Ultimi Pensieri

Picture: mixed emotions about leaving Florence. Sadness, anxiety, regret, worry, and even hope. But mostly constipation. View large (click it)!
I'm packing right now. Can't you tell?
I got off the train from Venice a few hours ago, and decided to take a little walk (fare un giro, if you will?) to grab something to eat and enjoy my last night in florence forever as i know it now. i did one last pass down lover's stroll--that's what harriet and I call via del corso, because we always take it home together--to grab a final kebab for a late little dinner. Yeah, I could have gotten a real italian meal somewhere, but I decided to do weird florence tonight. I ran into some high school graduates in parco d'azeglio (please refer yourself to my first florence post for details on this wonderful park) from california. They were lost, and I was able to give them directions to their hostel, as I am practically a local at this point and they were, indeed, in my 'hood. It was bizarre; they reminded me so much of myself at that exact point in my life going on the european dream trip.
I did a little walking around, ending up (inevitably) at neri gelato. I decided to grab a strange combination that I haven't done before; like i said, i did weird florence. I got pistachio and chocolate "senza latte". I swear the pistachio was salty. Then I decided to pay my last respects to ATAF, the Florence bus system which I have recklessly abandoned since I realized the 3rd week that the 13 and the 12 are incredibly unpredictable. To pass the time, I watched the bats flap around under the bridge at my stop, ponte alle grazie. Yes, bats.
Now I'm here for my last night in Sandra's apartment. I just plugged in my US phone. Weird. I should really pack. I don't want to. Depression tends to suck out your will to do anything productive. And by depression, I mean wow, it really sucks to leave florence and return to the real world. It's hard enough saying goodbye to the city, but I really don't want to say good bye to my host mom. Man, I don't want to do anything but stare at the ceiling.
However, I did decide to try to make a list of things that I should look forward to back in the States:
1. Chinese food
2. Indian food
3. Efficiency
4. Henry and Bailey (and the rest of the Chalfins)
5. Friends
6. Cleanliness
7. English
8. Alcohol (?maybe the novelty of being 21 in the US will hit me when I get there)
When I get off the plane, I will throw a hissy fit if my dad doesn't take me to panda express/Ralph's to buy my first six pack.
PS: I apologize if these were more observations/meaningless blatherings than "final thoughts." That's all I got for now. Ciao ciao, buona sera, buona fortuna Italia.

Thoughts in anticipation of Final Thoughts

Trying to finish Florence: this is my "happy to go home face." Yeah.

Today I went to the Jewish Temple right when it opened, and shared a tour guide with three superior-like orthodox Jewish college girls, who sneered at me, I'm pretty sure, when I told them I wasn't going to attend Shabbat services this Friday. "Well at least my nose isn't classifiable as 'unwieldy'," I yelled back. Just kidding. There was also a Jewish dude from London, who told me he was a Reform Jew, to which I laughed, "I probably SHOULD be reform." Embarrassingly, reform in London is equivalent to a conservative in the US. go figure. i blushed.
But really, I got a lot out of this visit. The synagogue is moorish and beautiful. It was designed by two christian architects, and one jewish, and entirely funded by some Florentine Jew named Levy, an oddball lawyer/investor who left all his money to the temple's maintenance. It is "worthy" of competing in grandeur with other churches in Florence with its grand dome, but because the dome is green (copper), it maintains Jewish separateness/specialness. I also learned that the Jewish ghetto way back when was smack in the center of town, Piazza della Repubblica, when the Medici's welcomed in Jews as an integral money-handling population. Also, Nazi soldiers used the temple as a garage for cars during WWII. There are 1000 jews in florence, whereas before the holocaust there were 2000. There are still bullet holes in the Ark, which were made by German soldiers trying to get in and destroy the torah (which was already taken away for safekeeping). You can still see the water marks from the big flood in 1966.

Then I turned the corner and found a store specializing in hemp clothing and cannabis accessories. Hm.

Oh yeah, thoughts in anticipation of final thoughts. Nope, nothing. I'm suppressing any moment of realization that i'm returning to the real world. But hey, this friday i'm going to Venice!!!!!! Woohoo!!!! Focus on that!!

I deserve 21 spanks today

So every time someone has a birthday, they complain, "I don't feel any older and/or different. What is the deal?" Well, the way I see it, getting older has a lot to do with finding things out about yourself. And guess what. When I arose today, the morning (er...noon) of my birth anniversary, I noticed something previously undiscovered about myself. The tips of my eyebrow hairs are blonde. And no ordinary blonde, we're talking albino white. I stand amazed.

This will be a quick one, because honestly, on my birthday on a sunny day in Florence I should not be in my bedroom surfing the net. I just want to shout out really loud happy birthday also to Laura. I miss you sister.

Last night we did the typical florence celebration extravaganza and had a joint bday celebration between me and two other closely birthed girls. We went to Teatro del Sale (you know, the place where God cooks you dinner and then you fall asleep during the spettacolo). Then we went to Central Park, the outdoor dance club. Much fun was had by all!

Anywho, that's about as much as I can stand for now. Enjoy the picture: that is my birthday expression of surprise!

