Bar Che Lona

I made my first trip if the semester last weekend to barcelona (pronounced Barchelona in italian). Getting there was interesting. I took four forms of transportation in one day. Bike, Train, Plane and Bus. The totaly trip was just under four hours but still not very direct.

Barcelona is a huge city, about the same size of rome. It is very spread out so taking the metro is a must. Lucky for us the metro was pretty easy. I met my good bud shawn in the city and we stayed at my friend ty's place. Ty is studying in Barcelona this semester, however you wouldn't be able to tell if you asked him for directions. Ty is a ton of fun and was a great host, really showed us a good time. But he did not double as a tour guide. If we went outside his 5 block comfort zone it was up to shawn's spanish and my map. Lucky for us Shawn is fluent... more importantly for us i'm great at picking maps. Another plus were Ty's two roommates Murph (va tech) and Jack (U of A). They were aweso intuition me guys who suggested good places to eat and some fun bars. Barca was a learning experience for me, my first trip of the semester so I was learning, how to pack for a weekend (laptop convenient not recommended), how to travel from place to place (figure out trains and new airports), and how to land in a new city and figure out where to go (once again, the map intuition).

 Since I was very irresponsible and didn't charge my camera I didn't get too many pictures. I will post a second Barca post with some of Shawn's pictures. In that post I will go more into detail about what we did and what we saw. This post was more to warm up my writing mind for my creative writing paper and to appease my grumpy (but probably just hungry) older brother

Also I'm going to start posting links to music on youtube. It could be music i'm feeling or music I feel sums up a trip or place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28tZ-S1LFok

Food, Wine, and Culture

Three things synonymous with Florence and the region of Tuscany in general. Even the cheap wine here ( 2.96 euro for some bottles) is good and goes down smooth, that is; if you didn't buy a twist off top. Then you should have know better, wine isn't supposed to be open by a metal twist off top, your nana should have taught you that. The culture speaks for itself here, and it is instantly felt we you arrive, however it is appreciated over time. The food is the same as the wine, you can't go wrong. I venture to say a half eaten piece of pizza on the sidewalk would still beat roundtable on its best day (granted the pizza hasn't been stepped on more than the minimum 3 people). My Dad has been bothering me for some food pictures so here it is. This was my lunch sunday. Gnocchi in four cheeses. Italian food is much like mexican food, where it is much of the same  ingredients but prepared in different ways. However  there is slightly more variety in Italian food and less attacking spices. Food is expensive here, but its all very fresh and worth the money you spend. Unless you get eggplant, then you are just crazy.

Va mi Amici

The title is the line I drop on my host mom when i'm heading to hang out with my friends. It is chopped up Italian for "i'm going out with my friends" which is usually meet by a big hearted laugh from zia sasa (aunt Sasa, its what she wants to be called) and a ciao caro, bueno serata. This is a picture of the boys from the Via Gulefa apartment (minus one, malcom was in switzerland this weekend). They are one of only two apartments of boys in our entire program. I am the adopted roommate of this apartment, its my haven where I can relax and speak some english for a little bit. Form left to right; Back Row: Me (placerville CA, PLNU) Dylan (Long Island, ASU) Kevin (Baltimore, Towson U) Matt (Lubbock, Texas Tech and once showed up to a party with thee Michael Crabtree) Eric (Bloomington Minne, Minnesota State) and Dillan (seattle, WSU). Got most of the country covered there, makes for some good sports debates and mini culture clashes. We would be smiling, but we wanted to get the point across, we are here to take a picture. This only one crew of friends, expect more

Peer Pressure

I thought my mother was the only one nagging me to post pictures that actually had me in them, but I was wrong, and regardless of how resistant the DARE program made me to peer pressure, I gave in. This past weekend I had a chance to play host in Florence. Five of Shawn's (if you know me you know my friend shawn) friends studying in Santander Spain came to Florence. I spent the weekend hanging out with them, showing them some sights and following them around when they had their own agenda. It was really fun to spend some time with these people. Since they were already friends of my good friend i felt a good time and new friends were inevitable and they were. It was also really nice to have a few people to talk to while we wondered around the city (its usually something i do with my invisible friends but they were in greece this weekend). Also most of them will be in Barcelona this weekend, which is my weekend destination as well. You think espana went loco when they won the world cup... well i was rooting for the Holland in that game...BUT just wait for the weekend.

