Young enough to say this has gotta be the good life.

detailed post later in the week. Back in Firenze after a week and a half of travel and life completing experiences. Halloween in Florence with SURPRISE Julie Mills and Lauren O'Halloran (who conspired with Courtney to surprise me in Italia, I literally freaked out because I hate surprises but this was the best one ever no doubt).

ABROAD CATCHPHRASE

Casually.

Everything is casual while abroad. Casually went to Paris for a weekend. Casually going wine tasting in the hills of Tuscany. Casually eating gelato next to the Duomo. You get the picture, things are real cas in Europe.

And I'm casually heading to London and Ireland for a week. Get at me.

SPOKEN TRUTH / FALL BREAK!!

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain

NOTHING will get in the way of me enjoying the next weekend in London and week in Ireland. Sleep when you're dead, excuses are for the incompetent, I will have complete and utter crazy life changing fun and life experience the next week. I don't care if I don't sleep I will get the most out of life.

So come tomorrow I will be on a plane off to London starting off my fall break, 2 days there visiting my friend Matt. Followed by (sidenote just remembered I'll be in English speaking countries for the next week WHATTUP) a flight to Dublin and a bus to Galway starting off my week of being in the homeland! Day trip date with Melaugh at Connemara, Day trip to the Aran Islands, day trip to Cork, day trip to the Cliffs of Moher, and going out making my Irish ancestors proud in Galway errnight.

So my goal before I ever went abroad was to go a full week without the book (aka Facebook), I'm on it more than a normal human should be, I just function being in touch with friends so accessibly, but alas further stepping outside my comfort zone I am going m.i.a. in the UK/IRELAND for a week.
BE BACK OCTOBER 29TH

SKYPING WITH HAL, HILARITY ENSUES

"I wish you could be here with me to smell Julie Mills with me"

"What can you wear with green pants?"

"Do you remember that youtube video GIVE ME THE BOY?"

"That had the potential to be funny but I couldn't remember the word nudist"

"Don't make that a verb..."

I might be in love with this girl...

PREGAMING LAST MIDTERM?

So it's 4 finals down

creative process in visual communication: literally did my midterm in 3 hours pre class, graphic design job done not so bad, just didnt have time to care enough on it. CHECK

business psychology: so.. much.. studying.. I love the class but damn, glad I over prepared for that one, killed it. CHECK

pastel techiniques: literally did nothing. it was a critique of all the work we have done so far, so no worries thank you very much good grade moving on. CHECK

lost symbolism: so happy this will be my last art history class ever, art history is SO much memorizing and then being able to interpret and extrapolate on top of it? Not fun. My professor let us use our book for reference for an article we had to summarize, she legit clothes-pinned our books so we could use it for other question. Needless to say, I think I owned the other 6 questions except the one that actually needed that article... but after being the second to last still in the room taking the test I really couldn't care. CHECK

now finally starting to study for my italian midterm I have in... 5 hours, haven't been able to at all until just now, oh but I have a group meeting for business psych at 4. Good thing I already have at least an A- in Italian otherwise I'd give a fuck.


also, I seem to always get in weird angry feminist music tangents during times of stressful studying. Adele pandora usually does the trick for graphic design, but damn was I in an Alanis you oughtta know, Miranda Lambert sin for a sin, Fiona Apple get gone, Sheryl Crow if it makes you happy, Kelly Clarkson walk away, Florence + The Machine kinda mood lately.

ABROAD SONG OF THE WEEKEND

I really am struggling with studying for my business psych midterm... I love that class but literally anything could be on my midterm thats common sense that I will most likely screw up. Kind of hard to manage stress/worry when I'm busy studying it for an exam. At least relearning emotional intelligence is reassuring to knowing how self-aware I am with myself abroad.

Anyways..

Everybody's Got Somebody But Me - Hunter Hayes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSYtC5W-m28

I just love the lyric, "I'd love to take a pin to a heart shaped balloon"

It's looking like I'm gonna be falling back in love with country music real soon after this one, I've been on a house/dance mood the past few weeks, probably going to transition in a country mood (not that Italy has country music, but country music is universal to actual emotions).