Oh, Dio! Maadddooonnnnaaa!!!!

Importantly: I have added a couple entertaining pictures to previous blog posts! IE, my computer has come magically back to life. I'm obviously doing something quite right to please the Mac gods. Scroll, scroll on if you wish to view them. Also, check flickr in the next few days as I will be uploading the "best of" since the Rome trip (Rome picture, Cinque Terre, Southern Italy).

I suppose before I talk about my girly weekend in southern Italy over the last few days, I'll mention my Florence weekend LAST weekend. It was my first fine settimana "home" in perhaps a month or so, and it was very Florentine indeed. A group of us headed out to Teatro del Sale, a dinner theater that offered all you can eat, all you can drink, all you can watch spectacular. The chef really did look like God and made equally Godly ambrosia-like food. And a LOT of it. I was just mostly excited about all the water (ahem wine) we got. The show was good too, I'm sure (various feminist monologues). I think we're going back next weekend actually for my (and two other girls') birthdays. Oh yeah, I'm turning 21 soon! It's incredibly difficult to process. I guess I'm officially in my 20s. Ma, dai!! Accidenti!!!! Madonnnnnaaaaaaaaaa!!! (expressions of exasperation).
The next day was Florence vs. Sampdoria, and we completely demolished them. I finally went to San Lorenzo (touristy market) to buy a maglietta viola (purple jersey) for the game (in the rain). Then I led the group to Badiani, our side of the city's best gelato. It was one of the first times there was a gathering in my zona (Campo di Marte train station) and I was plenty excited.
Later that week we took a trip to Prato with our art class, which was great. The modern art museum is there, and it really put into perspective where Italy's priorities lie in terms of which art they are willing to support. It was a really, really cool looking museum, but incredibly run down and incredibly out of money (the tycoon who funds it ran out of cash, I suppose). For goodness sakes, the permanent collection was not visible to the public, it was in such a state! It made me a little sad inside. The stuff we did see was really exciting, and a refreshing departure from statue after oil after fresco of Madonnnaaaaa. Plus, we got Chinese afterward (score). Prato, where Jacopo--the host brother--works, is FULL of Chinese. You'd think the peanut sauce would be better, but I was a wee bit disappointed. BUT they did give me free chopsticks at the end.
Ok, and then it was off to Southern Italy. It was a great group of girls that went. It was really nice to go without boys this weekend; girls in general are more on top of it and/or considerate of others. We got to Naples, gross. Napoli is one smelly city! Also, the boys are bad at soccer, and I got hit right in the butt with a ball. Owie! After eating a HUGE (albeit delicious) pizza, we took off for Pompei. What an incredible city! Ruins, ruins everywhere! I think I would have gotten much more out of it had I not been in a deep pizza coma. Accidenti! We packed up and off to Sorrento to check into the hostel. Sorrento was a delightful little town. After being roped into about 3 limoncello themed stores, we made it to a really good restaurant with some of the cheapest food I've had in Italy. I had gnocchi alla sorrentina, really really good stuff, and we of course had to go back the next night. It's becoming apparent how much I'm going to miss Italian food. Oh, dio.
Scheduled for the next day was Capri to see Blu Grotto, a cool ocean cave thingy that's naturally bright blue. Unfortunately, Capri decided to be incredibly expensive to get to, and Southern Italy decided to open up the heavens on us with a deluge. Scratch Capri. We went instead to Positano, a cute town that reminded me a lot of Cinque Terre. The best lemon granita I've ever eaten. We also took a boat ride out to the "emerald grotto." This entailed a 5 euro, 10 minute boat ride around a green water filled cave with a man that told us to "Looky LOOK!!! A miracle!!!!". Oh, also, there was a nativity scene settled underwater at the bottom of the cave, illuminated by "natural" green light. OH, AWESOME, A MIRACLE!!! LOOKY LOOK!
The next day we shopped around (hello, 1 euro scarves!) and headed back to Napoli. We saw the national museum of archeology which shed a lot of light onto Pompei. Also, the people of pompei were really perverted. I'll probably upload a picture of "la sala segreta" soon. The ride home was one of the highlights of the trip. Lots of games of 10 fingers and girly talk and such. I am well pleased. Ok, now I should probably get to working on finals. Silly finals are getting in the way of my last couple weeks abroad. Oh dio.

Oh yeah...

I also went to Barcelona before Rome. Did I post about that already? Oh God the humidity...

Bad Spirits

Sorry to report this entry finds me in the shadow of negative spirits. My computer has officially flipped...out. Entourage (my email program), along with about 50 sentimental/hilarious emails I've saved since acquiring this machine, are demolished. You know that scary Mac function where you drag a program from the dashboard onto the desk top and it literally goes "poof" and you think it's gone forever but no, it's just in your applications folder phew? Well worst nightmare, it went poof and then literally disappeared from my hard drive. Spotlight finds only a couple periphery files that have the word "entourage" in them. What the hell, Apple? My flight confirmation for Florence-->LAX was in that storage!! Aww, guess I can't come back to America. Which is ok, because the email detailing when I start work at Stanford is equally non-existent. Huh. Oh well.

