad and Edoardo (her little brother)...
Sara is just staring at her. I don't think her 5 year old mind could process everything that it was being told.
Nonna Lucia: So they get on the train, because they are forced to, and it's not a comfortable train like we use now, it was a train where you had to stand up all the way and if you had to pee you were forced to pee in your pants, see how lucky you are to have a bathroom... Anyway, they were all on the train to go to their labor camp and work all day and after they finished all their work a lot of them were killed, but no one really knows how many children died because there were no records kept of them
At one point she gets to a picture of a wardrobe and a little girl is looking at it
Nonna Lucia: See this little girl, not much bigger than you just finished building this wardrobe and she is checking it to make sure that there are no mistakes on it, because if there were they Germans would get mad and she would be in A LOT of trouble!
At this point she turns the page and is no longer able to make up her own story so she started reading the normal story, but it was hilarious, at one point I had to get up from my chair and go into the bathroom to keep from laughing out loud! It was so funny. I mean who does that to a 5 year old!!!! It was too funny. I just told Antonio this story and I laughed so hard I started doing my wheezy laugh and crying from the laughter.
On a different note a today a friend of mine said "Cyn, I want your life" to which I responded " If I weren't me... I would want my life too". It's so true though... I'm not trying to be all ' My life is great, everyone should worship me', but I do have to admit that my life is pretty good, and even when some things aren't too great it's ok because I live in Italy. Basically, even when it is bad it can't be that bad! I do love my life though! I am happy!
Picture: A bunch of kids crying and being loaded onto trains (for those of you who haven't seen the movie, like me, the kids are being sent away to a safe place because it takes place in wartime England)
Nonna Lucia: There was a war going on and all the kids were being shipped away, taken away from their families, their mom's and dad's and brother's and so on to go to labor camps. You know the kind where they used the children, young children like you to make war machines for the Germans. These children had to work all day long, got nothing to eat and had no one with them. See (points at the page) that is why they are crying. Wouldn't you cry too if they took you away from you mom, dad and Edoardo (her little brother)...
Sara is just staring at her. I don't think her 5 year old mind could process everything that it was being told.
Nonna Lucia: So they get on the train, because they are forced to, and it's not a comfortable train like we use now, it was a train where you had to stand up all the way and if you had to pee you were forced to pee in your pants, see how lucky you are to have a bathroom... Anyway, they were all on the train to go to their labor camp and work all day and after they finished all their work a lot of them were killed, but no one really knows how many children died because there were no records kept of them
At one point she gets to a picture of a wardrobe and a little girl is looking at it
Nonna Lucia: See this little girl, not much bigger than you just finished building this wardrobe and she is checking it to make sure that there are no mistakes on it, because if there were they Germans would get mad and she would be in A LOT of trouble!
At this point she turns the page and is no longer able to make up her own story so she started reading the normal story, but it was hilarious, at one point I had to get up from my chair and go into the bathroom to keep from laughing out loud! It was so funny. I mean who does that to a 5 year old!!!! It was too funny. I just told Antonio this story and I laughed so hard I started doing my wheezy laugh and crying from the laughter.
On a different note a today a friend of mine said "Cyn, I want your life" to which I responded " If I weren't me... I would want my life too". It's so true though... I'm not trying to be all ' My life is great, everyone should worship me', but I do have to admit that my life is pretty good, and even when some things aren't too great it's ok because I live in Italy. Basically, even when it is bad it can't be that bad! I do love my life though! I am happy!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lake Picture
This is the picture of the lake I wrote about a few posts ago... the one that was half iced over....
Carnevale!
Warning: The pictures take a few minutes to load... but they are worth it!
The Carnevale in Venice is very famous, especially around europe. So yesterday Antonio and I took the day off and went to Venice with our friends Adriano and Silvia, since it was Martedi Grasso, i.e. Mardi Gras! It was the last day of carnival and it was sooo much fun! Some man got in the way of our group picture, so I had to crop him out, but you can still see his nose.