Though Closing Time by Semisonic was a close second as it's been stuck in my head all week.... can't wait to watch Friends With Benefits with Hal when we're reunited.

TOO SOON FOR AMANDA KNOX JOKES?

This weekend I got to finally go to Perugia and see some great Stonehill friends (Melaugh, Briana & Cait) and then go to the EuroChocolate festival!

Now I'm not the biggest chocolate fan, I don't dislike it but im far from the character on Spongebob that screams CHOCOOOLATEEEEE all the time, just grew up being indifferent about it (aside from Reese's but thats only because peanut butter cannot be denied!). All things considered its still the euro chocolate festival, Imma get buckwild over the chocolate. The second I saw the workers putting up a giant chocolate bar shaped rock wall... my week was made, I knew I was going on that.

So when Courtney and I got to Perugia Briana and Melaugh flat out would not let us take in the view from the mini metro, they started yelling DONT EVEN LOOK AT IT THATS NOT EVEN GOOD JUST WAIT, and boy were they right. The views in Italy are just so not real life constantly.

So after a 2 hour train ride and not having any breakfast/lunch.. the first thing I see when getting off the train is a sign for a McDonalds, judge away, it was damn freaking needed. Then we hope on a mini metro which is frigging adorable and taking us up Perugia like Disney monorail style. Then we get off walk outside and boom, not real life. Casual crazy views of Italy.

So we walk around see all of Perugia, see the Perugia abroader's school. Court, Melaugh and I casually get an aperitivo overlooking the mountains (Mojito, CHECK). Then we eat pizza... so.. frigging good. I got peppers on mine (though the waitress assumed I was an idiot American who didn't know peperoni meant peppers in Italian, FALSE I wanted the pepper pizza). Then we got ready for the night, casual wine sipping (learning not to hate it as much anymore, Italia has it growing on me) and went bar hopping all around Perugia. B and Shme wanted to take us to all of the hotspots. Managed to take a 2 euro shot and then Briana promised it's usually always 1 euro and then the next place we went to had a 3 euro shot, when in Perugia! My new goal is to try new things I never had (in regards pretty much to different gelato flavors and different drinks I never have) so I got a long island ice tea... then got another later in the night. Overall fantastic night, even more so when I found a receipt for a croissant that I vaguely remembered getting in the AM.

Next day, EuroChoco Festival. So. Much. Chocolate. Streets were bumping, music all involving food/chocolate/candy would play randomly, we rocked out to Lady Marmalade a good 3 or 4 times. We got the EuroChoco pass which we could go around to different booths and get free stuff, and if you know anything about me I LOVE free stuff, got a free chocolate picture frame among other things.

Where Amanda Knox's trial was, minus the chocolate festival tents... though I'm pretty sure the festival would have made BANK if that was the case.

Melaugh giving us a formal tour of Perugia "so some person was stealing water and then some girl fell in so that's why the aqueduct is now a walkway", Briana giving us an informal "some bitches put holes in the aqueduct to get free water and then some dumb biddie had to fall in a hole and drown"

yes, this is real.

literally saw priests doing a flashmob on the streets of Perugia... only in Italia

Finally arrived at Dempsey's, I discover Long Island Iced Teas..

StonehItaly

Giant frigging Chocolate bear.

First rock climbing experience was on a giant chocolate bar in Perugia? Okay okay

Take a second look, that's a chocolate lamp.

new BEST friends? yessss

Cait was so kind buying us some chocolate, for me to bite into it and realize there was nuts and I couldn't even eat it... whoops, the thought counts though.

That was rigged. Screw you Lindt I wanted a chocolate bear.

Ciao Ciao Perugia, hopefully see you again.

MIDTERMS SHMIDTERMS

Avoiding studying for my midterms that I have in a day and a half... whoops the whole studying part of the studying abroad hasn't become a main priority. My work ethic is shot, it's become a problem, but nothing new I'm procrastinating and work well under pressure. Life goes on.

SLEEP WHEN YOU'RE DEAD

So my new motto is sleep when you're dead. Pretty much sums up how I want to act for the remainder of my time abroad, I don't care I'm going to do as much as physically possible and sleep when I'm back in America, sleep when I'm dead.

