Ciao Italia

So today was my last day in Firenze, and a very sad one. I started my last day off by sleeping in. I set my alarm for 10 so that I could get up and be ready to leave for Pisa. As my alarm went off I woke and was wide awake and decided to stay in bed. I finally got out of bed and started getting ready around 10:30. I was all ready by 11 by Stacy was still in bed. When she woke we decided to stay in Florence and get stuff done around here. I decided I would go an get one last pizza for lunch. I went to a little trattoria next to the markets at San Lorenzo. I sat inside because it was kind of cold outside. I ordered a margharita pizza and a Coke. When the waiter brought out my pizza he put it down and said a special pizza. I thought he said this because I ordered from the special menu. I was wrong, it was because the pizza was shaped as a heart! It was so delicious, but I couldn't eat the whole thing because it was so big. After I paid I decided to go for a walk and look for a shirt with the Florence crest on it. I found one shop that had a bunch of shirts, but they were all really expensive so I left. Before I got to the store, however, I passed the Duomo and saw some people taking pictures for a wedding. I then took a walk down to the river one last time. I got down to the rive and took a few pictures and was happy to be there but sad because I knew that it would be my last time I would be able to visit the place where I found peace. I then walked back toward the Duomo and then headed home through the markets. As I walked I found a shirt that I wanted for 8 euro. After I bought the shirt I walked around the market one last time trying to find a necklace with the crest of Florence on it, but had no luck. I then went home because I knew I needed to finish packing and help clean the apartment. When Stacy got home we moved the furniture back, swept, and then just chilled out for a while. I was almost completely packed so I sat on my bed and read the journal that Mish sent us about Australia. After relaxing for a few hours I got up and made some pasta for dinner. Eventually all the roommates came home and made dinner. I then took a shower so I wouldn't have to get up tomorrow to do that before we leave because Stacy and I are getting up at 4:15 to leave. After my shower I sat down in the kitchen to talk to some friends online and Stacy cleaned the bathroom. I just took out all the garbage and as I was coming out of the apartment building I passed a kind of creepy guy, but I kept on walking. I thought he was just looking at me because I was in my pajama pants and had 6 bags of trash. As I came back he was waiting outside the building and tried to follow me inside, but I slammed the door on him before he could get in. That so weird and creepy. The creepy Italian men are one thing I won't miss when I go home. So I might try to go to bed early even though I know I won't be able to fall asleep. Goodbye Florence, I will miss you.

No Pisa For You!

So today was an interesting day. I started it out by sleeping late. I set my alarm for 10 just so I wouldn't sleep all day. I turned it off and went back to sleep for another half an hour. I finally got up and took a shower around 11. As I finished getting ready Stacy got up, and was feeling better, and she started to get ready for Pisa. While she was getting ready I went to the Vodafone store to end my cell phone contract and get my phone switched to prepaid. That took about 15 minutes and the lady said not to switch the SIM card for about an hour because it would take about an hour to switch over completely. After I left the Vodafone store I walked back toward the apartment but stopped at a small store around the corner to buy another suitcase. I found one that was 18 euro, bought it, and then heard people yelling outside. I looked to see what was going on, I thought it was the group of teenagers I passed earlier just being obnoxious. As I turned to look I saw that it had started hailing and pouring rain. The hail was amazing, the biggest hail I have ever seen in my entire life, I think it was the size of golf balls. I waited a few minutes for the hail to stop, but the rain only got harder. I decided to buy an umbrella and brave the down pouring rain to walk home around the corner. I rolled up my jeans so they wouldn't drag on the ground and the store owner put a bag over my suitcase for me. By the time I got home, 3 minutes later, my pants were soaked as was part of my hoodie and my shoes. Meg was coming out of the building and held the door open for me so I wouldn't have to struggle with my keys and suitcase. When I got upstairs Stacy and I decided to start packing and see how the weather was. After about an hour we decided to put Pisa off until tomorrow, hoping the weather would be better tomorrow, and finish packing. I got all of my artwork and paper stuff packed in my new suitcase and then started on my clothes. I packed everything that was dry, since we had done wash, and then decided to go to a laundromat to dry our clothes so that I could finish packing. I spent about half an hour there and then finished packing when I got home. After packing I laid down on my bed and watched Dark Knight while dozing in and out of sleep. After my movie was over I some chicken Stacy had made for dinner then took a shower since we are going to try to go to Pisa in the morning. The rest of my night will be relaxation and I might go to bed a little early because I am very tired for some reason. 1 more day...

It's Over

So today, surprisingly, was a really good day. I set my alarm for 8:30 and 9 because I had a feeling I wasn't going to feel like getting up and I was right. When my first alarm went off I turned it off and went back to sleep for another half an hour. I finally got up and made my way to the lab because I told Mom I would get my platelets checked. The guy who took my blood was talking to me in broken English and in Italian as well. He was telling me how I was in there a lot and I told him I was going home on Monday. Today was my last day at the lab. After the lab I walked to the bus stop and waited for about 10 minutes until my bus came. As I got on a bunch of people on the bus kept asking the driver questions, but I had my ipod on so I couldn't hear them. Every stop people kept coming up to the front of the bus where I was sitting and asking questions and looking angry. After about 4 or 5 stops I realized we were going a different route that usual and this is why people were freaking out. Finally I saw the river and felt relieved, until I realized we were driving the wrong direction away from the fresco studio! I got off at the next stop and walked more than half of the way because the darn bus stopped so far away. I got there and as I walked in it started to rain. I took a bunch of pictures and hung out with my friends for a few hours. While I was hanging out Mario touched up my tiger fresco that got a little messed up for me. While we were in class it rained a lot and then suddenly started to hail! It hailed for a few minutes and then turned into rain and then it got sunny again. I walked home around 1:30 and was starving because all I had has to eat were some crackers and juice. I think I inhaled my sandwich as I checked my email for my platelet results. After finding out that they were the same as they were on Monday, which is good for traveling, and then went over to SACI to give Chiara and Daniela the scarves I had bought them. They both loved them and then I got a hug from each of them and said goodbye because they won't be around over the weekend. I went home after saying goodbye and thank you to them and checked my email again. I found an email from Mish with her Australia journal in it. I started reading and I was laughing so hard and remembering the good times. I read about 4 days into it when Stacy asked me to go out shopping with her. It turned into a beautiful day and we went to buy her a small suitcase, something I am probably going to do as well, to put her ceramics in. After that we went to SACI to get her ceramic pieces and my photos from my final. We wrapped them loosely and then came home to hang out for half an hour. Around 6:30 we walked to SACI for the end of the semester party. That was a lot of fun to talk to my friends and then listened to some readings by the creative writing class and some videos by the video class. The last video was my favorite, everyone's favorite, because it was the teachers and T.A.s dancing to a funny song. I am now sitting on my bed writing this blog entry and reflecting on my time here in Florence. I think I am going to attempt to start packing after I take a shower. 2 more days....

A Sad Day

So today was a very sad day for me. Let me start at the beginning like I always do. I started my day off with my alarm going off at 8:30 so I could go to my class at 9. I tried for about 2 minutes to turn it off and couldn't because I was so tired. Once it was off I rolled over and went back to sleep for another 15 minutes. I finally dragged myself out of bed and got ready and left my apartment by 9:05. I was late to class, but we didn't start the critique for another half an hour and this allowed me to get a coffee. As the critique went on I kept getting this knot in my stomach, I was not nervous because I had my critique on Tuesday. By the last person I realized the knot was me realizing that was my last photo class. By the end of the class I was so upset because it has hit me that my time here in Florence, and my photo class which has been my favorite class, is just about over. I think I am more upset about my photo class being done than anything else because I have found a new passion and Jacopo has been such a big part of that and my stay here. I was happy to remember that our class was going out to dinner and I would see them all who I have gotten to be friends with one last time. As class ended Jacopo said he wanted to give each of us something and usually gives women flowers, but flowers die so he would give us each a print of his. He spread them out and we all picked one for ourselves and had him sign the back of it. After class I went home to make a quick lunch then went to graphic design. The critique lasted a few hours and I was the last to go. My project was completely different than everyone else's. We had to make a book to show all the work we have done this semester. I decided to make mine a newspaper so that it was pure design and easy to put together. Everyone made elaborate books and mine was one piece of paper, but that made it original and memorable. After the critique I came home and was so bored because I had no work to do and it was raining so I was not going to go out. Around 7 Stacy asked me to go help her look for some perfume. We did and had a good time despite the rain. I waited for half an hour and the headed over to SACI for my photo class dinner at 8. I had the best time with my class and met a new girl that I kind of just clicked with. I finally got a good picture of Jacopo. He also knows how badly I want to come back to SACI for my post-bacc in photography and said he would help me convince Mom to let me come back. As my class and I parted with Jacopo it started raining again. I am not waiting for the shower to be free so I can try to wash away the sadness of today, even though I don't think that is possible. I never thought I could feel so strongly about a place and have it change me so much. I have found a new passion, photography, and fell in love with a city. I actually cried because I am sad that I have to leave. I do miss my family and things at home, but I feel connected to Florence and at peace here. 4 more days.

The Easter Bunny Is Sam's Mom?