We walked around all of venice and saw so many different kinds of costumes... some people were dressed up regular kind of costumes you might see on Halloween in the U.S., but there were some that were dressed up in the traditional Venetian Carnevale way...
When we were on the train out there we saw all this military men, which was kind of cool since I had never seen so many of them together before, so I had Antonio pose near them... since he did the military thing before starting University. Venice was soooo crowded, but it was worth it, just a little hard to navigate!
There were people everywhere, it took forever to navigate around the town. When it was finally time for lunch we started looking around for stuff to eat, but since there were so many tourists around all the restaurants had raised their prices big time. So int he end we ended up going to McDonalds, even though the line there was super long, but we were too tired to keep on looking. After we ate we walked around and took some pictures and found a bar for some coffee (for Antonio and Silvia) and some Gelato (for Adriano and me)... Here are some pictures:
There is this bar in Venice that is a lot of fun. It is a jazz bar and they have bras left by some of their female clientele hanging all over the cieling. I have been there a few times, but Adriano, Silvia and Antonio hadn't... so we decided to go for happy hour. There was a sign that said "buy 1 get 2" so we had decided to each get a drink and we would only pay for 2, well we were very wrong.... we each ordered our drinks and they brought two for each.... so we ended up with eight drinks total.... so we drank and laughed and had a ton of fun... then we did some shopping and eventually caught the train home.... too much fun!
Hope you had a fun time with all these pictures!
The Carnevale in Venice is very famous, especially around europe. So yesterday Antonio and I took the day off and went to Venice with our friends Adriano and Silvia, since it was Martedi Grasso, i.e. Mardi Gras! It was the last day of carnival and it was sooo much fun! Some man got in the way of our group picture, so I had to crop him out, but you can still see his nose.
We walked around all of venice and saw so many different kinds of costumes... some people were dressed up regular kind of costumes you might see on Halloween in the U.S., but there were some that were dressed up in the traditional Venetian Carnevale way...
When we were on the train out there we saw all this military men, which was kind of cool since I had never seen so many of them together before, so I had Antonio pose near them... since he did the military thing before starting University. Venice was soooo crowded, but it was worth it, just a little hard to navigate!
There were people everywhere, it took forever to navigate around the town. When it was finally time for lunch we started looking around for stuff to eat, but since there were so many tourists around all the restaurants had raised their prices big time. So int he end we ended up going to McDonalds, even though the line there was super long, but we were too tired to keep on looking. After we ate we walked around and took some pictures and found a bar for some coffee (for Antonio and Silvia) and some Gelato (for Adriano and me)... Here are some pictures:
There is this bar in Venice that is a lot of fun. It is a jazz bar and they have bras left by some of their female clientele hanging all over the cieling. I have been there a few times, but Adriano, Silvia and Antonio hadn't... so we decided to go for happy hour. There was a sign that said "buy 1 get 2" so we had decided to each get a drink and we would only pay for 2, well we were very wrong.... we each ordered our drinks and they brought two for each.... so we ended up with eight drinks total.... so we drank and laughed and had a ton of fun... then we did some shopping and eventually caught the train home.... too much fun!
Hope you had a fun time with all these pictures!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
ROOOOOOOXETTE
Last night, right before going to bed, Antonio and I were laying in bed talking... you know just about random things on our minds. I was reaching over to turn off the light when I hear him singing along to himself and I hear him say "Roxette, you don't hae to put on the red light" now I wasn't sure if I had heard correctly or not, so I turned and asked him what he had just said, so this time he sings it loudly... and I looked at him and started laughing. He asks why I am laughing and realize that he wasn't joking, he really thinks the lyrics to the song say RoxETTE. So i say " It's not Roxette, it's RoxANNE" he doesn't believe me, he keeps telling me I'm wrong and that it's Roxette... so I tell him that he's wrong... it's my culture, my language.. and it's Roxanne! He refuses to believe me... so I get out of bed and go to the deks to get my laptop, I turn it on and look for the song, I finally find it and show him and I play it... and he goes... well I had never seen the title written before and it's not like I listen to the song all the time. So now I am laughing so hard and I tell him they say the freaking name like 50 times throughout the song and you never noticed! According to him it sounds like Roxette... well now he knows! It was pretty funny.