So after talking to my friend Hal about thinking about the time we have left abroad and how much we want to accomplish, she came up with the challenge to do at least one thing where you step outside your comfort zone (big or small) a day. So can't exactly promise every single day I can do it, but I accepted the challenge  will be actively putting myself out here in Florence more. Granted a few hours before Hal and I talked about this I had spent 2 hours cutting my hair; whenever I am in the need for change my hair is the first thing to go. It just feels like a fresh start, sucks girls can feel liberated and buzz their hair off (I have this theory that if you cut off all her hair she'd look like a British man). However, I decided to just buzz off the sides and back and then spent forever and a day to fix the top to not make it look like a had a muffintop, and the result is surprisingly acceptable for me and strangely very European looking (I can pull off an Italian faux hawk without looking like a tool..)

ANYWAYS, so my new haircut yesterday was a symbolic transition of my abroad experience (I'm soooo deep like that) [That was sarcasm if you couldn't tell.... really wish there was a sarcastic font, it'd be the most helpful]. So then today after my art history class I had my first group meeting for my Business Psych class group project/paper (I think I lucked out hardcore cause the 3 girls I'm working with are super nice and seem like they won't want to procrastinate on this) at Astor. So Astor is this cafe/hangout very cool place during the day that transitions into a club at night, but I have avoided it like the plague the whole time I have been here because I know that's the one place that serves iced coffee similar to America. I told myself I would give up coffee completely while abroad because it's expensive and I need to save money anyway I can, but today I said fuck it and spent the damn 3 euro for an equivalent of a small Dunkin iced... but oh was it worth every useless dollar euro coin. So they picked Astor to meet to do work and needless to say I will most definitely be going back (but trying my hardest to avoid the ice coffee).

So for my project/paper we have to choose 2 workplaces in Florence, observe, take note of, etc etc and write about the organizational culture of the two places. After talking we decided on one of the leather markets and a gelato store. The leather market is super condensed and sort of claustrophobic, really perfect to talk about for our paper, but we also have to present on it with pics/videos so we walk around pretending to buy things and go to 4 carts and literally no one interacts with us, then we stop at a scarf cart and this Italian makes small talk with us and then we befriend Eduardo. He was hilarious talking to us in what English he did know, tried to get us to talk more in Italian, asking us about our stay here and studying in Firenze, but was also helpful for our paper answering all our questions. Eduardo made our day. Then we went to Festival del Gelato as our second place... dammit now I have a third favorite Gelato place. This place has to have at least 50 different gelato flavors, I'm screwed. Already ate there twice today... Mela Verde/Green Apple (so good), Limone/Lemon (can't ever go wrong with that), 5 Cereale/Five Cereal? (I have no clue which 5 cereals they were aside from cocoa pebbles but it was GOOD), Tiramisu.... need I say more? Italia is doing some SERIOUS damage to my palette for when I get back and nothing will ever compare to it.

But just the act of walking around, talking to random Italian strangers, awkwardly taking half staged photos, it was jude nice. Good afternoon, my iced coffee might have been a factor, but i'll take it.

Then for dinner a group of us went to Gusta Pizza (om nom nom) and then went out for gelato (hence why I went back in the same day).

Tomorrow Courtney and I are off to Perugia to visit some Stonehill friends, party it up in Perugia, and then get chocolate shwasted at the EuroChoco festival there. Trying to enjoy the time I have left before I slave over studying for midterms next week... which will suck. BUT then I'll be in London/Ireland for a week and a half. Boom. Roasted.

EAT/PARTY/LOVE

Okay so Julie Mills got me inspired by her wall post of a photo that read "The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything." My friends Julie and Lauren (Hal!) have definitely been comforting to me the past week and now that I'm looking on the positive and making the best of certain situations I decided to have an inspirational quote to describe my week or what I look forward to accomplishing while abroad. I have a little over 2 months left abroad... 9 weeks is not a long period by any means, to think that when I come back from fall break I'm over halfway done makes me want to vomit (not actually, just a really unhealthy phrase Jessica Mardo and I use frequently).