So today was a blah day for me. I woke up at 9 which was earlier than I had wanted. Since I had no class today I was hoping to be able to sleep until I woke up on my own. I had to get up at 9 because Chiara was going to call Dr. Longo for me this morning around 9 to see if we could set up a treatment for me today. I can't have a treatment any other day because I have finals tomorrow and my last fresco class on Friday during which I want to do some touchup work on one of my frescos. Also, if I have the treatment after today I would have headaches while I was traveling home and probably would get worse on the flights. Dr. Longo was still on vacation today, but we did get a hold of Dr. Baldini and he said my platelets are not low enough to bump me up above people who already had appointments today. Dr. Travis said it was alright if I did not get treated because my platelets were high enough that she was not worried and I would just be treated when I get home. For some reason I ended up in a bad mood after waiting for the doctors to give me an answer, I thought it may have been because I was extremely tired. After figuring out that I was not having a treatment today I went to the dark room to do some printing. However, I got very frustrated because all my images were coming out blurry and my negatives had streaks on them. Luckily Jacopo happened to be at SACI today and he looked at my negatives. He said the streaks would not show and the most of my images were not blurry, just the ones I was trying to print. I was too frustrated to stay so I left to go home.  As I was walking home I remembered I told Mom that I would go to the market and find out about the bag since she still had not received it. The guy told me it should get there by Friday because he forgot that the 10 days it takes to ship it does not include the weekend, especially this weekend since it was Easter. I went home and told this to Mom and she said we would wait until Friday. He also told me I needed the receipt in case we didn't get the bag by Friday for him to give me a new one, so I after talking to Mom I looked for the receipt and found it after looking for about 5 minutes. Once I was done talking to Mom I worked on my graphic design final and was happy to finish the new layout and then decided to take a nap since I was so tired and my mood kept getting worse. I slept for about an hour and then my phone rang. It was someone from the Vodafone place who did not speak English. I decided that since I was still in a bad mood I would take a walk and stop at the Vodafone store on m way to the river. The woman at the store said the call was nothing to worry about since I was going to be ending m contract on Friday and going back to the USA on Monday. The walk was very good for me. I walked to my favorite bridge and rolled my t-shirt sleeves up onto my shoulders and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The Arno, the name of the river, must be magic because it took me out of my bad mood. After walking around and window shopping a little, I walked over to the Design Center to print my graphic design final out. As I got there I realized that something was spelled wrong, which was an easy fix. I am extremely happy to be done with that project and all I have to do now is hand it in tomorrow. When I got home I moved myself into the kitchen and and heated up my pasta from last night. As I was finishing up my dinner Sam and her parents walked in, her parents are staying with us until the end of the term. As I was moving my computer back into my room to give them some space, Sam's mom came out and gave me Pez and Dove chocolate bunny and said it was in case the Easter Bunny didn't visit me. I showed Stacy and we both laughed about it. I decided to take a shower next because I felt gross from being sweaty from my walk. When I got out of the shower Stacy told me she got a bunny and Pez as well. So I am sitting on my bed for the rest of the night. I told Stacy I would help her study, so I will be doing that in a few minutes. Today is my last Wednesday and I am ending it in a good mood.

My Last Tuesday :(

So today is my last Tuesday in Florence and this makes me very sad. However, I had a really good day. I had to get up early to get my platelets checked at the lab so I got up at 8 and walked over. As I walked in to check in I saw the line was pretty long. I was worried about this because I had to be at SACI main building at 9 for my photo final critique. I was relieved to find the line diminished quickly and I had no wait to get my blood drawn. I was really thirsty after so I stopped and got a soda, not what I wanted at 8:45 in the morning but it would have to do. I walked as fast as I could to get to class since I was supposed to have my critique first and I was worried my grade would suffer if I was late even though I had a good reason. Surprisingly, I got to class 5 minutes early and walked in at the same time as Jacopo. As I waited for class to start I tired to print my artist statement out but the printer was backed up, which I found annoying. I went back to class and we got started with my critique. Jacopo only had good things to say, as did the rest of my class. He said I have improved so much and this made him very happy. He also said that all of my prints were excellent. In my opinion, my critique went the best out of the 4 that we had today. I left class feeling very satisfied after talking to Jacopo about continuing with photography in the future. Before I went home, I stopped to have Chiara call Dr. Longo to give him my blood results and try to set up a treatment for tomorrow so my platelets would not be low when I fly home next week. Chiara was out so Daniela called for me, but both Dr. Longo and Dr. Baldini were not there so we are going to try to call tomorrow morning. Next, I went home and made myself a sandwich before packing up my laptop to go to graphic design. I got to class an grabbed my teacher to ask her a simple question before anyone else could get to her. I was very happy to finish my final and print it out. As it printed, however, my teacher suggested a different layout and pretty much redesigned my whole project. Even though I was happy with my project, this new layout makes more sense so I will finish the new layout and reprint it on Thursday before class. After this little disappointment I walked home and decided to take a nap because as usual I had trouble falling asleep last night, part of which was due to Sam being so loud with some guy she brought home. I slept for about 2 hours and woke up feeling refreshed and ready for dinner. Both Stacy and I were in the kitchen at the same time which is always interesting because of how small the kitchen is. As I started eating my pasta I got a stomach ache and was only able to eat about 10 bites before I decided to put it in the fridge for dinner tomorrow.  After dinner I took a shower so I won't have to get up quite so early tomorrow since I need to be at SACI at 9 to call Dr. Longo. So that is how I spent my last Tuesday in Florence. The rest of my night will be spent on the couch as usual.

7 Days

So today was an awesome day. I woke up around 10:30, but didn't feel like getting out of bed so I stayed in bed until 11:15. By then I still didn't want to get out of bed, but knew if I didn't I would get nothing done today. After getting up I talked to Sam for a while and found out the Conad was open so I could go and buy some more food. I took a quick shower while Sam and Stacy were out. As I was going down to Conad they both came home, perfect timing. I was so happy to get some more procuitto so that I could have my sandwiches again. After eating and talking to Stacy for a while I decided to go for a walk. I was pleasantly surprised with how warm it was today. I regretted taking my hoodie and wearing a t-shirt. I had a tank top on under my t-shirt, but it was breezy out so I just pushed the sleeves up on my shoulders. I wonder if I got a tan. I walked down by the river and ended up walking down to the little park by the waterfall. I sat on the ledge in the sunshine and listened to music for about an hour just enjoying the day. I was having fun watching a guy fish and the ducks swimming around. After a while the sun went behind a cloud and I got a little cold from the breeze coming off the water and turned around and started walking home. The sun came out again as soon as I left the park and made it warm to walk in, but I loved it. I walked down to the Ponte Vecchio and thought about getting some gelato. Once I got to the area where I could buy some good gelato I was slightly annoyed by tourists and decided I would just go home since I needed to work on my finals anyway. I got home and avoided doing work for about an hour. I finally sat down in the kitchen with the window open and started working. I am just about done all my work. All I have left is to write an artist statement for my photo final tomorrow and ask my graphic design teacher a quick question and print my final. I cannot believe I am almost done and only have a week left. I am going to miss Florence and SACI so much. After doing my work I started talking to a friend and watching videos on Youtube until I made my dinner. After dinner I cleaned the bathroom since I told Stacy I would do that today and forgot to do it earlier. Next up for me was a shower and then relaxation. Stacy asked me to quiz her for her final tomorrow and as I was doing that Sam started cooking something. We don't know what it was but it smelled like dirty feet and then she added something that made us start choking. I am still coughing from it and she has been done cooking for about half an hour! So the rest of my night will be resting, talking to my friends, and writing an artist statement. 

Happy Easter

So today was a great day. I stayed up late last and when I went to bed fell asleep rather quickly. Once asleep I actually had a really good dream, something I have not had in a while. I set my alarm for 10 because I wanted to go to the Duomo to see the festivities. I was told that I should get there at 10, but I figured if I got up at 10 and showered I could get there by 10:30. When my alarm went off I was actually pretty awake even though I stayed in bed for another 10 minutes. Once I got out of bed I started my shower and as I was about to get in Sam's friend who is staying with us turned the other shower on and I lost all the hot water. I decided to wait until she was done and then shower. By the time I finally got in and out of the shower it was just about 11. Stacy and I walked over to the Duomo and fought the masses. It was so crowded. We tried to go up to our friend's apartment that was overlooking the square, but as we were walking around the block to see if we could get closer we heard the fireworks. We walked as fast as we could back and got as close as we could. The fireworks were on the ground so we really couldn't see much other than people's heads and some smoke. Once we couldn't get any closer we pulled out our cameras. I had to stand on my tippy toes with my camera above my head and hope for the best. Some of my pictures came out, but you really can't see anything in them. After about half an hour the show was over and people started leaving. We worked our way to our friend's apartment, slowly being pushed along the way. Once we got up there I took some pictures of the fireworks machine they set up, the swiss guard, and the hoards of people that were still down there. We hung out at their apartment for a few hours and had a good time. By the time we left, however, I had gotten a headache from not eating and the smoke from some of them smoking. When I got home I went to make a sandwich and realized I had no procuitto left. At this point I was starving so I decided to go down to the restaurant across the street and get a pizza. I sat outside because today was the nicest day so far and listened to my ipod. For a pizza and a soda I paid 10.30 euro, not bad and the pizza was really good. Once I got home from my lunch I started working on my graphic design projects. I finished one and am in the process of finishing the other. I stopped working on it when I was about half done so that I could think about the design layout some more. I spent the rest of my day enjoying myself and relaxing while talking to friends online. I made some chicken for dinner that was delicious and now I am yet again relaxing on the couch. My goal for tomorrow is to get my graphic design final finished so I can print it on Tuesday in class. 

Soccer Is Only For Florentines?

