Im smarter than you think

 i figured out the picture problem! sorry guys!

                                                              the night train

                                            Sicily

                                           San Gimingiano

 

Noto

 

                                                 Sicily

Its been another busy week. On friday group of art kids went to the house of an artist living here in Florence and lexi and i ended up getting a job!  This awesome artist needed assistants to help him paint some pieces that he will be showing in a gallery soon. He said he had to let his last assistant go because he "non piace sua faccia." he didnt like her face. So i have this job as long as my complexion is good.

Then on Saturday Lexi, Conner, and I went to the Uffizi Gallery. There was like an hour long wait to get tockets, but this was my lucky weekend and some random lady gave me her ticket because her friend's didnt show up, so i didnt have to pay or wait in line. Thank you random lady.

The gallery was amazing. Each room was like a page in my art history book. Except it was really there in front of me. The Birth of Venus and Primavera by Botticelli were absolutely amazing. It was hard to accept that they were real, and not copies.

It was fun to go with 2 art nerds. We sounded like walking text books. Except more exciting.

I cant believe we have midterms next week! Its going by so fast.
Just one more week and then fall break in Venice, Paris, and Milan with Lexi, Conner, and Laura!!!!!

I really want to go outside and make it light all day

 I still cant upload pictures :( Im very sorry. Blogs without pictures are boring.

Sicily was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. Sunny and warm the whole weekend. It was also more like the Italy I was expecting. Not to many tourists, and no one spoke english.

The sleeper train was very "knight bus" from harry potter, with less magic but just as much motion sickness.

Actually, as we were on a train, bus, boat, or taxi the whole weekend, i was perpetually motion sick all weekend. And traveling in a big group was kind of annoying. Ok, no more complaining.

We arrived at 11:30 am in Taormina. a cute old town with a wonderful view of Mt Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. We almost got washed away in a wave of hot lava, but we narrowly avoided it. Instead we made pizza and called it LAVAZZZA.

Anyways. After walking around Taormina for a while we went to the beach. Then we checked into our hotel and we all (like 583473864 of us) went to the same restaurant were the menu was fixed but they said they had vegetarian options.  But they just never brought me a main course. weird.

On Saturday we went to the ruins of an ancient greek ampitheater in Siracusa, the town we were staying in. It was amazing. And so old. I tried to picture it as it was like back then.

Then we went on a boat trip which was awesome until i threw up.
But before that i got to jump off a boat into the Mediterranean and climb up of volcanic rock to explore a little cave. So i really cant complain too much.

Then after showers and relaxation station we went into Siracusa for a night of wild crazy dangerous fun!
Actually we all just went to this really chill bar where we got to practice our Italian speaking to local Sicilians. We also met some weird german sailors. One of them told me his friends with him were all lazy bums, unlike him who was a doctor of anesthesiology. Ha! what a bunch of crap.

Apparently some kids in my group did indeed have a little to much fun back at the hotel. The Florence University of the Arts was asked not to come back next year. whoops.

How do I always end up with the crazy people?

On Sunday we went to a town called Noto that was destroyed in the 1600s and rebuild in the (then modern) Byzantine style. It was unlike anything we had seen so far! Very interesting.

Then we had the 15 hour train ride home before class on monday! Horray!

Sicily!!!!

We're (my roommates and I and all of SUNY Stony Brook) are off to Sicily for a long weekend. We're going on a sleeper train through the night. Then when we get to the coast our train will be taken apart and put on to a ferry and we will wake up in Sicily! So cool! Everyone (including me) is kinda sick so its not the ideal weekend but im sure it will be amazing. Pictures will be taken.

Speaking of pictures, i wanted to upload some from this weekend. My roommates and I went to San Gimigniano, a midevil Tuscan town. It was absolutely beautiful. And it was really nice to get out of the city for a little while.  But, the internet here is being foreign and weird and I cant upload pictures right now.

I miss you all. A lot.