I have to admit it's happened to me too, it has probably happened to everyone... growing up I thought the song "Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms said Hey Justine... but eventually I learned my lesson.. I'm sure if I really think about it I can think of more mistakes like that... I'm sure everyone can!
Either way, it was really funny. I hadnt laughed that hard in a long time... and now he knows! Man, I love my boyfriend.... he's the best!
I have to admit it's happened to me too, it has probably happened to everyone... growing up I thought the song "Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms said Hey Justine... but eventually I learned my lesson.. I'm sure if I really think about it I can think of more mistakes like that... I'm sure everyone can!
Either way, it was really funny. I hadnt laughed that hard in a long time... and now he knows! Man, I love my boyfriend.... he's the best!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
She'll be coming 'round the mountain!
My friends Danilo and Noemie invited me to go for a walk around this one mountain and for lunch a a nearby lake. I had never been there so I said sure. We started going for this walk... well boy oh boy was I in for a surprise... our walk was very, VERY steep! apparently our "walk" was more of a hike... so we're going and my calves are hurting... I had not prepared myself psychologically for a hike, so I'm dealing with it, when I see this sign that says Lago 2.10, so I think it means 2 Kilometers.... then after about half an hour I see another sign that says 1.45, and I turn to Danilo and ask if that means kilometers... and he laughs and says no.... so I suddenly have this horrible suspicion that it is measuring the TIME to get to the lake and not the DISTANCE, I ask him about this and he says that I am correct!!!!!!!! The first 40 minutes was up a steep slope, after that it was farily flat with some slight uphill slopes... then the last 20 minutes was a steep slope again... if I had known this, I would have prepared myself for it! We go to the lake, rested/ate lunch for about 45 minutes, then started our 1 1/2 hour walk back to the car (Always takes longer to get somewhere than it does to get back) .... isn't that crazy!!!!!!!
I AM SOOOOO SORE!!!!! My legs and ass hurt like crazy and my arms are starting to hurt too!!!
On the plus side though the lake was half frozen over.... I had never seen something like that before.... one half was normal water and then somewhere down the lake you notice the water change and it becomes ice.... very cool!
I AM SOOOOO SORE!!!!! My legs and ass hurt like crazy and my arms are starting to hurt too!!!
On the plus side though the lake was half frozen over.... I had never seen something like that before.... one half was normal water and then somewhere down the lake you notice the water change and it becomes ice.... very cool!
Prada and Gucci and Armani, oh my!
The lady I work for is pretty rich... not like millionaire, but rich nonetheless. Like as in her luggage is Louis Vuitton, and she has Roberto Cavalli and Gucci reading glasses and all her sunglasses are Gucci. She lives in the land of designer... which is filled with Prada coats and pants, Dolce and Gabbana tops, Versace dresses and Gucci boots.... she's one of those kind of women you see walk into the Dolce and Gabbana store in town and sees a shirt she likes and buys it without checking the price tag. Her daughter wears Armani pants and gets everything she possibly wants.
While at the beginning I was slightly jealous, that feeling has worn off. Slowly I realized these people have no idea of what money really is. I always hear her complaining about how things are so expensive now a days and it's like... not all things are that expensive... One day I just realized that I never heard her talking about giving to charity or helping other people out.. in her world it is all about ME, ME, ME... so how can she be surprised when her kids are the same way... crying when they don't get their way and saying stuff like, "That means you didn't buy me ANYTHING today!!!!"
I have come to the conclusion that money seriously fucks with your head. I know quite a few very rich people in Trento and they all seem to have these same "problems".... people seriously need to get out of their own bubble and realize there is so much good they could do with those resources... but that's a much more difficult concept than consumerism is!