So today was a fun day. I started out by sleeping in. However my body woke me up at 9:30 and I stayed in bed until about 10:15. After mulling about for a while I took a shower and then made myself a sandwich. As I was eating my sandwich, and working on a project, Stacy came home. She asked if I wanted to go to a soccer game with her later around 2. I was scheduled to be in the dark room from 1 to 4, but I am done printing for my final so it wasn't necessary. I told her I would love to go and she said she would call me later with the info. I got all my stuff together to print and mount my photos and went to SACI to get as much done as I could before Stacy called. As I was cutting boards, about 2 boards into my 10, Stacy called and said they were going to meet at SACI at 2, which was about 45 minutes away. I got 8 boards cut before I had to meet them. I asked Sam at the desk if I could leave my stuff there so I could come back later and finished. He said yes and put it away for me. I met up with Stacy and some other SACI kids, Joey, Jill, and their roommate Jordan who I had never met before. These were all people, except Jordan, that I have known and really like at SACI. The five of us went to the bus station to catch the bus to get there early, the game was at 3, so that we could get tickets. After about 20 minutes of going in a big circle looking for the right spot to get the bus we finally found it and got on. When we got to the stadium we asked where to get tickets and walked for a while, but found it. Thank goodness today was a nice day, it was actually hot out and we were all sweating and trying to stay in the shade. As we were waiting in line to get out tickets a man told us that they will not sell tickets to anyone who is not an Italian Florence resident. We walked around to a few places hoping this was just a mistake, but had no luck and then found out the game was sold out. We were all pretty upset and decided to just go back home. The shuttle bus we took would not run until the game was over so we decided to walk, a long walk. It was actually a lot of fun and we even did a good deed. As we were walking home a family from Belgium stopped us and asked us to help them call the police because their car was broken into and stuff had been stolen. Jordan, who was in a kind of bad mood about the game, called the police for them and we waited with them until the police got there. Their daughter was hysterical crying, I understand it was upsetting to have your car broken into but I didn't understand why a 10 year old was crying hysterically over a stolen GPS and some money. They said they were in a museum when it happened and came out and found their window broken and stuff missing. I hope everything works out for them although I'm not sure how it could. After the police got there we left and kept on walking back toward the Duomo. After we all parted I went back to SACI to finish cutting my board and mounting my photos. I am now done the majority of work for this photo final on Tuesday. All I have left to do is to write up a paragraph about what my project was, an artist statement basically. After I finished mounting I went to the market to talk to Guiseppe since Mom said she never received the bag. The guy who handled the shipping showed me the receipt and said it should get there by Monday or Tuesday and probably took so long because of Easter. I went home and made dinner because I had not eaten since my sandwich at 11 and it was 6 by the time I got home. After I ate I decided to take another shower because I felt gross from being sweaty all day. The rest of my night will consist of relaxing on the couch and listening to the new song I downloaded by accident. I went to download "What I've Done" by Linkin Park but got another song called "Refugee" by Tribal Ink. I found out they purposely mislabeled their song so that they would get attention and get their song out. It worked and I am now in love with their song and trying to find more music by them because they have a very unique sound that I like. So anyway I will be relaxing and maybe working on my graphic design final some. I think I might go to the Duomo tomorrow with Stacy for Easter because there is supposed to be some amazing things going on down there. We'll see if I get up early enough and if I remember.

Ah Flip Flops

So today was a great day in just about every aspect. I got up around 8:45 to go to the lab before heading to fresco. I set my alarm for 9, but wanted to try to leave the apartment before 9:30 so I got up earlier. I got to the lab and everything went very quickly. The man who took my blood had a good time talking to me in Italian, some of which I understood. After getting my labs done I started walking to the bus stop. Even though it was a beautiful day, warm enough to not wear my hoodie, I wanted to take the bus so that I could get to the studio faster and get started drawing and painting. However, I waited for the bus for about half an hour. I probably could have gone more than half the way walking in the time I waited for the bus. I was happy to take the bus because I had my laptop with me today and I could sit and take some of the weight off my shoulder. Once I got to the studio, around 10:15, I ended up not making a new fresco but doing touch up painting on one of my other ones. We got done class pretty early, around noon. I decided to walk home along the river even though I had my laptop and all of my frescos with me. By the time I got home I was so sweaty from all the stuff I was carrying and I made the mistake of leaving my hoodie on. I decided to take a shower and change into capris and flip flops. I was so excited to wear these because flip flops are so comfortable and these were my favorite pair of capris. After I ate a lunch I went for a walk, without my hoodie! I ended up buying some gifts for people in the market and wandering around the city looking for a store. I finally found the store I was looking for after going to the wrong one first. I got 3 pieces of black foamcore to mount my prints for my photo final on. As I was walking home, I was surprised because Guiseppe stopped me in the market. He wanted to know if Mom got the new bag, which I later found out she did not. When I got home I talked to Sam for a little bit and then made dinner around 6:30. As I was making dinner I got a stomach ache which turned out to be from being really hungry. As for the rest of my night, it's the couch for me. I am going to relax tonight and stay up late since I don't have to get up for anything tomorrow. On the agenda tomorrow for me is some darkroom time and work on my finals.

I Just Have One Question

So today was a pretty good day overall for me. I started out, as usual, not falling asleep easily last night but sleeping pretty soundly. This was followed by me not wanting to get out of bed when my alarm went off. Once I got to class I showed Jacopo my prints that I have done thus far and we narrowed them down to the best ones to use for my final next week. After our mini-crit I started to work on the final 4 prints that I would use for my final. I was very happy when I got to my final one and still have an hour left in the dark room. However, disaster struck! I saw on my print a mark that I thought was dust so I took the negative and carrier out to wipe off the dust. When I looked at the negative there was a big smudge on it. Jacopo took me downstairs to the processing room and washed it for me. After washing and waiting 15  minutes for the negative to dry I took it back upstairs to print it and look at it in better light. I was upset to see the smudge was still there. Jacopo took me back downstairs and rewashed it with his personal wetting agent. After another 15 minutes went by I checked it again and this time it was fine! I was just about out of time in the darkroom, so I went in and printed it as quickly as I could. I got a few good prints, one of which I will use for my final. After finishing up just after 1 I ran home to get my laptop and drop off my prints. I got to graphic design about half an hour late, but this was not a problem since we are just working on our projects and I did not miss any lectures. I let my teacher know I had a question and she said she would be with me as soon as she was finished helping another student. As she finished she started to walk around and my roommate, Sam who is also in my class, grabbed the teacher and apparently asked her a very lengthy question. I waited an hour for her to come and help me as she helped Sam two times. I got up to go to the bathroom while I was waiting and when I came back my teacher had left! I was so mad because I could not work any further on my project without getting my one question answered. It was a simple question about the program, but I seem to have the most knowledge in the class, other than my teacher, about this specific program. I waited another hour for my teacher to come back and when she did I finally got to ask her my one question. I was so annoyed because Sam had already gotten some individual attention when I asked for help and I had had none. After class I came home and realized I had missed lunch and was starving and ate a sandwich while Stacy took our wifi to be fixed. They gave us a completely new card and router and it seems to be working better than ever, of course this would happen a week before we leave. As I was making dinner I started looking at the Post-Baccalaureate program that is offered here at SACI. I would love to do this program. It would be a year abroad and a great chance for me to improve my portfolio. I need to sit down and figure out if I can afford it and if it is worth it. I would probably be coming in through in the photography program because they do not offer a design program, but the dean said I can take design classes as my electives. After talking to the dean about this at SACI, I went into the darkroom to print a contact sheet and some prints. By 8:30 I was pretty tired so I decided to call it quits for the day since I am done the printing that has to be done for my final and am now just printing for myself. I came home and took a shower and am now relaxing for the rest of the night.

Let The Craziness Begin

So today was a pretty relaxed and much better day for me compared to yesterday. I had trouble falling asleep again last night, but once I was asleep I was out cold until Stacy's alarm went off. I had my alarm set for 10 so that I could get up and shower before I had to be at SACI. For the last 2 weeks the darkroom has a sign-up sheet for specific times and enlargers. I was signed up to use my favorite enlarger from 11-1 today. I got to SACI and was surprised to only find 2 other people using the darkroom. I got a lot printed today and happy to say I am about half done printing for my final. After I was finished printing I had to leave for an hour because there was a critique in the room, which meant that my prints would have to sit in the water for an hour and I would have to go back to dry them later. I went home and talked to Mom and Chris for a little bit until my internet decided to stop working. I got frustrated and left to go back to SACI to pick up my prints. I was happy to find the critique was finished so I could turn the dryer on and not wait for them to air dry. I was going to go and buy some foamcore today, but decided I would wait since I was kind of tired. After sitting at home and messing around online for about an hour I realized I had a meeting to go to at 4. I was selected to attend a meeting with the accreditation people for art schools. I went and they basically just asked us a bunch of questions about how we like SACI and what could be improved if anything. After the meeting was over at 5 I decided to process a roll of film I had just finished so I could print some contact sheets tomorrow and get Jacopo's opinion. I had a really hard time getting the film loaded onto the reel. I think I had taken a broken reel into the darkroom with me, good thing I always bring in an extra reel. I was excited to see pictures on my negatives when I was all finished. I had a few pictures of a guy I had no idea who he was. It took me about 5 minutes to remember I had taken some pictures of the guy from the snack bar. After drying and cutting my negatives I went home and made some dinner. I was so hungry and craving some lemon chicken. Dinner was so good and definitely hit the spot. I realized I was out of Coke and pasta sauce so I ran downstairs to Conad to pick up some. I was shocked that the line was actually starting to wrap through the store. I got through the line pretty quickly and then went back upstairs to take a shower. As I was getting my clothes all set I realized that I had forgotten my laundry. I had put my clothes in the washer before I went to SACI and they had been done for a while. I took them out and was happy to have nice weather so I could hang them outside tonight. After my shower I went to go online and realized that out wifi was not working well, but working somewhat. It is still not working so great so I think I will restart it after finishing my homework. Another long day tomorrow, hopefully I get some sleep tonight so I can actually do some good work.

