Look At This Photograph

Colin - what have I been up to lately? A lot this week.


I went with my Women in the Arts in Italy class to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, which holds a lot of old works of art created for the cathedral. Some of the pieces have been moved there because they were taking too much wear. A lot of sculptures you see outside in Florence are copies of the originals, including Michelangelo's David. Other pieces are from earlier iterations of the cathedral, which has undergone at least a few transformations. The museum itself is awesome. It's set up in a very contemporary design, and much of the displays integrate the original works with replicas of the architecture, to reimagine what it looked like in the Duomo. It's a little hard to explain, and I forgot my camera again (I know, I know). I may go back there sometime, but for now, satisfy yourself with some terrible pictures someone took on tripadvisor.com


For Contemporary Art we skipped class on Friday to see a show by Alva Noto instead. He's an electronic artist who makes glitchy, information transmission-like sounds, set to a matching video sequence. Imagine watching the visualizer on your music player, but many times more intense. These pictures don't do it justice, but here's a hint of what it was like:

Yesterday I went to some super-hip show of old clothing and knick-knacks, called Vintage Selection. Lots of neat stuff that I could not afford but wanted dearly, like this orange jacket:















 Today I went to a soccer match with some friends. Florence won YAAYYAY. A good time had by all.

Weston, one of my roommates

Florence came through with the fan section

Diego, also one of my roommates

David (center), my other other roommate. I chose only the most flattering

hey it's me! I don't have many of me, other people do, go ask them.

waiting for the bus

So, other than all that, I've been doing a lot of painting, drawing (I'll share some pictures after critique tomorrow), buying food, making food, and working on my bad Italian with shop owners and venders. And Adventure Time, I'm watching lots of that, thank you Cayla. I've got a lot of pictures, so go over to facebook, where I'll be adding albums from my time here. I'll see you all later. In the meantime, look at this photograph.

Dominica: Why are you driving like that?

This is posting late.  I don't have a sense of time anymore.  So when I say "today", it means absolutely nothing.  We were in Dominica for 2 full days, so judge by that.   

On Monday, a group of us explored Roseau a little bit.  We walked all around, saw a church, went to the botanical gardens, and went to a grocery store.  I have to be back at the ship at 12 for the Carib trip (Carib, or Kalinago, are the indigenous people on Dominica).  The drive to the reservation was crazy.  The roads are all really steep and narrow, and also there are no rules.  No speed limit, no alcohol restrictions, no patient people.  We went to the reservation in these oversized vans and it was terrifying.  But, there was really nice scenery the whole way. I snapped some good pictures from inside the van.  When we got to the Carib village, we got out and were taken to see different cultural things.  We got to grind up sugarcane and drink the sugar water, which was SUPER sweet, we chewed on some sugar cane, we saw some crafts made out of woven reed, we learned about local herbal medicine, and then they made us food.  There were fried bananas, green bananas, plantains, curried fish, some pastry thing, and a coconut cookie, which had a lot of ginger.  I ate all of those things.  I enjoyed the curried fish and pastry.  Unfortunately, we were delayed and didn't get to hear the history, so I was really sad. I DO know that Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed on Dominica, and I met some Caribs who were extras in the movie.  

I got to the ship around 7, and learned that some people were going out to a club that was open exclusively to us.  I decided I should go, and my roommate was going, so I tagged along with her group.  To my dismay, her group was 203957039410 people.  And then I was less happy.  But right off of the ship, there were other people that I like, so I hung out with them (My roommate decided to ditch the large group as well).  We still went to the club.  It was pretty cool because it was all SASers and we haven't gotten to know each other very well yet.  Kind of like a big social.  I tried Kabuli beer, which was better than the other beers I've tried because it tasted lighter.  But don't worry, I only had one bottle.  A lot of people got really drunk, but nobody in my group did.  I learned that two of them don't drink at all and the others only drank a little.  That was pretty awesome.  

Today we went to Middleham Falls.  Google some pictures, it was awesome.  The hike there took 40 minutes and it was through the rainforest so it was steep and slick.  Of course I fell like 4 times and I have more bruises than I can count.  But the waterfall was beautiful and I swam in the pool.  The water was freezing, but after a while it felt good.  We had to climb rocks to get there.  That's right, I climbed rocks.  Wet rocks.  Up and down hills.  One time I fell and caught myself on a vine.  That felt legit.  