Also, Aperture refuses to open. Aperture is my photo program. For some reason, with its functions, it has also taken down all my photos. I have this one folder "Aperture Library" which contains all my photos both pre- and post-dSLR, that just opens in Aperture. Conveniently, old photo folders that were in alternate storage areas, like "My Pictures," have turned into these so-called "alias" folders, un-open-able. DRAT that. I guess it might have to do with the fact that I filled up my entire hard drive. But I just freed up several MB's by backing up and deleting useless stuff. It still won't open. God. help. me. Thus I am afraid to upload any new photos onto my compy. I don't want to use that smelly software that came with my camera, or God forbid my computer. Don't expect many new picture postings, but check flickr.

Wow. The shadow passed. I suddenly don't care. Haha, I feel so cheery! But seriously, how sad is it that this whole thing is affecting my mood? Officially letting go of my dependence on The Machine...NOW. ok, that feels much better.

The 'rents came last week! A...good time...was had by all. We did all the fun Florence things that I had yet to do--Palazzo Pitti, um...other stuff that escapes my memory because of the blinding rage that dominated my mood for most of the week. HAHA JUST KIDDING DAD!!! Seriously, I had a really good time. I had some of the best food of my life, we had intelligent conversations, I got to show my parents how independent and worldly-wise I have become, ooh and aah! We also went to hike Cinque Terre, which is like PV but larger and more beautiful and with better gelato. The parentals thought it would be a good idea to beat all the times our map had detailed for each of the 4 hikes between the five cities. Much sweating was had by all.

Speaking of sweat, I'm schwizn like a shfitzer over here (excuse me, ancestors, for my spelling). Florence started it's humidity stint as soon as Mom n' Pop left. OH!!! OH THE HUMIDITY!!!! That's what I say when i have nothing else to say to my roommate. Unfortunately, it's zapped most of my desire to do...anything. But this weekend should be good, I'm staying in Florence ALL weekend, something I haven't done for literally a month. Updates soon on my very Florentine weekend! In the meantime, OOOOHHH, OOOOHHHHHHH THE HUMIDITY. I have to go lie on the floor. In our apartment lobby. Naked.

B(l)ing Trip a Roma

SO last weekend I went to Barcelona and it was a blast. However, it was far to long ago to actually remember what happened, so I will just direct you to my pictures (of which the barcelonian ones are plentiful): www.flickr.com/photos/chalfinpie
That should do it.
This weekend ever'body went on over to Rome on the Bing family's buck. It was a grand old time. We got there Friday morning and spent the day touring (il Colloseo, rovine, altre robe...). It was exhausting, but impressive and breathtaking (this was my very first time in Rome and I was a little PUMPED to be there). That night, we all went to the Parco della Musica (a brand new and very cool looking theater) to see a spettacolo (show). As one of our very observant Stanfordites commented, it was more like a spettacolaccio (if you add -accio to any italian word, it makes that word bad and disgusting and generally displeasing; for instance, mollaccio=a displeasing molly. similarly, mollone means gigantic molly, and mollino means cute little molly). It was called "Io, Charles Darwin" (I, Charles Darwin). It was basically like taking the core 2A, a-side (we talked about evolution all fall quarter), except in italian and with shirtless actors reciting, while three scientists sat on the side of the stage and intermittently said intelligent things in between taking shots of gin. Seriously. Spettacolaccio indeed. Also, I wore my Steve Madden heels for the first time. Really cute, but now my feet are dead. It was a fiasco of a night, which i ended by watching Italian MTV in my plush Bing-funded hotel (note the lack of "s" between the "o" and the "t" in that word). Meanwhile, the rest of my trip got sloshed and streaked around the hotel. Go Card.
Next day was a amazing. We didn't have to meet with the rest of the group until 1pm, so a few of us went to the Spanish Steps and, more importantly, at the bottom of the steps we saw the "most lavish" McDonald's--according to Rick Steves--in Italy. Later we went to the Villa Borghese and saw the Galleria, which was super. Dopo, St. Peters. I saw the Pieta, my european history teacher (Mr. Mac!)'s favorite statue in the whole world, and for good reason. Wow is all I have to say. That evening we got a private tour of the Vatican. Holy crap. Our group of 40 were the only souls there, besides snooty curators. My favorite part--cliche i'm sure--was the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. I didn't know we were going in, but we entered this room and I got chills, probably because it was actually quite cold in there. Then I realized what it was! I wonder how often someone like Michelangelo is born. I have no words.
Most of Rome left me pretty speechless, and photo-less. I felt pretty silly trying to take pictures of all this stuff. Pictures never do these great monuments justice, and end up looking like post card pictures. I gave up eventually.
I stayed an extra night in a hostel. We saw the Trevi fountain by night. Fun. Today me and the two other jewish girls on the trip when to the Catacombs. ha. It was awesome. Now I am EXHAUSTED. So much walking! I'm waiting for my parents to contact me somehow. They have been here since Friday. My dad refuses to answer his skype phone. What the heck. Parentals, if you are reading this right now, please call me. Thanks. Bye.