No Comment

So today has been an overall crappy day for me. As usual I had a hard time falling asleep last night, and I even went to bed a little early so I would be awake for photo this morning. For some reason unknown to myself I could not stay asleep. I was up all night tossing and turning and being annoyed that I was awake. I was not a little awake either, I was wide awake. Stacy even said something about my tossing turning when we got up. In addition to that when I did sleep, which was rare, I was dreaming in German. I don't even know German!!! I  got up and out of bed around 8:30 and was utterly exhausted. As I was getting ready to go to class I realized that my jaw on one side was hurting pretty badly and I had trouble opening my mouth due to the pain. I took some Tylenol and hoped it would go away soon. I soon realized that this is probably joint pain and that my jaw was starting to lock on the one side like it had done in the past. I got to photo and started shooting pictures of my friends, Libby my T.A., and Jacopo for my project. After shooting for a bit I went to the photo store to buy some more paper since I was just about out. I got the regular size paper and a smaller size that is about the size of a postcard. When I got back to class I signed up for my critique time and 4 slots on enlargers for printing within the next week. I then printed a contact sheet and showed it to Jacopo. He looked at the thumbnails and was thrilled saying I have a lot of excellent shots. He suggested to do my project from that one roll of film and showed me possible images to use. I loved the idea and was excited to start printing. I skipped my Italian class to stay and finish printing. I got one print done, of Stacy actually, and was done just in time to get my things and go to graphic design. I got a panino just before leaving and had a horrible time trying to eat it because I was having such a hard time opening my mouth and chewing it hurt as well. I got to class and was relived to sit down and talk to my teacher about my last two projects. She helped clarify that my ideas, one of which I am very excited about, were good ones and how to do them. I started working, but by 3 I was so tired I could not concentrate anymore. I got up and went to the classroom computers to print out 3 of my older projects like the rest of class was doing. However, my projects would not print, along with the rest of my class. Luca came in and helped everyone one by one. I was still having problems and didn't get it working until an hour after class had ended! By this time I was in an absolutely horrible mood and frustrated. I went right home, dropped my stuff on the floor, put my ipod on, and went to sleep. I slept for about 2 hours which helped the pain in my jaw some and the headache I had developed. Once I got up, I reheated my pasta from last night figuring it would be easiest on my jaw to chew since it is soft. I am thinking I might take a shower after dinner or I may just relax on the couch before going to bed tonight. What a day, but I am not in such a bad mood now.

Didn't Feel A Thing

The question of the day seems to be "are you alright?" Yes, I am fine. For anyone who doesn't know, there was a 6.3 earthquake last night in a town just outside Abruzzo. My roommates and I did not feel a thing, but apparently the aftershocks were felt all the way down to Rome. My roommate Sam's sister lives in Rome and called Sam to tell her that the shocks were bad enough that her chandelier fell. Thank you everyone for the concern, I am doing wonderful. Now to update everyone on my day. I started my day by waking up, turning my alarm off, and going back to sleep. I finally dragged myself out of bed around 10 to go get my labwork done. My visit to the lab went well and I was taken quickly. One one the women who draws blood really likes me, so I was taken right away. After my blood was drawn she asked if I would like some coffee or tea. I was kind of confused since no one had ever asked me that before and said yes. She took me into a little room and told me to wait there and have a seat. A few minutes later a different woman brought me in a silver tray with coffee and biscotti. I was shocked. I drank the coffee and ate the biscotti quickly but very happily because this was my breakfast. I left to go home and shower still somewhat surprised, but pleasantly surprised. After telling Stacy about the weirdness of the lab this morning I showered and headed over to SACI armed with my camera. I am still on a mission to take shots of people who have influenced me or had an impact on my time here at in Florence for my final project. I went in to ask Sam some questions and then shot some photos of him, Daniela, and Chiara. Daniela was not happy with me taking her picture and said no originally, but changed her mind and said only for me would she do this. After getting that done I went to my favorite snack bar for lunch and got some pictures of the guy who always serves me. After lunch I went on a hunt to find the camera store to buy more photo paper to print with. After walking around somewhat lost I found it. I was disappointed to find that they are closed on Mondays as many things in Florence are. I then went looking for Zecchi, an art store that is probably the equivalent to our Dick Blick or Pearl. Of course when I got there they were closed for siesta and would not reopen until 3:30 which was about 2 hours away. I walked around for a while just to be outside because it was such a warm and beautiful day. I was actually sorry that I had worn my sweatpants. I went home around 2:30 to check and see if my blood results were in my email and talk to my mom. I checked and was happy to see my results waiting for me. All good numbers. I also received an email about a girl I went to high school with and swam with that was quite shocking. She has been arrested for sexual advances onto a student in the middle school she works at. After chatting for a while I decided to go to SACI and process a roll of film so I would have something to print tomorrow in class. I was very happy to find pictures on the film when I was finished, I always get nervous that something went wrong. Next for me was to stop at Conad and buy a few things for dinner before going home. As I was checking out my cell phone rang. It was Mom calling to check on me and make sure I was okay from the earthquake. As I got home and online, I was shocked at the amount of people that were asking me if I was alright. I did not realize how big this earthquake was because I didn't feel anything. I am so glad to be in Florence and not Rome or Abruzzo. After relaxing for a while and trying to come up with some ideas for my graphic design final, with no luck, I went with Sam to her gallery opening. She was really happy I went to support her and I was happy to go because I got some good shots of her for my final. I came home around 8 and took a shower before making dinner. I had planned on eating chicken, but didn't feel like going through all the trouble of cooking it so I made a big bowl of pasta. It is now 9:21 and I am still eating my dinner. Today was a great day in all regards for me. To top my day off I did not have my Italian class because they were taking a mock-final. I saw no point in me taking this since I am not planning on taking the final now that I have dropped the class, so I had the day off. Long day of class tomorrow, but hopefully it will be a productive one.

Cleaning Extravaganza!

So today was very lazy day for me. I started my day off by waking up at 9:30 with a migraine in my eye. I was still sleepy so I tried to go back to sleep to get rid of the pain in my head and eye and to get a little more sleep. I drifted in and out of sleep thanks to the construction outside and Stacy getting up. After what I though was about an hour of hour and a half I checked the time and saw it was 11:58! I was shocked that I slept so late, but I felt better when I got up. After eating a sandwich and taking a shower I was puzzled as to what to do. As I was trying to decide Stacy asked me if I wanted to go to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri with her next weekend. After talking about it for a few minutes we decided I would go to the office tomorrow and reserve our spots as long as I got the okay from Mom to spend the money and go. We were pretty excited and both didn't feel like going out today so we cleaned. Normally I would be annoyed that I had to clean, but I had a really good time with Stacy. I also started shooting new pictures for my final today of her and my other roommates when they are home. Anyway, after shooting and cleaning, I went out for a walk to see if I could find anything interesting to shoot. Apparently today was the day everything weird to go on in Florence. I saw a guy with a drum strapped to his back and cord to his feet so the drum would beat each step he took and and accordion in his hands, another guy with wires through his clothes to make it look like he was windblown sitting smoking a cigarette, a homeless woman who refused to get up so they called and ambulance and the EMTs were yelling at her, and some other minor randomness. I think I got a lot of good shots out of that. I started getting hungry so I turned around and went home. I needed to make dinner early tonight because I am going to that concert tonight and wanted to have dinner beforehand. When I got home I checked my email and saw that Mom wrote back to me while I was out. She was all for us going away next weekend and said to go for it! We are both really excited. As I made dinner Meg came home and started cooking her dinner. This was the prefect time for me to shoot her and I think I got some really good shots. It is now 7:17 and I am planing on leaving in about an hour for the concert. I'm excited to go and do something different. Jacopo will be there and I found our Meg is going as well. I also got some good reading with my INR just now and I am in a very good mood. These next 2 weeks are going to fly by, but I think they are going to be the most amazing 2 weeks of my stay here. I am really going to miss Florence and the people I have met.

Dark Room Chaos

So today was a slow, boring, but productive day for me. I started my day off not being able to fall asleep again last night, this seems to be becoming a bad habit. Once I fell asleep, I slept pretty soundly until 7:30 when Stacy's cell phone rang and woke us both up. I had no problem falling back asleep once she hung up which I found surprising because they had started the construction outside. I woke up a few more times after that and finally dragged myself out of bed around 10:45. After lounging around in my pajamas I finally took a shower at about noon and then made myself a sandwich afterwards. I was kind of disappointed when I was getting ready for the rest of the day that my friend Anne never called me. We were going to make plans to go out this weekend and she said she would call me this morning. Even though I was disappointed it worked out for the best because I spent most of my day in the dark room. I got to school around 1:15 and didn't leave until sometime just after 5. I was the only person in the dark room, just the way I like it, for about half an hour. Slowly people started filtering in. We ended up having about 7 people in the dark room at once, which I have never seen on a weekend. It was somewhat of a problem because 2 of the enlargers are not working, one of which is my normal enlarger, so everyone was trying to find a spot. Our dark room had about 12 enlargers, I think, so there was plenty of space today, but we all have our favorites. I had a very productive printing session and used up almost all of my paper so I will have to go buy more on Monday. I also got to talk to Jacopo for a little bit about my final and he gave me some suggestions that I may use. After printing I went to Conad to buy some pasta since I was out to make for dinner. When I got home I checked my email and saw that Mom had sent me an email. She told me that she never received the bag that was supposed to get there by Thursday for Deb's birthday. So I went down to make sure it even got mailed. As I walked up, Guiseppe sent me to another guy and immediately left the store and went outside. I should have known something was wrong. The guy told me that the bag never got mailed because they were "too busy," they were short-handed, and he got hurt. He showed me the box and said it would go out tomorrow and she would have it by Thursday. I tried to call Mom to tell her what was going on, but she is in rehearsals all day so she didn't pick up. After emailing her the news and talking to Stacy for a while we started smelling something very good. Meg was cooking herself dinner which reminded me, and Stacy that we were hungry. What a sight it must have been to see the three of us cooking in the kitchen at the same time. I was so excited when my food was done cooking because of how hungry I was. I made my usual chicken in lemon juice with garlic and a side of pasta. I think tonight was the best tasting chicken I have made thus far, maybe it was just because of how hungry I was. I ate dinner pretty late and got done eating and doing dishes by about 8:30. I am now sitting on the couch listening to music and somewhat watching tv as usual. Maybe I will watch a movie later while I sit here and talk to my friends.