We ate lunch at a local restaurant.  It was okay, I had curry chicken (curry is big here) and rice.  The chicken didn't seem cooked all the way so I didn't eat much of it.  But it only cost $3, so I felt okay with that.  

Okay.  I don't really know what else to say, so yeah.  You should know that I'm sailing down the Amazon right now, but it's too wide to see anything.  I'll be in Manaus on the 31st.  Look forward to hearing about nighttime jungle exploration and hopefully an eco-lodge.

One Week.

TJE- It's now been a week since I was last in America. I've spent nearly 8 hours completely lost in the city just walking around, but that's really fun. I had my first "Americanized" food experience the other day when I stopped into McDonalds and bought a McBacon for 20 kroner. That's like $3.50. Everything's more expensive here, but that's what comes with a 60-70% tax rate. There are quite a few McD's and Burger Kings, and a couple Subways, but that's all I've seen from the corporate America food industry so far.

One surprise is the number of 7-11's they have here. I'd equate it to the number of Starbucks found in a mid-sized city. They're pretty expensive, but they are responsible for so much (e.g. My first night here I received my transport pass for the metro, bus, water cab, etc., and it had the wrong zones of use printed on it, so I took it to 7-11 and they fixed it).

Here's what's up: The Danes are the nicest people I've met. Having not played or handled a guitar in over 5 days, I was going through withdrawal, so I went up to a street musician to ask if he knew if any of the local music shops rented, and he just straight up offered to let me borrow one of his guitars for the semester, no questions asked. I pick it up from him Monday.

I'm taking 4 classes: Sustainable Development, Intro to Danish, Renewable Energy Systems, and Danish Politics and Society. Three of them on Monday/Thursday, and Danish Politics on Tuesday/Friday. Wednesdays are either off days, or field experience days for some classes.

Some upcoming events I'm looking forward to are a beer tasting at one of the oldest breweries in the Nordic region, a trip to Kronborg Castle (of Hamlet fame), and a Reggie Watts concert (tonight!).

Wind turbines woooo. Had to pay 25 kroner for this view of the city.

Statue in a public square.The iPhone 4S has a superb camera, no?

Also, Denmark is home to Lego. Here's one of the Lego stores here:

THIS IS MADE COMPLETELY OF LEGO'S. IT'S TALLER THAN ME. That mural on the right is also all Lego's.

That's all for now. Live long and prosper. If you feel like it.

Till next time,

-T

Blah

Colin here. I promised I'd follow up. Bit late, but eh.

In my effort to check off another line on the standard Important Places in Florence list, I went to the Palazzo Vecchio last week. Actually it was with my art history class, but I would've went eventually. It was incredible. The palace functions as a museum mostly it seems, but one of the main chambers is still used for some purposes for the mayor or something. There's supposed to be Da Vinci painting that exists behind the current mural by Giorgio Vasari. A university from the US (San Diego I think) has a big curtain in front of it, and is making tiny holes through the wall to research this possibility. The rest of the palace is massive and unbelievably extravagant. Any surface that isn't painted is sculpted, or tiled elaborately, or guilded. Sorry I didn't take pictures, I forgot my camera. I'll be back.

Reminds me, I've got this art student card that gives me cheap/free entrance to museums around the city. The Uffizi is one of them. You can find me there.

Things here are expensive. My diet has made the notable move from pasta literally everyday to pasta literally everyday and also bread. And maybe wine. Yep, Italy's changing me. Some things that are a really good value: wine, kiwis, bread, espresso, and for some reason, art paper. Also, I ate this cookie last week. I forget what it's called, but it tastes like a mildly sweet, very thick, chewy version of the chocolate chip cookie. It's my favorite thing so far.

There sure are a lot of Irish bars around. Not sure what that's about, but they're cool. Dig this sign:

That's about all for now. Let me drop some more photos on you.

I haven't had cartwheels for over a decade

I'm trying to avoid the Duomo pics, but it was a good day

Studio Fuji, where screen printing happens

one of our radiators. I think it just keeps itself warm. selfish bastard.