There's so much more I want to accomplish and gain for my abroad experience and looking back I wish it didn't take so long to adjust those first weeks because I hate missing out on things. I have done SO much so far, but it's not enough for me. I'm extremely looking forward to traveling more places (London in 10 days! followed by a week living it up and loving life in Ireland, wine tasting in the hills of Chianti, Venice, CANNES beyond happy I get to go back to France thanks to an early 21st bday gift from my sisters, and Rome) but I need more out of Florence right now and I know I will get it if I try.

With a nice burst of new music my mood has elevated (Dance/House music doesn't really allow you to not have adrenaline) so tomorrow I plan on making a end all be all bucket list to be finished before I step on the plane home December 17th.. Oh and plan out London/Ireland considering I'll be there next week.

Stepping my game up. "Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional."

ABROAD SONG OF THE WEEK

So after weeks of finding a new leaked Kelly Clarkson song for it to be shut down hours later to never find again, homegirl finally released the audio of her rumored next single. (If only I didn't have to wait to get Let Me Down back again, but I'll fully take this one.

Kelly Clarkson - What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEZDP_NVklc

Ironic choice, but it's a damn good song.

COOKING CLASS / OM NOM NOM

So with GSE our advisor Chiara (we love her) took a group of us to a cooking class where we got to make our dinner and then get the recipes once we left. The table I was working at was with Katie, Jade, Hazel, Melissa, and Martina (who works with GSE and comes along with us to all our events, she's hilarious). Our chef that was teaching us was named Fabrizio, he hit on Melissa the whole time and was creepy/funny/awkward.

Example A.

So we started out making tiramisu, I had to pleasure of mixing everything because I was the male and stereotyped to get it done with my "brute strength" but whatever it was fun. Then we made the weird eggplant/potato/zucchini/cheese appetizer. Then we learned how to make this potato filled ravoli. Mind you throughout the entire time Fabrizio is hilarious, hitting on Melissa, yelling at us, the entire room is bustling as four different tables of groups are making food. Fabrizio stops and joins in on all our pictures. Chiara is literally jumping of joy because she loved the cooking class just as much as us, actually a lot more but it was funny. So then we ate downstairs below the kitchen and its straight up Tuscan wine cellar dinner room. Unreal. Oh and the food was BOMB.

 Rocking our trash bag aprons, whattup poor living status

Next weekend going to Perugia to see some friends and the Euro Chocolate Festival!

WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER

Needless to say the past couple days have been my worst days abroad. Preface: I hate change, a lot. I worry about anything and everything so change and I are not friends, I de-friended change a long time ago. With my macbook deciding to become full blown bipolar, going from working perfectly to not working at all to spending an entire day of chaos trying to reach apple support on the phone (in english mind you) to working briefly again to going back to showing me nothing but a white screen, the apple logo, and the spinning wheel of death. This morning it miraculously decided to work for me again, but I'm only expecting the worse with this and having to spend mad dough to fedex it back to america to get it fixed because I can't get it done in Florence/Italy without it taking weeks. My laptop is how I stay sane sometimes, talking/skyping with friends around europe/us/africa, catch up on some tv shows (Greys Anatomy where has Lexie been the past episodes, did you get rid of her because of her HORRID bangs?) catch up on my pop culture fix via my own personal bible Entertainment Weekly. As much as not using technology and getting the most out of my abroad experience is important, I need this comfort zone to function sometimes.

Macbook Pro and I are on thin ice right now.... Praying to the God I don't believe in that it stays working for me.

(SIDENOTE: really sick of the mosquitos in Italy, thank you weather for finally getting colder now and hopefully they'll go away soon)

So this brings me to the inevitable abroad breakdown. Yeah Sugarland, It Happens. Everyone goes through their abroad experiencing differently, some people love it instantly never want to leave and never go down and some can't handle it and leave. I've think I needed this to become a stronger person abroad. I have no regrets about coming abroad, I may question where I choose to come sometimes, but I'm here and I'm not leaving until December 17th that's for damn sure. I find myself being constantly stressed about so many things that I can't let go. I don't know why, I just can't allow myself to. I'm not spontaneous, I'm not driven to do things outside my comfort zone easily, I'm not completely comfortable being in Florence... but you know what so fucking what, I'm not going to change into another person just because I am abroad, I'm just going to become a better me and being more self-aware of myself and the situations I am in has made me stronger. If I had to breakdown to allow myself to have more amazing  times in Florence, so be it. Shit happens. Life is what you make it. (Feel free to make stupid hannah montana reference).