The Medici Crib

Quick history lesson. The Medici family was a family of bankers that lived during the renaissance era. They basiclly ran things in all of italy when they were at power. extremely wealthy, extremely affluent. The Carnigies and Vanderbilts learned everything about being insanly wealthy from the medici. The Medici lived in Florence and thats where they liked to floss for all the peasants. There are three old palaces of the medici, the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, What is now the Palazzo vecchio then you cross the river to the huge Palazzo Pitti. I visited the Palazzo piti which is so big, its fair to say that young francesco medici could throw a raging house party on one side of the palace and papa larenzo would have no idea on the other side, even if the jester was playing his lyre much too loud.

I didn't want to spend much time in the modern"art"gallery so i spent my time in the "backyard" of the palace. This  place put the white house front lawn to shame, obama got no room to stroll. There was plenty of space for some good wiffle ball but somehow i don't think that space got put to good use. However the best part of the garden is the terraced land at the very top. Flowers already in bloom, plenty of trees to nap under, a huge pod complete with a fountain that has Poseidon regulating with his trident. Truly awesome area that I plan to come back to in the spring when everything is in bloom. The Medici defiantly knew how to roll in style

I've been told I got to put up some pictures of me on here. Eventually they will come. Pictures of myself are not a strong point, and where i've ventured, I have ventured alone so I haven't resorted to a self timer yet

Setting up Base Camp

Most of my recent posts have all been details so far. My bike, my guitar (coming soon my opinion on french films and their effect on post war feminism). Now seems like a good time to hype my main event. Florence( Firenze in Italian, they won't understand you if you ask how to get to Florence) Italy is my base of operations. Everything that I do this term will be from Florence, through Florence and underneath Florence if I finally find those ancient underground passages; in which case my blog will discontinue because i'll probably join an underground cult movement, change my name, stop showering and probably never come home.

Florence is stuffed with so many historical buildings, museums, shops, bars, and restaurants that my head has been spinning this whole first week. I have spent a lot of my free time exploring the city on my bike and on foot and i've already got a good grasp on the city. This city totaly personifies the  region of Tuscany and is fittingly the regions capital city. I've compiled a list of museums, restaurants, and  bars (yes mom bars) to go to while I'm here and i've already started working on those lists (plazzio pitti yesterday, post coming soon). Anyways this is Florence this place is worth the hype and meets expectations

Life is for living not living uptight

Title of this post is a small shout out to all my homies in San Diego. While I was having lunch today Jay-Z's remake of "Forever Young" came on and it make me think back to all my Young Hall homies. Miss you guys.....aaaannnd moving on. Bought a guitar today super cheap (77 euro with strap) way cheaper than shipping my own guitar out here. The Italians make it hard to ship anything over here (don't want anything sneaking in from France now do we) so I hunted down this beautiful piece of musical wood. Just about every musical instrument in the place was used and marked down, I sat down and played the piano in the shop but it was horribly out of tune but it was out of tune with character. Well I'm looking to name my new guitar because guitars don't get their true tone till they are named. So I'm opening it up to you. Leave your name in the comment box.

Hershey

This is my lifeline, my heartbeat, and my most prized possession in italy. With out it i would be very isolated and far from everything in Florence. My homestay is northwest of the train tracks while center of the city and EVERYTHING or  EVERYWHERE i need to get or to go is southeast of the train tacks. My friends apartment is the closest thing to me and it is 25 minutes by foot (everything else is another 25) and the bus routes have been inefficient in my experiences with them. However with this bike, the other side of the city is accessible in 15 minutes (20 with traffic). I can have a normal social life and daily calender with this bike and i can explore the city alot better. I already have a very good grasp on where I am in Florence at all times. Because of that Hershey as she is appropriately named ( name credit goes to my friend shelbi) deserves her own post and picture

Rome like a true local: Tour groups

Orientation for our program was last week in Rome. We were only there for 3 days and two of them were full of guided tours to all the must sees of Rome. The Coliseum, the Roman Forum, The Vatican etc.... As touristy as it was; walking around in a big group everyone with their cameras out snapping pictures of just about every building on every corner of every street.I think its the only way you can see all the things you need to see in a limited time while in Rome. Rome is bursting with history and too large for you to try and conquer it on your own. It's not bad to be a tourist if its your first time there only a fool would try and act like he as been to the Vatican before. The amount of things to see and the implications of seeing them are too great to describe. So all I can offer you is this bit of advice. Go see it for yourself