Copen-hangin'

Ty-- Hey y'all. I accidentally a 5-hour nap on Sunday, so to counteract that and massive ongoing jetlag, I stayed up all night reading Kurt Vonnegut's last book and listening to Danish radio. Man do they love their smooth jazz. Anyways, due to this, I have not slept in 28.5 hours. Why am I writing now? Not sure, I'm frickin' exhausted. It's 8:45pm and I'm already turning in for the night. But I love you, dear reader, and you're reading this for a reason, no?

Being sleepless is an alright way to experience your first day in Copenhagen. It was great weather, about 32ºF all day, and finally sunny after raining my first two days. I got off the metro at the exact right spot, a whole hour earlier than I had to! The building I was looking for was literally across the street, and since I didn't know what it looked like I started walking in the opposite direction and then was forced to search København for it for about 55 minutes, getting me there right on time. Here's the DIS strings, they played some Ludwig Von, Lennon/McCartney, and the like:

They're playing Yellow Submarine; Hey Bulldog would have been so much cooler.

I ended up getting very lost in the city with some new friends from Colorado College. We went to a quaint little café where I got a chai latte and pain au chocolat.

It was really great finally meeting some native English speakers, something I had not experienced since 2.5 days ago in London. It was really lonely knowing I was on an entirely new continent where I literally knew only one other person (sup Colin) for that period.

After exchanging $25.00 for 110 Krones, I spent an hour looking for a bus that would take me home. I ended up getting off at the wrong stop because it was dark and I'm American. That set me back another 25 minutes making me 40 minutes late for 6 o'clock dinner.

Upon returning home I had my first meaningful experiences with my host family. We ordered pizza (they eat it with a fork and knife, and popular toppings include kielbasa, chili pepper, and hotdog) and watched the Denmark vs. Germany handball game, which is a very popular sport here. (I want to take this time to mention that when I wasn't sleeping last night I was watching the NFL playoffs with Danish commentators, which was great because of how excited they got over every play that went more than 7 yards).

Here are some cool buildings I took pictures of:

Here is the clothing store "Troelstrup" attempting to sell jeans by using firewood.

Now I am tired and will sleep after what is now 29 hours.

Goodnight from GMT+1. Over and out.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Elliott Arrives in Copenhagen Late, Airlines to Blame

Copenhagen, Denmark - Miami University Junior Tyler Elliott arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark late Saturday after a series of unfortunate flight-related delays dashed his hopes of reaching the Nordic city at his originally scheduled time of 4pm (10am EST).

The trouble came when his flight departing Chicago, to London, sat on the tarmac for an unprecedented 2.5 hours following a power failure on the plane's central grid.

Tyler has traveled via air in times past, but never before had he been met with the kinds of delays seen leaving the "Windy City".

"I was, like, really shocked by how long we had to sit there," said Elliott, "and I never expected the delays to make me miss my flight from London to Copenhagen. Like, not cool bro."

After arriving in London three hours late, the Individualized Studies major rushed to security in a last-ditch effort to make his 2pm flight, but all efforts were in vain as the overly-polite British woman taking his ticket informed him of the bad news. In an effort to repair broken bridges, British Airways provided Elliott with a £10.00 meal voucher, which he used all but £.56 of. 

Elliott is staying in an apartment five kilometers outside of Copenhagen, where his host family has graciously offered him a room for the next four months.

Above: The Room Elliott has been given for the next four months.

The Ohio student reportedly enjoys the comfort of the bed and his two house plants (pictured), but would appreciate more outlets and lighting.

###

A Quick One

Colin -- My posting has been bad. I bet you're all wondering what's that kid up to he's in Florence why doesn't blog all over the place?  I've been sick, that's why. It started out last Friday with something like a cold, then pink-eye happened, in one eye, then both, then one eye again, and then subsided into more cold-like symptoms until Thursday. I'll spare you the grosser points of the pink eye. Now I feel great! A stuffy nose, yes, but who can avoid that. It's Winter after all.

oh god it's huge

Anyway, I'll get back a real entry over the rest of this weekend when I'm not busy. But here's some pictures:

oh god it never ends

oh, God

from the Galleria degli Uffizi, Portrait of Pietro Secco Suardo, for Jeff.