We're all dealt with shitty cards, it's what are you going to do to get past those cards that matters. When the world decides to push you to your limits can you persevere? I've gone through harder times then this, and I'll get through my current rut no doubt. I'm not afraid to admit I have had a bit of a difficult time being in Florence, being in denial about it would be worse. I am done making excuses in my life, I can't control the situations am I faced with, I can control how I react. Life goes on.

Inspired by my Salamancan abroaders Julie Mills / Lauren O'Halloran for leaving me a 15 minute long video to cheer me up last night, What do say to taking chances?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKYKNZvQ6Jc

MY WORST FEAR HAS HAPPENED

So my macbook decided after skyping with my sister for 3 hours last night to freeze and then once I tried reviving it by shutting it off and back on it decides to stay attempting to load with the white screen. One of my worst fears coming abroad is that my laptop would break, and as I have found to be true my fears weren't just in my head. I spent hours trying to get to talk to an apple support worker on the phone in english, complete failed attempt. I'm already stressed about 15 million other things, the last thing I need is for my laptop to break, I can't afford it or to mentally deal with this. Luckily my sister was able to conference call me to the US support, I'm on the phone with him for an hour trying things, it's just not working, then we try some keyboard sequence (mind you I had been doing that all day trying to fix it) and I finally get to my home screen. Try some disk utility thing to check two things and they clear to be working fine but he still advised me to get to an apple technician.... great so now I have to find a way to an apple store that isn't in Florence (or find some computer store in Florence that can help but oh wait I don't speak any Italian....). Trying to back as much as possible but of course nothing is open when I need it to be (where the hell is a 24/7 CVS when you need one!) so I can't get to buy an external hard drive, so hopefully i'll be able to find one but if my computer decides to go against me again and I have to get a new hardware I'm literally going to go further insane. Yeah am I being dramatic? Yes but I damn well have a just reason for being so, this is one of the main things I just did not want to have to deal with while I was here. Wish me luck.... I swear this is Steve Jobs' ghost personally attacking me... He dies and suddenly my mac which has done me no wrong practically ever miraculously has issues? This has to be a joke.

ABROAD SONG OF THE WEEK

John Mayer - Bigger Than My Body

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ5wTHM1zkw

Thanks to Hal reminding me of this song, just where I'm feeling right now. Feel free to enjoy the hilariousness that is a baby faced old school John Mayer in the music video though.

WEEKEND WITH A VIEW

let's try this post again..

So I finally got to have a perfect weekend in Florence, that was casual/relaxing/and most importantly cheap.

Wednesday:
So I'll count this in the weekend cause after 10 hours of class on Mondays my week is for the most part over then, but also because in the morning my Lost Symbolism Art History class went to the San Lorenzo Church. Now this is a church I pass almost every other day, from the outside it looks ancient, no facade just straight rocks and earth. Total I'm old and just wait until you see inside demeanor, so when we actually went inside.. DAMN, total ornate paintings and white/gray marble everywhere, ginormous (I swear that's a legit word) ceilings. It was crazy and understandable why we weren't allowed to take any photos. However, it was pretty hilarious considering I'm the only male in my class and about 6 girls were given robes and shawls to wear because they were too revealing. Italy don't give a frig, put some clothes on Snooki & company. Then yet another hilarious Italian class with Daniele and it's officially the weekend.

Thursday:
So my Stonehill/Firenze friends and I decided to go out to dinner because in Florence it was the last night of this thing called Aperitivo: A Roof with a View, (aperitivo if i haven't mentioned before is this buffet style dinner with a free drink) and its a bunch of hotels around Florence that you can get a aperitivo dinner on their rooftops/terraces that overlook the city. So we decided to go to the first one on the list, figured if its first it must be good. We get there and find out the dinner is only for guests, but they were still nice enough to let us use the view... photo shoot opportunity GO. Also, as we are taking photos this sweet, hilarious woman from Illinois (she didn't know Tinley Park.. sorry Erin Kelly I guess you're not as well known over in Europe) who asked if we wanted a group photo.