Tigers & Frescos & Kids..Oh My!

So today is Friday and you know what that means, fresco! I got up at 8:30 and headed over to the studio around 9. Surprisingly I was the first person there other than Mario. My classmates started showing up about half an hour later and the latest came in around 11. My task today was to paint the fresco of a tiger I had drawn last week. I got everything set and started painting. I put my ipod on shuffle, I work better if I have music on, and painted with intense concentration. After painting for about 2 hours non-stop I finished. Mario and my friends said it looked great. I was extremely please with the end result and am happy to say this is my best and favorite fresco of my fresco painting career. During the class my friend Anne came, about an hour after I got there, and brought her 6 year old son Liam with her. I don't usually like kids, I don't get them and get easily annoyed by them. However, Liam was such a cool kid. Mario let him paint his own fresco which turned out pretty nice. He seemed to like me because he stood behind me and watched me paint and then followed me around the studio talking to me for the rest of class. At the end of class Anne's husband came with their younger son, Chase, who was such a cutie. They invited the class to go get some lunch, but I was the only one who went. I was so hungry and realized it was because I had not eaten anything and it was 1:30. I had such a good time with Anne and her family. These are the first kids that I didn't feel turned off by and actually had a really good time with. After I walked back with them Anne invited me to go out to dinner with some of her friends at 9pm and said to call if I wanted to go. As I finished walking home, they live a lot closer to the studio than I do, I realized my new headphones were making funny noises. I went home and got the receipt so I could return them and buy ones that worked. The guy at the store tested them out and said they were working fine and wouldn't let me return them. Maybe it was just a quick glitch. The other option is that it only happens when my ipod is a certain direction, or it is a problem with my ipod. I then headed home and took a shower. After my shower I rewashed all my laundry because it was still not dry from 2 days ago and felt disgusting. I am hoping it doesn't rain tonight because all of my laundry is outside to dry. After talking to Mom for a while I realized I was extremely tired. My dilemma was that it was already 7 and I wasn't sure if it was too late to take a nap. I decided I would take a short nap and then go to dinner with Anne. I woke up around 8:15 and called Anne at 8:45. We decided it was too late for me to meet them at Santa Croce and said we would hang out later this weekend. I made dinner around 9. So here we are at 10. As usual, my plan is to relax tonight on the couch and probably watch Dark Knight yet again. My plan for tomorrow, sleep late and get some printing done in the dark room before it gets too crazy with finals coming up. 

What I Would Do For An Xray

Ciao! So today was a rather good day. I started it off by not being able to fall asleep again, this seems to becoming a trend. Once I fell asleep, however, I slept very soundly until my alarm went off at 8. I was reluctant to get out of bed, but I needed to take a shower and get to class by 9. I rolled into class right at 9 feeling very sleepy. I find it strange that I was so tired because when I first got out of bed and into the shower I was feeling pretty good. Jacopo likes to make fun of my tiredness and today he decided take the hood on my sweatshirt and attack me with it before viewing my contact sheet. Today in class we had pretty much a free day with a quick demo on mounting and matting, something I already know how to do. After the demo, and a coffee, I printed some contact sheets and then sat a read something he wanted us to read for class. I also spent most of my time thinking about how I am going to present my final 10 images for the critique. I know I want to mount and not matte them on a thick piece of board. Jacopo showed us one kind of board that is black and durable, but the problem is that I would end up spending 100 euro of 10 pieces of board. The other options are either foam core, which I do not like to use, or aluminum board. I might get the aluminum board, but first I need to figure out how I am going to cut it since I do not think an Xacto will cut through it. During the course of class Jacopo had suggested that I go to a concert that he is going to on Sunday of a string quartet, since he knows how important music is to me. At the end of class he showed me on the map where the theater is so that I could go get tickets if I decided to go. Class was over and I had to go home and get my laptop and Italian books before heading to the Design Center. I was already 10 minutes late and it was about to become 25 minutes because I started to not feel well with my stomach. I got to class for the last half an hour and was feeling better. My teacher said the class was going to take a mock-final on Monday and I could come if I want to since I dropped the class. I don't think I am going to go and take it. I will take the opportunity to have a free day and try to get some work for my other finals done. After Italian I went to graphic design which was extremely boring for me today. In the beginning of class I started getting all kinds of ideas for potential art projects, that have nothing to do with school. One of my ideas involves x-rays and I am very excited to get working on it. However, I cannot start until I get home because I have no x-rays here in Italy. As the class was ending my teacher wanted us to start on an extra project that was only for the intermediate students, I am in this group. This project is somewhat overwhelming to me because I am not sure how to present my data or if my data is even accurate. I was extremely happy when 4 o'clock rolled around so I could leave class and go home. I was going to take a nap when I got home but decided to try to find the theater for the concert on Sunday since I was planning on going. After walking around for a little bit I found it and bought myself a ticket. I'm pretty excited to go and do something that I would normally not do. When I got home I realized I was extremely hungry. This was probably due to the fact that I had only had a panino at 10 and a bag of chips to eat all day. I took out some chicken that was mainly all fat and gristle to cook. After realizing that piece of chicken wasn't worth cooking, I took out another piece and made myself a very tasty dinner.  Once dinner was done I talked to my roommate Sam a little bit and then took a very relaxing shower. The rest of my night I am going to relax and maybe draw a little since my creative juices seem to be flowing.

I Bought A Non-Apple Product!

So today was a really good day for me. I started my day out sleeping in. I had nothing to get up for, so I didn't set my alarm and decided to get up whenever my body woke me up. I rolled out of bed around 10:45 and felt great despite some normal grogginess. I had about an hour to get ready before I had to be in class. I took my shower and made lunch and actually got to class a little bit early. Today is the day we meet with the T.A.s to speak Italian rather than sitting and learning right from the book. We got assigned to a new T.A. today, which I found strange since we only have 2 more T.A. days including today. I really liked my old T.A., but the new woman was extremely helpful and my new group was a lot of fun. After class was over I walked home, but made a quick stop at the market to get some chicken on my way. When I got home I wrapped each piece of chicken and then went to catch the bus to the fresco studio. I decided to take the bus to the studio for 2 reasons: it looked like it was going to rain, and I wanted to get there quickly so I could get started painting. As I walked into the studio, Mario said it was too late to start painting a new fresco but I could mix my colors so I would be all set to go on Friday. I did this and left the studio within half an hour. I decided to walk home since the sky cleared up and it was so nice outside. As I reached the Uffizzi, I started to get hungry so I decided to stop and get some gelato. Normally I would get it to go, but I had been walking for a while so I stopped at a place I could sit down and take my time. After enjoying my favorite gelato I walked around the city trying to find the apple store because my headphones had started to die. Not only was the sound starting to go on the headphones, but they were grey from charcoal and paint and the rubber was falling off from how much I have used them. After walking around for about 20 minutes I finally found it. I decided on getting a non-apple brand that the guy at the store was better quality and cheaper. When I got home I tried them out and they seem to be great.  After chatting with my mom for a little bit I took a nap and woke up around 6, just in time for dinner. However, Stacy had taken over the kitchen because she was cooking dinner for her parents. I waited until 7:30 when she was finished and made myself some pasta and chicken, which was so good. The rest of my night will consist of relaxing, talking to my friends, and planning out my final for graphic design.

Sydney

So today was an alright day, nothing special. I went to bed around 11:45 last night, which is pretty early for me, because I had a bad headache. I was worried it would turn into a migraine since it was hurting so bad and I had already started getting nauseous. I had trouble falling asleep because of the pain, but once the Tylenol kicked in I slept very soundly. I got up at 8 to shower before class at 9. My plan for class today was to process the film I had shot over the weekend so I could get started on my final. When I got to class I was completely exhausted, I do not function well if I get up before 9, so I went and got a coffee. The coffee woke me up and I was able to start working. Instead of processing my one roll of film that was finished, I went out and shot the remainder of film that was in my camera. The smallest tanks we have are 2 roll tanks for processing and I don't like to process one roll if I can help it. Once I finished shooting I came in and started processing. As I put the developer into the tank two of my classmates realized that they got their tanks mixed up and accidently opened one way too early. I got a little nervous because there was a slight chance that the tank was mine and  that was why the film inside had no pictures on it. As I continued developing I also ran into the problem that the water was too cold. I went and got Jacopo after trying for about half an hour to get it above 15 degrees celsius, as soon as he touched the water control it went to the right temperature. After I was done I was relieved to find my film was in fact my film and had pictures on it. After class I went home to grab my laptop and books for my other classes and went straight to Italian. Italian went pretty well and was a lot of fun because there were only 6 or 7 of us there today. Next I had graphic design. I was kind of disappointed when I walked in and found that we had a guest speaker. The speaker only took about an hour so I had the rest of class to show my teacher my finished project. As I was waiting for my teacher to come to my laptop to see my project, the speaker's friend who is a graphic designer I think came over to me. She asked if I was a graphic design major. I told her I was and she said it was perfect for me because of how attentive I was. I was thrilled. After this compliment my teacher came to look at my project and loved it. I left class very happy with everything. I walked home as quickly as I could because it was drizzling and I didn't want my leather bag to get ruined or to get caught in a downpour. As I got settled in the apartment my stomach started growling so I made some salmon and reheated my pasta from yesterday. I am now relaxing on the couch talking to Mom and some friends online. I am somewhat upset because while I was eating dinner Mom told me that Chris called her yesterday. He said he can't take care of Sydney anymore and wanted to know what to do with her. I am upset because Sydney is such a sweet cat and it breaks my heart to think of putting her down or sending her to the SPCA. In addition to being upset about my cat, I was kind of annoyed that he did not talk to me about it. He and I have been online at the same time a lot recently. Even though we have not talked in the past few months because of personal issues, this is not about us. So I am now trying to think of a good home for Sydney that would be willing to put up with her bladder problem rather than killing her. I feel like if he took her to the SPCA she would just be put down because of her bladder problem or not being adopted. She is such a sweetheart and deserves a good home and family that can care for her. Poor Sydney.