Bye everyone. I'll leave you with an awesome cover of an awesome song. Thanks Neil.

I'm Leaving Tomorrow But It Could Be Today (Hey Hey Woody Guthrie I Wrote You a Song...)

TYLER- Well. It's happening. It really came out of nowhere. I lived life up to the very last point possible of my winter break, complete with an $88.00 final dinner and a Friday morning I won't soon forget. At noon I began packing the 2nd half of my things and 6 hours later I've said my farewells to my parents and I'm waiting at my gate. Doesn't feel at all like a month's gone by since finals week.

Break was a whirlwind.

My travels from here take me Cleveland>Chicago>London>Copenhagen. Chicago O'Hare is closed at the moment due to heavy snowfall, so in typical fashion my first flight is on mega-delay. It was supposed to leave at 5pm, got pushed back to 7, and now we're waiting on an update as to when the flight will actually leave. As of this writing it is 7:10. Departure is no time soon it seems.

Assuming all actually works out (lol), I'll be in Copenhagen tomorrow at 5pm local time (11am EST) where my host family will pick me up from the airport. For now, I'm stuck at gate A-1 in Hopkins International Airport, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, listening to a Myanmar gentleman speaking Burmese loudly into his mobile with an authoritative tone, wondering if I should start drinking now or in Chicago.


You can listen to this song by Bob Dylan, preformed by him and George Harrison in 1970: http://bit.ly/ylRUju

Here's a picture of my Dad and Me right before going through security:

Bahamian Rhapsody: Because sometimes I change song titles to fit into my life.

EMILY TIME.  Guess what?  Tomorrow I board the ship.  It's crazy how time flies.  I've been in the Bahamas for a few days with my parents, which has been great. We're staying at Compass Point, which is an awesome "resort"off the beaten path. A lot of people are staying at the Sheraton and Wyndham, but I like our place better.  Our room is actually two rooms on two levels, and as you can see, it's very colorful.  All of the rooms are like this and it is, simply put, the best.

Getting to our temporary home was fairly easy, with no real speed bumps along the way.  Maybe the most annoying part was the little kid behind me on the flight from Atlanta to Nassau who thought the game "Kick Emily's Chair Until She Feels Like She's Gonna Puke" was the best game in the world.  Customs was pretty easy, too, since Nassau is a pretty popular destination.  The taxi ride was a little alarming at first because I had never been anywhere where people drove on the left side of the road.  And also I really wanted a seatbelt.  But when we finally arrived at Compass Point, it was time to relax.

And that's what we did.  We relaxed for a day.  Then we went downtown to have a look around.  It was mainly populated by tourists who had just disembarked from cruise ships and were ready to buy little Bahamian trinkets.  The stores ranged from Coach to T-Shirt Factory Outlet, but nothing that exciting; it seems that downtown Nassau's main purpose was to serve it's ever-changing clientele.  The most interesting part for me was the bus ride there and back.  We decided to not pay a ridiculous amount for a taxi, which left us the option of taking the unreliable bus.  We actually got pretty lucky--both times we were ready to board, the bus had just arrived.  Most of the people riding were locals, and they gave us suggestions for places to visit and where we should get our next meal, so that was pretty cool.

Today, I read all day.  I finished 11/22/63 (finally) and started The Girl Who Played With Fire, even though I have a required reading book I haven't finished. I have 15 hours, I'm fine.  Also Buttercup says hi.

New luggage

Tyler--

 I bought some new luggage today. It's olive green. Here is a picture of it.

Look forward to informative and interesting posts just like this one from me in the future.

-T

It's Happening...

Emily here. The past couple of days, I've been gathering my possessions (clothes, travel supplies, school supplies, electronics, etc.) and putting them in a central place in order to begin packing.  For a while, the spare bedroom in our house looked like a tornado had gone through it, which was a little overwhelming, to say the least.  But eventually, I began packing.  My miscellaneous items were the first things to be packed.  These things included woolite packs, extra toiletries, medicine, and random travel supplies.  That was pretty easy.  They all fit nicely into my small red duffle.  The more challenging aspect was the clothing.  I have a lot of clothes, and I really enjoy all of them, so eliminating was a struggle.  Luckily, most of the places I'll be going are warm, so there weren't any bulky sweaters or pants.  Then, I had to consider what I wanted to wear while my family and I are in the Bahamas and pack it separately from the rest of my clothes (which are currently in space bags).  The elimination process went like this:

What is even happening?  Note: pillow pet (Rafael) is going to stay home. I'll share pictures with him upon my return.










