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.

Jots

The title of this photo is: "Scared!!! Scaaarreeed!!!" I guess only members of the Chalfin clan would get that. Hi Laura. You better be reading this, if you love me.

So I was sitting at breakfast by myself this morning in the kitchen, thinking about Cookie Crisps. Do you remember that cereal? I can remember two things about the commercial: the cartoon dog kept saying, "CoooOOOOOkie crisps!" and the cartoon kid would repeat, incredulously (or so I recall), "COOKIES for BREAKFAST?????" So this morning over my biscotti smeared with nutella, I scoffed at that kid. Cartoon kid, I eat cookies for breakfast every day of the week. It's a good thing I don't believe in buses anymore, because I would be one hefty foreign student if not for the hour+ I walk everyday.

Yesterday was a HUGE walking day. I walked all the way over to Il Parco delle Cascine, this huge park, and went to their famous market that is only open on Tuesdays (I went because it was Labor Day in Europe and the only Tuesday I have off from my favorite class in the world, femenist cinema). I walked all over the place. At the market I got the cutest little salt and pepper shakers in the world. They hug each other. I'll probably post a picture soon. They also sell them at the SF MoMA for an exorbitant price. I am well pleased.

Yesterday also was memorable because I bonded with my host mom! We talked for a long time after dinner (Harriet was out with her aunt from Taiwan) about life and deep things. Exciting times, and I am becoming more and more obsessed with Sandra every day. What a wonderful woman. Wow. Alliteration. It's coming back to me (I used to alliterate compulsively in academic essays, and it was a problem). Anyways, can you tell that I'm putting off work?