Could It Get Any Better?

So today was a really great days for me. I started my day out waking up at 8 thanks to the construction right outside my window. I drifted in and out of sleep for the next hour until my alarm went off at 9 and I got up. I wanted to sleep later, but I needed to go to the lab and get blood work done. So, I got up, showered, and got to the lab by 10. As I walked home I left both my jacket and my hoodie off because it was so warm out. When I got home I checked my email and then did some Italian homework before going to class. Class went well since we are just reviewing for the final. I may stop going to the class in the next week or so since I am not planning on taking the final. After class I came home to find the results of my blood work waiting in my email. I was very happy to find that my platelets were 239,000 since I did not get the full treatment on Friday. I hope that this number will hold out until I get home since Dr. Travis said if I need to have a treatment again it can only be high dose steroids since I had the reaction on Friday. After chatting with my mom for a while, I created an account on Flickr to upload some of my photos and work I have been doing. While the pictures uploaded I decided to go for a walk. I took my camera and a sketchbook with me. I went down to the river and ended up drawing and shooting for about an hour. I did a small drawing of the little waterfall next to the park that I am pretty happy with since I am not that fond of drawing. Today was such a beautiful day that it just added to my walk. It was supposed to rain today, so it was a treat to have such warm and sunny weather. After my walk I came home and found that my pictures did not upload. So I had to upload them about 4 at a time which was frustrating. In addition to that frustration Flickr kept freezing, so it took me about 3 hours to get everything I wanted uploaded and labeled. Once I was done with Flickr I realized I was really hungry since I had eaten lunch at 11:30 this morning and it was about 6. I made myself some salmon and pasta which was so tasty. I am not sitting and trying to decide what I want to do for the rest of the night. I have a feeling that tonight is going to be a great night as today was a great day. 

Here Comes The Rain

So today was an extremely boring day. I woke up around 11 and was surprised I slept so late since I usually sleep until 10:30 without an alarm set. I got out of bed and remembered that today is daylight savings here in Italy. So that means I really did get up at 10 and not 11 because we had to set the clocks forward and my computer and ipod adjusted automatically. I knew today was going to be a dreary day because I could hear the rain outside hitting the window. I had a list of things to do today so I got up and started my list. The first thing to do was take a shower and then clean the bathroom. After I finished cleaning the bathroom I sat down at my desk and worked on some homework. I actually finished my calender that I am working on for graphic design. After finishing the calender I moved on to writing up some artists statements for my previous projects. By the time I was finished with all that work I decided to take a break and just relax. I messed around online for a little while and then decided to make some dinner. I made my last piece of chicken which was so good and reheated my pasta from last night. As I was eating my pasta I realized that I was not liking the sauce that I put on it. I had bought a new sauce and thought I would like it, I was wrong. I threw away about a quarter of the pasta because it was staring to gross me out. After dinner I realized that I needed to take my Warfarin, but didn't know how much to take since my INR went from above 3 to below 2 overnight. Mom and I spent about half an hour trying to figure it out. I ended up taking 6mg and hope that that was the correct amount to take. I guess I will find out tomorrow when I retest my INR. So I spent my day inside today, except for a quick trip to Conad, because of this horrible rainy weather. It looks like it is going to rain everyday for the rest of the week. Hopefully I can stay dry and warm.

What A Day

So today was an icky day for me. I went to bed pretty late last night, but I didn't mind because I had all intentions on sleeping late today since I had nothing to do. I fell asleep almost immediately and slept very soundly until about 8 this morning. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I got back in bed to go back to sleep I heard that they are started working on the construction right outside my window. I had a really bad headache from my treatment yesterday and was frustrated because the construction was so loud I couldn't fall back asleep. I tried sleeping with my hands covering my ears for an hour and when that didn't work I got up and put my ipod on. This didn't work very well either. I did fall asleep for a few minutes on and off. At 10:30 I was so fed up with not being able to sleep, and my headache had just gotten worse, I decided to get up and start my day. I took some Tylenol which did not help and then realized it was about to rain which was probably another reason I had a headache. I brought my laundry in so it would dry before the rain started. After taking a shower and eating lunch I went down to the market to talk to Guiseppe because Mom had called me last night to tell me he sent the wrong bag home and to see if I could exchange it for the correct one. I talked to him and he said he couldn't exchange the bag for me because I didn't have the bag in Italy and said I would have to buy the new one. I asked if I could buy the new one and have my mom mail me the incorrect one and then get a refund for that one once he got it. He said no because I paid with a credit card. I called Mom and she said to buy the bag on credit card and that he was scamming us so she was going to call the credit card company and report him. That would be my luck. After talking to him I decided to go for a short walk before going home. I decided to be a tourist today and I bought a tshirt that I find pretty funny and a zip-up hoodie that says Firenze on it, something I have been wanting to remember my time here by. After my little bought with retail therapy, I came home and messed around online for about an hour and did some homework. I got really tired and still had a headache so I decided to take a nap around 3:30. This was the perfect idea because I woke up at 6 and felt so much better. I got up and made some dinner, pasta with a new sauce I'm not thrilled with and chicken. As I was coking and eating I decided to watch the first half of the Sci-fi series Tin Man. The rest of my night will probably be watching Tin Man, relaxing, and doing some work on my graphic design project.

Quick Reaction

So today was a rather long day but not bad. I started my day off getting up at 8:30 so that I could get to fresco on time for once since I would have to leave early. I checked my email and Dr. Travis wanted me to check my INR daily so I did that before I left for class, it was high again. I left to go buy bus tickets since it was already 9 and I wanted to get there as fast as possible. I got the tickets but I sat in the back of the bus and I didn't have to use them since the driver wasn't checking today. I got to class and had a really good time like I always do with my Mario and my friends. I was not able to paint a fresco, even though we are working on a much smaller scale. However, I did get my image drawn out. I decided to draw a tiger, which I actually traced. By the time I was done tracing and poking holes into the tracing paper I needed to leave to get to SACI and have them call me a cab. I got on the bus and after about 4 stops realized I got on bus number 33 not 23! I got off the bus when I knew where I was, at the piazza near the Design Center. I got off and started walking then realized I was turned around and had walked to the wrong side of the piazza. I walked as fast as I could to SACI since this bus took me a lot longer to get back and I got turned around. I got there and Sam called me a cab. It was smooth sailing from there. The cab dropped me off and I was only a few minutes late. As I was waiting to get my treatment started I realized that I forgot to get a panino and had eaten nothing all day except drinking a cup of coffee at the fresco studio. They set me all up with my IV and I asked for some food and they brought me some crackers, a banana, and a yogurt. I ate everything because I was so hungry and watched The Dark Knight. As the movie ended I felt like I was having some acid reflux or something in my throat and chest as I got up to go to the bathroom. When I cam out of the bathroom the pain in my throat and chest had gotten worse so I told the nurse. She said ok and went to get someone. As I sat back down in my chair I got extremely hot, worse pain, and started to cough repeatedly because I was having some trouble breathing. Within minutes I had 2 nurses and a doctor around me taking my blood pressure and pulse-ox. The doctor told me he was going to stop the treatment, I only had 1 bottle left, and give me steroids. I got 2 shots of steroids and 2 bags of fluids before they would let me go home. After the steroids went in I felt much better. I took a cab home and was ready to relax for the rest of the day. I took a shower because I felt gross from sweating so much durning the reaction. After my shower I made dinner, pasta and salmon. While I was making dinner and doing some laundry our power went out 2 times which was annoying. After dinner I was craving some cookies and was out so I ran down to Conad, the supermarket, and bought some and a pack of 2 light bulbs since one of ours was out. When I came home I attempted to change the bulb, which you would think would be easy. I put the first bulb in and it blew out immediately, but I did not know this until I tried for about 5 minutes to turn it on. I threw out the bulb and put in the second one that worked just fine. So I am now sitting on the couch relaxing for the rest of the night.

A Good Day

So I knew as soon as I woke up this morning that today was going to be a really good day. I went to bed early last night because my shoulder was cramping up very badly, I was grouchy from the pain, and I was exhausted. I fell asleep almost immediately and slept very soundly until about 7:45. When my alarm went off at 8 I got out of bed and felt groggy, but refreshed. I got ready as fast as I could because I needed to go to get my blood drawn before class at 9. I got my blood drawn rather quickly and actually made it to class right on time. After an hour of demos, Jacopo explained to me the final project and then gave us the rest of class to print or go out and shoot. I had nothing I wanted to print, so I decided to go out and shoot. I went home to get my camera and check my email before doing so. I was disappointed to find that my blood results hadn't been emailed yet, but it was still pretty early. However, I was thrilled to find an email from Mike that had his hotel stuff in it. I was relived because I was hoping he hadn't lied to me and now I knew for sure he hadn't. This just made my day so much better. After shooting I went home and made myself a sandwich before I headed over to Italian. I got to the Design Center right at noon but only saw one of my classmates. I asked her if we had class, I didn't know since I missed a day of class. She told me that the class got spilt up into groups for Thursdays and Fridays. Marta, my teacher, said I could just come on Thursdays since I have fresco on Fridays. After class, which was a lot of fun with only 6 of us, I went to Graphic Design and checked my email again. I found my blood results which were not good. My platelets are 32,000, which is very low, and my INR was 3.6 which is very high. I went to SACI main building to talk to Chiara, but she was at lunch so I left her a note. Afterwards I ran home and got my sketch pad which I had forgotten and went back to class. M teacher came to check on my work and said she liked my idea but didn't like one aspect of it, which she did like last week. So I spent the majority of class changing that aspect of my design and trying my best to get the project done. After class I went to SACI and Chiara told me I was scheduled for a treatment tomorrow at noon. This is good because I can go to a few hours of fresco, but it is also bad because that means I will be there longer. Keep your fingers crossed that my IV works. The rest of my night consists of dinner, a nice hot shower, fighting with our wifi, and relaxing.