A side note... She asked me to run an errand for her (so not my job, by the way) and it was sunny outside and I had forgotten my sunglasses at home. I asked her if I could borrow a pair of sunglasses... she went to her sunglasses drawer (no joke, there is well over 1,000 euro worth of sunglasses in there) and she pulls out a pair and hands them to me... and then she goes... " These were my summer glasses last year, you can keep them if you like them, I get new one's every summer." I look down and realized she had handed me a pair of white Gucci glasses.... I couldn't believe it... they're really nice glasses.... she just GAVE me a 250-300 euro pair of glasses!!!!
I like the fine things in life and I have nothing against buying designer things... i too would like a Louis Vuitton tote one day, but not if it is going to take over my world and become my main concern!!!! It's ok to have money, but not if you can't look beyond yourself and your world to realize that there are things bigger than YOU and YOUR problems out there!
While at the beginning I was slightly jealous, that feeling has worn off. Slowly I realized these people have no idea of what money really is. I always hear her complaining about how things are so expensive now a days and it's like... not all things are that expensive... One day I just realized that I never heard her talking about giving to charity or helping other people out.. in her world it is all about ME, ME, ME... so how can she be surprised when her kids are the same way... crying when they don't get their way and saying stuff like, "That means you didn't buy me ANYTHING today!!!!"
I have come to the conclusion that money seriously fucks with your head. I know quite a few very rich people in Trento and they all seem to have these same "problems".... people seriously need to get out of their own bubble and realize there is so much good they could do with those resources... but that's a much more difficult concept than consumerism is!
A side note... She asked me to run an errand for her (so not my job, by the way) and it was sunny outside and I had forgotten my sunglasses at home. I asked her if I could borrow a pair of sunglasses... she went to her sunglasses drawer (no joke, there is well over 1,000 euro worth of sunglasses in there) and she pulls out a pair and hands them to me... and then she goes... " These were my summer glasses last year, you can keep them if you like them, I get new one's every summer." I look down and realized she had handed me a pair of white Gucci glasses.... I couldn't believe it... they're really nice glasses.... she just GAVE me a 250-300 euro pair of glasses!!!!
I like the fine things in life and I have nothing against buying designer things... i too would like a Louis Vuitton tote one day, but not if it is going to take over my world and become my main concern!!!! It's ok to have money, but not if you can't look beyond yourself and your world to realize that there are things bigger than YOU and YOUR problems out there!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
BACI!!!!!!!!!!
The Baci that I recieved from Antonio have little saying in them... kind of like fortune cookies... except these come translated into Italian, English, Spanish, Portugese, French and sometime Greek too... they are really cute. Here is a picture:
Well i am slightly neurotic and like to open all the baci up and take out the little saying and then close them back up so I can save the actual chocolate for later, I just like to see what the saying is.... Here are a few examples of what they are:
Nei sogni, come in amore, non ci sono cose impossibile
Translation: In dreams, as in love, all is possible
E' l'amore ad indicarvi il cammino
Translation: Love directs your course
L'amore sa sperare quando la ragione gia' dispera
Translation: Love can hope where reason would despair
(this one kind of annoys me)
L'uomo gode della felicita' che prova, la donna di qualle che da'
Translation: A man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives
Un bacio proibito brucia piu' del fuoco
Translation: A forbidden kiss burns hotter than fire
I love those little sayings... they make my day!!!!
P.s. for those of you who don't know.... Bacio means kiss!!!! and Baci is plural... therefore Kisses!!!!!!
Well i am slightly neurotic and like to open all the baci up and take out the little saying and then close them back up so I can save the actual chocolate for later, I just like to see what the saying is.... Here are a few examples of what they are:
Nei sogni, come in amore, non ci sono cose impossibile
Translation: In dreams, as in love, all is possible
E' l'amore ad indicarvi il cammino
Translation: Love directs your course
L'amore sa sperare quando la ragione gia' dispera
Translation: Love can hope where reason would despair
(this one kind of annoys me)
L'uomo gode della felicita' che prova, la donna di qualle che da'
Translation: A man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives
Un bacio proibito brucia piu' del fuoco
Translation: A forbidden kiss burns hotter than fire
I love those little sayings... they make my day!!!!
P.s. for those of you who don't know.... Bacio means kiss!!!! and Baci is plural... therefore Kisses!!!!!!
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