So it's getting late and we're getting incredibly hungry so we decide to go to another hotel, and we find out its aperitivo with just cold cuts/cheese/wine/nothing really substantial at all enough to be construed into an actual meal, so after another awkward Americans not knowing what they're doing moment we bounce. Then we decide let's go to Gusta Pizza! (which I've been told by almost every person I know who's been to Florence to go there) only problem is we didn't know exactly where it was, but we did know we were on the right side of the Arno with it. We wish we hadn't make semi fools of ourselves in the hotel otherwise we could ask there, we walk past the Pitti Palace, we get useless info from a leather place, we ask random polizia, then we literally stumble upon it at the perfect time! Almost no line, and right after we order a huge line forms, get on our level.

Gusta Pizza's tables have the call number tabs under the glass with tourists/abroad students writings. We made a Stonehill one, Skyhawk symbol included.

So then we decide to eat our (some of the best pizza I'll ever have in my life) pizza on a bridge over the Arno facing the Ponte Vecchio. Casual, nbd. Small world, funny enough hilarious, nice woman and her husband walk past us. Too funny, they pretty much told us to have fun but don't do anything illegal crazy.

Casually running into Frankie Walsh on the Ponte Vecchio? check.

Friday:

So after spending 5 hours in the morning finishing up my still life for my art class (bringing me back to AP Studio Art days) we went to the Boboli Gardens and the Piazzale Michelangelo (both free WHATTUP)

So the Boboli Gardens are behind the Pitti Palace and its GIANT. Just what I like to see grass and trees! I haven't realized how much I love nature until I go to a city that pretty much completely lacks it. 

Cue link to Urban Dictionary: read the first one, the "official slogan" of Stonehill couldn't be more true

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Stonehill%20College

So back to chillin' in the Bobes, enjoying more not real life views, the gardens has a fountain area surrounded by lemon trees (definitely my kind of place), wandering around just taking in the space.

Plank photo for all my Stonehill Summer Student Ambassadors, missing Donahue life

casual group lay in the Bobes

Lengel being Lengel

So then we walked to the Piazalle Michelangelo, the end all be all view of Florence. Enjoyed the view, sat by a restaurant that was playing michael buble-esque music, walked around the vendors got a purple Universita Firenze sweatshirt for 13 euros.. Katie was looking at one and the guy goes student discount 13 euros! Katie was sold and when I found out there was my size in the purple BOOM decision made, sucks that they don't have an LDM apparel but Katie and I will rock the SHE DOESN'T EVEN GO HERE look with our sweatshirts.

I think I might name my first dog Duomo...

Fake Davids errwhere

Saturday:

So with my program we went to the Uffizi. Needless to say I was excited to see pieces of artwork I have learned about for forever, a personal favorite Botticelli's Birth of Venus and at least 10 pieces I learned about in Professor Sheckler's 181 (she's THE best). But to my dismay we had a tour guide... the same one as the walking tour of Florence lady... I've come to realize how much I despise bad tour guides, working in Admissions all summer giving tours after tours even if I used the same stupid jokes (I swear frisbee is a real sport, cocoa puff shortage, holding doors etc etc) I would at least try to mix it up a bit and not be stale, but this lady made my want to fall asleep in the Uffizi. Don't talk for 25 minutes about piece after piece that I've already learned about for year on top of your boring anecdotes. And the icing on my Uffizi Gallery cake was that it was stuffy and I've been fighting a cold for the past 2 weeks sooooo almost upchucked in the Uffizi. As an art major I could not allow myself to do it and silently suffered because I was not about to be the guy that vomited in an art gallery, let alone the art galleries of all art galleries. So I chugged a bottle of water right when we got out, I enjoyed seeing everything but I'm definitely going to have to go back on my own. Not the best way to end my weekend (followed by spending all of Sunday writing my business paper.... on Starbucks (aside from my vente java mocha chip I don't even like Starbucks, but the topic worked) but overall fantastic weekend in Florence.