ER? Just Kidding

So today I was supposed to go to the ER with Chiara to get my shoulder looked at and make sure everything is alright. I got up early for a Wednesday, at 8:30, which was not easy for me to do because I had trouble falling asleep again last night. Chiara and I got to SACI at the same time and Daniela filled her in on what was going on. We decided to call Dr. Longo and see what he thought before going to the ER since I was feeling pretty good and had very little pain. After about an hour we finally reached him and he said I did not have to come in to the ER. I was relived because I really did not want to go since I was feeling better. We also said I would check my blood counts tomorrow and scheduled a treatment on Monday for me because I do not want to miss fresco on Friday since I only have 2 more classes. However, if my platelets are between 30 and 35 I will have to miss it on Friday. After I left SACI I went home and was going to skip my meeting with the T.A. since I was so tired but I decided to take a shower and go. Class went pretty well and I came home and took a few hour nap. When I woke up I felt pretty good. It was the perfect nap because I was home alone so it was quiet, I got to sleep right away, and it was early enough that I am tired now and hopefully will sleep well tonight. After my nap I got up and talked to Mom and a friend for a while before I made dinner. As I got up to make dinner I realized my shoulder was starting to hurt again and I was having trouble lifting my arm above my head. After dinner the pain was still there so I took some Tylenol and a hot shower to try to relieve some of it. It is still hurting when it cramps up so I have to keep moving it and cracking it like I do with my fingers or my knees. The rest of my night will consist of doing some Italian homework and relaxing as usual. I may work on my graphic design project if I get bored as well. 

No Bologna For Me

So today I was supposed to go to Bologna for the day with my graphic design class, but that did not happen. So let me back up and start my day off with last night as I usually do. Last night was rough for me because of my shoulder. I don't know what I did or didn't do to it, but I was in a lot of pain. I started to freak out because I remembered this summer having shoulder pain before I had the clots. I emailed my doctors and went to bed in a lot of pain. I had trouble finding a spot to lay that was comfortable, but found one and slept so soundly. I was exhausted. I think all the stress of being sick and that I had over Mike had caught up to me and was just exhausting me in all ways. I got up at 8:15 and was in a lot of pain. I checked my email and the doctors said I should get examined and an xray. I decided I was going to try to go on the field trip anyway, but by the time I got to the bus I was in so much pain I decided I needed to see a doctor. Dr. Kerr was not in until midday so I went home and went to sleep until noon. After I woke up my shoulder was still hurting a lot, but I was able to move it around some. Dr. Kerr said he didn't think I needed an xray since he was pushing on it pretty hard and I had no pain with that. He suggested going to the ER but said he thought it was either Crohn's joint pain or a sever stiff neck. I went home and talked to Mom about it. As we talked, the pain started to go away. She suggested I call Dr. Longo. I went to SACI and they called but he was not in. Dr. Baldini was in and said to go to the ER. Daniela and I decided I would wait until tomorrow morning when Chiara could go with me since my pain was not that bad. I took a hot shower after this and that helped with the pain a lot. I am still in some pain, but I am able to move my arm and neck and do everything with minimal pain. I think it was just a sever stiff neck, but I am still going to get tested tomorrow just because I am scared of clotting again. So for the night I am going to relax and maybe watch a movie a little later. I just ate dinner and made way too much pasta, so that will probably be my snack later as well. I am in a very good mood. I think I am starting to calm down with the stress of everything from the past week. 

Sleep Would Be Nice

So today was a somewhat crappy day for me. As usual it started last night for me. I went to bed around 12:30 after talking to a bunch of people for a few hours. I felt exhausted but unfortunately I had taken a nap around 5 that afternoon. This meant that I couldn't fall asleep since my body or my mind, not sure which, was too awake. I think I finally fell asleep around 3:30 or 4, but I kept waking up. I had a rough night because my shoulder was hurting from my nap. I think I slept on it funny when I took the nap and woke up in pain. So after sleeping I got up at 9:30 to go to the lab to get blood work done. I was surprised at how warm it was outside and the short wait I had at the lab. I got back home by 10:30, took some Tylenol for the pain in my shoulder, and took a shower. I think the heat from the shower helped with the pain because I was able to lift my arm above my head afterward. I checked my email and then went to class. As I sat in class I started feeling like I couldn't stay awake. I was so happy when class was over to go home and sleep. I had planned on scanning my prints from photography, but I was just too tired and walked home. I made myself a sandwich and talked to Mom for a few minutes before I took a nap. I laid down and slept for about an hour then woke up and slept again for another hour, not restful. I got up and went to see Dr. Kerr about my feet. He said he didn't think it was anything to worry about and wasn't sure why my one toe is still blue. I walked to SACI and got my blood results to tell Chiara so we could call Dr. Longo. However, she had left early so it will have to wait until Wednesday when we are both back. Next up for me was to come home and make some dinner. I heated up my pasta from last night, but the meat in the sauce kind of grossed me out so I threw it out and made new pasta. I am still hungry so I think I might take out some chicken to thaw while I take a shower and then cook that as a late snack. Sounds like a plan to me.

Not So Cold

So it is Sunday yet again in Firenze. I started off my day staying up late talking to some friends and watching Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull last night which means that I slept in this morning. When I woke up I was so warm I did not want to move, but I knew I had to get up at some point. So I got up and started my day. I was feeling pretty good and my feet were not blue, that is always a good thing. After I took my shower I checked my emails and found a very long one from Mike with flight information attached. So, at this point I had no idea what to do and what to believe anymore. I figured I would just think on it some more like I had been planning to do. So after all that I went to SACI to see about getting our heat turned up so I would have less of a chance of turning blue again. Sam, the guy at the desk, told me how to turn it up but I got confused. Today was much warmer than yesterday and Sam said it should stay warm from now on. However, I told my mom that I would stay inside today and that is what I did. It was a very boring day since I didn't have anything to do but think. I did a lot of thinking about my situation with Mike and came up empty, I have no idea what to do. As I was eating dinner I logged into second life to talk to some friends and saw that he had taken me off his friends list and stuff. This just confused me since he said he loved me, why do that? So, after being upset and confused I talked to a friend who was talking with him. She said he thought I was done and wanted nothing to do with him. So I am feeling lost as to what to do. I wish someone would just choose for me and make it easy. So the rest of my night I am going to do some Italian and try to figure things out.

Lies and Blue Feet

So today was an interesting day for me. I started my day off waking up to construction yet again but at 10:30 and not 7 this time. I got up and made myself a sandwich and then took a shower. I need almost as soon as I got out of bed that it was going to be freezing outside so I dressed with an extra shirt. After checking my emails and relaxing I decided to go for a walk, something I had actually planned to do yesterday. Pretty soon after I started walking, by the time I got to the Duomo, I realized my right foot was numb. At this point I had just left home so I decided to go into a snack bar and get some coffee to warm up. I spent about half an hour inside drinking my coffee and feeling returned to my foot. As I walked around I periodically went into shops to warm up. After walking around the stores I decided to go to the river to clear my head of all the crap Mike has cause the last few days. I went down to a little park and watched the ducks for about an hour or so and left smiling. I was calm and cold so I went home. I got home and felt even colder that I felt being outside. I got all the feeling back into my hands after about half an hour. As I was talking to one of my friends online Mike logged in and I confronted him. He denied everything and still does. Just as I started to calm down from the stress he was causing me, and finally had stopped shaking from the stress and the cold, I realized I couldn't feel my foot again. I changed positions thinking it was how I was sitting and that did nothing. I took m slipper and sock off and tried to warm it up but that did not help either. At this point I decided to run it under warm water in the tub for a while and see if that helped before I went to a hospital. After about 5 minutes my white skin started turning blue! As the blue came into my toes I stared getting feeling into them as well. I could feel my other foot just fine, but I decided to put that one in warm water as well and the same thing happened. It is a very scary and disturbing feeling to watch your toes turn blue. After about 15 minutes my feet went back to being pink and I had feeling. I called my mom panicked because I had never had this happen before I wasn't sure what to do. She was as lost as I was. I decided to make dinner and see how I was after. As my chicken was cooking I started researching blue and numb feet online and came up with Raynauds Phenomenon. I was diagnosed with this in high school. I found that extreme cold and or stress, both of which I had been exposed to, can cause an episode. These episodes can cause numb, blue, and tingling feet, hands, and sometimes the tip of the nose. As I read that Mom called with the same information. We decided that I will be staying inside for the rest of the weekend and going to a doctor on Monday to make sure I am not clotting. I took a hot shower after dinner to stay warm in addition to my 2 shirts, 2 hoodies, socks, and slippers. As I was in the shower I kept checking my feet and the were a little blue on the bottoms. after the shower I got back into my layers and then into my bed which has 3 blankets on it. Two of my toes still have a little bit of blue on the bottom of them but I am feeling pretty warm, my legs especially since my laptop is on them as I sit in bed. So I will be inside tomorrow doing all I can to stay warm and stress free. I will only be leaving the apartment to go to SACI to see if we can have our heat turned up, then back home. Despite all the sickness, stress, and drama I have had while in Italy, I am still glad I came. I would not trade this time here for anything and I have learned so much about living, about other people, and about myself. Going home and or staying home seems like it would have been so much better and much easier, but I am in love with Florence and a part of my heart will always be here. 

A Bad Day

So my bad day started last night. Last night I got an IM from Mike, who was supposed to come to Italy to meet me, saying he was not coming because of work. I got really upset and sad because I was very excited to meet him after having been talking for almost a year. After a while of talking to some of my friends and family I realized that he probably never even made plans to come. It made sense to me because he would never give me flight info when I asked him for it. So I decided to go to the hotel today and ask about it. However, I needed to sleep and go to class first. So I went to bed and had a hard time falling asleep because I kept hearing this motor noise in the wall and then a strange beeping. I finally fell asleep then was awakened around 7 am because of the construction being done outside and I kept thinking it was my alarm going off. On top of the construction, the wind was blowing so hard that the shudders were banging up against the building. My alarm finally went off and I got up and went to get lab work done. I then started walking to the fresco studio listening to my music in the freezing cold wind. It is strange how fast the weather changes here. It can go from being very warm to very cold literally over night. I got to fresco and drew out my next piece and then attempted to paint it. The painting was not going well because it was not being absorbed fast enough so the paint all mushed together. I started to get very frustrated with it because I was still upset and angry about last night and very tired and hungry. So my class and I went to get some lunch. However, my stomach decided to start hurting as I ate so I packed up and brought the food home with me for later. I finished the fresco and was very unhappy with it, so I didn't even bother to take a picture like I usually do. After class I took the bus home and stopped at the hotel Mike told me he was staying at to see if he ever made a reservation. I found out he did not and I left feeling livid. I went home and found out that my platelets are low which means I will probably have a treatment in the near future. So I made dinner and I am now talking to some friends online. I am supposed to go out tonight with Guiseppe. I am just waiting for his call to go. I actually hope he doesn't call because I am so tired, but if he does I am going out to get my mind off things for a little while. I just need some sleep and I will be better tomorrow I am sure.

My First Thunder Storm

So today was a pretty good day. I started out with not being able to fall asleep last night. Even though I could not fall asleep last night I did not feel sleepy most of the day. I got up and went to my photo class. Today we had our second project due which means that we were having a critique. When I showed my images Jacopo only had one comment that one of my prints was printed a little too dark. He said I have improved and that all of my prints were well done. I was one of the first critiques so there were about 5 more after me. This made the class feel very long and I started to zone out about half way through because I had only had a piece of toast for breakfast. After class I stopped to get a panino from my favorite snack bar but they were out of the kind I like so I got a piece of pizza and a Coke in hopes to get rid of the headache I had developed. I walked quickly to Italian because I was late. As the class went on I started feeling better and more awake. Once Italian was over I went to graphic design and worked on my project. I got a lot of work done o the project even though I still have a lot left to do. After class I came home and was feeling very hungry and tired. I had a snack so I wouldn't ruin my dinner. As I was sitting talking to some friends and listening to music I heard a loud bang. I thought it was just someone being loud out on the street until it happened a few more times then I realized it was thunder. We have not had a thunder storm since I have been here. It only last about half an hour which was nice. However, I forgot that I had put some clothes outside yesterday to dry. When I remembered I went running to bring them in because it had just started down pouring. I got my clothes in and put them in front of the heater to dry. After the storm I made some dinner then took a shower after dinner. As I was in the shower Guiseppe called and wanted to go out tonight, I called him when I got out of the shower. We decided to go out tomorrow because I just didn't feel like going out tonight and I was already in my pajamas. So I probably will call it a night a little early tonight and try to get some sleep since I have not been falling asleep so well. 

The Music Of Fresco

So today a was really good day for me. However, my night was not so good. I stayed up late because I didn't have class until noon today. I stayed up listening to music that my friend was DJing for me over itunes. I went to bed and had a really hard time falling asleep because the people upstairs were taking a shower and I could hear the water running. In addition to the water running, my roommate and her friend came home around 2 and were being very loud for about an hour. I think I fell asleep around 3 and I got up at 10:30 to start getting ready for class. When I woke up I felt pretty good and had a good start to my day. Before I went to class I downloaded some music that my friend had played for me last night. I have been listening to this music all day and it put me, and kept me in a good mood. After class I went home to drop off my books before walking to the fresco studio to paint. I got to the studio and my roommate Meg was there finishing up one of her frescos, which look great. I painted mine in about an hour and a half. I am very happy with how it turned out. It was a painting I did from a photo that I edited in photoshop of my eyes. The only thing is that the colors on the fresco are much duller, but thats because you cannot get such intense colors with fresco paint as you can with other paints because they are dry pigments that are simply watered down. After painting I took my time walking home because it was a beautiful, warm day. By the time I got to the Duomo, I realized how hungry I was because I had only had a sandwich to eat before my Italian class.  I decided to stop at my favorite gelato shop and get some. I ate that as I walked home and finished just before getting home. Once I was home I realized how tired I was and decided to stay in for the rest of the night. I took out some chicken and got dinner ready while downloading some more music that I didn't get to download earlier. While I was eating my stomach started to hurt so I ate very slowly. After dinner I started doing my Italian homework, which I am still working on now. I'm having a hard time with it because it is stuff we just started to learn. So the rest of my night will be listening to music and doing Italian homework and writing an artist statement for my photo project tomorrow.

To Sleep Or Not To Sleep, Stupid Question

So I started my day with turning my alarm off and going back to sleep. Actually, I was up before my alarm went of because Stacy's alarm went off at 8 and she was loud getting ready. I was more reluctant to get up today than most days because I was not sure I had class this morning. I saw Jacopo on Sunday and he told me that he would not be in class today but we can print and process with the T.A. Libby. So, I got up and was completely exhausted and went to class. I talked to Libby about my project and she helped me pick out some images for the critique on Thursday. After deciding on images Libby said I could leave and go do something else since I had no printing or processing to do. I decided to go home and sleep, even though I should have gone out shooting. I was just too tired to shoot. I set my alarm for 10:30 which gave me about an hour to sleep. I woke up on my own and felt like I ha slept for hours. I looked to see what time it was and my ipod would not turn on. I started to panic slightly because I thought my ipod was broken and that I missed my class. I looked at the time on my computer and saw it was 11:30 and I still had half an hour to get to class. I stopped to get a panino and then walked to class and actually got there early enough to do a few sketches for another class. Class went pretty well. We had a quiz that was kind of hard because I still don't know all the vocab. After Italian I went to graphic design and got some positive thoughts on my next project. I started working on the project but encountered a few problems because I do not know how to use Illustrator that well. After spending most of my time fighting with it, my teacher told me to do it in InDesign, which was a lot easier. After class I came home and took out salmon to thaw for dinner. Stacy had told me yesterday that the freezer was smelling bad and she thought it was my fish. Turns out she was right and the salmon smelled pretty bad. I decided to take it out to the trash and buy some new food in the supermarket. I bought some already made salmon and a few other things. I then came home home and made the salmon and some pasta for dinner. After dinner I went to sit down to write todays blog but my stomach had other plans for me. As I sat down on the couch I got a horrible pain in my stomach. I am finally feeling better and might even eat some cookies a little later. 

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

So today was probably the nicest day we have had since I have been in Florence. It was so warm outside today that I walked around in my hoodie with the sleeves pushed up and no jacket. I started my day with sleeping until 10 and waking up to this beautiful weather. As I got up and around I of course got a stomach ache. This seems to be a recurring theme, waking up with a stomach ache. After getting ready for my day I made a sandwich and was happy that my stomach handled the cheese alright. I then walked to my Italian class. Class went alright and I talked to my teacher after class about dropping it. She said that it was fine and I am still welcome to participate in the class. After class I walked home and got my camera. I decided that it was too nice of a day to waste so I took a walk. As I walked around I began to get frustrated because I was not sure what to take pictures of. I guess I was not feeling creative at that point. After about an hour of waling around I came home with the intention of taking a nap. This never happened because I got distracted by talking to my friends online. I was slightly productive and did some of my Italian homework. After doing this for a few hours I decided to have an early dinner. I made myself some tortellini with ham in them. They were pretty good until I bit into one and couldn't chew something. This made me lose my appetite and I threw the rest our because I knew I would not eat them. So I am not just sitting talking to a friend and waiting for Guiseppe to call because we are going out tonight. 

Dark Room Sunday

So today was a good day for me. I got sleep late which always puts me in a good mood. However, I woke up to a stomach ache, but after about 15 minutes of being up and around the stomach ache went away and I was able to start my day. I had planned on going to the dark room today to make some prints but I couldn't do that until 1 so I waited around the apartment until then. After taking a shower I made myself a procuitto and cheese sandwich which I was a little nervous about eating because of the stomach ache I woke up with and my stomach was a little queasy. I handled the sandwich just fine and by the time I was done eating it was almost 1. I got my photo stuff together and headed down to the market to give Guiseppe his picture I printed for him yesterday and to buy some bags from him as gifts for people. He loved the picture and helped me out with the bags and said he would ship them home for me tomorrow morning. After chatting and buying from Guiseppe I realized that I had forgotten my negatives so I ran home and got them on my way to SACI. I like to go to the dark room on the weekends and print because I am usually the only in there and can go at my own pace without the hassle of other people. I got a lot of printing done. At one point Jacopo came in looking for my T.A. and helped me with a print.  I spent about 3 hours printing and got some very good prints done I think. I still have some more printing to do since I am now developing my idea for the project that is due on Thursday. After printing I dropped my stuff off at home and decided to go for a walk because it was so warm outside today. My walk was cut short, however, because my stomach started to hurt from a cookie I had eaten. I decided to go home and thaw my chicken I was going to cook for dinner and watch a movie. I watched the end of the Sci-Fi series called Tin Man and I am now in the middle of watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So the rest of my night will be finishing this movie and doing a few sketches for class that are due on Tuesday.