After sorting through my clothes, I came up with what I think is a fair amount to bring on the trip.  You know how "they" always say, "lay out all the clothes you want and then put back half"?  Well, I chose to ignore that because I think it's a load of crap.  (This may prove to be the biggest mistake of my trip). But look!  After all of my efforts, I am packed and possibly ready for my trip:

As you may be able to tell, that's one rolling duffel, a smaller duffel, and a large backpack.  And who is that, peeping out through my luggage?!  Why, that's Buttercup, who will be joining my adventures.  He may show up at some pretty neat places!





Well, I guess that's it for now.  I'm leaving for the Columbus airport at 4:15AM tomorrow, connecting in Atlanta, and then I'll be in the Bahamas!  And I'll probably have a pre-departure post sometime while I'm there.  Catch ya on the flip side!

Partying Partying Woo

It is the weekend after all. But I, Colin, did nothing interesting Friday. Nor today. I'm sick. Oh well, I hope to recover by Monday at least.

This week I finished all of my first week of classes, so I know what to expect, I think. In case you were wondering, that includes Painting, Drawing, Serigraphy (screen printing or silkscreen), Women in the Arts in Italy, and Contemporary Art in Italy and Europe. This is the first time I've had all art-type classes. Feels good. My painting and drawing classes are taught by the same guy, and he seems like a good professor. He's very passionate about the theory of art and the process of art making. Serigraphy looks to be a structureless class, which could be nice considering the rigor of the others. I've always wanted to learn screenprinting; maybe I can make some shirts:) Women in the Arts will be a slow course I think. It seems to be long lectures, lots of them. There are some exciting field trips at least. Contemporary Art feels over my head. Thick, academia-type art theory and complex lectures about the nature of art history.

Here's a view of some rooftops:

It was from the Palazzo Davanzati, a palace from the 14th century. There are several palaces in Florence, mostly museums now, once owned by powerful families. It was unusual for me to see a building that functioned on so many different levels (no pun there). Ground floors for these places were often used for practical purposes, like food storage, or offices or public use of some type. The upper floors held kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and everything else. There once were battlements on the roof, but it was replaced by a portico covering.

I had pizza this week. Pizza that was really good. It was thin, doughy but crisp around the outside, then gradually more soaked in olive oil toward the center. If it weren't 6 euro I would have it everyday. No regrets with pasta every single day. I will always love pasta.

As I'm still sick, I'll keep watching Zoids (thanks Tyler) and eating cheap cookies from Conad, the supermarket one street from me. One last thing, I love the accessibility here. Coming from subdivisions, where everywhere is inconvenient without a car, I like being able to walk to buy food. It's glad this is a walking city.

See you in the summer.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Colin - Actually, I woke up Sunday afternoon. I spent much of Saturday night at a friend's apartment, until about 5am. So it's been an easy day. I've really done very little. I purchased this shirt I'm wearing. Go me.

warm and fuzzy, as is my new sweater

Orsanmichele

Duomo

This first weekend went by fast. I've purchased just about everything I need except a bath towel, which I can't find, and which is unfortunate because the old collared shirt I'm using doesn't take moisture well. I learned a little about the politics and history of Italy from a professor, but in my usual lecture fashion I fell asleep midway through. I took a tour with another professor to most of the major monuments of the city.

enjoying the macro food shots

I've noticed Duff Beer is sold at a lot of street carts and convenience stores. Indeed, Duff Beer. I've no idea why. I know only that before coming to Florence, I had no idea someone even made that. It's bizarre because it stands out in the display cases, like a joke to the other beers. Not sure if I should indulge the novelty.

In other news, there's a particular street that caught my attention. Inside the welcome packet SACI gave me, in the personal safety section, is advice #7: Do not walk on Via Sant'Orsola. That's it. No explanation? All I heard was, "bla bla walk on Sant'Orsola." I searched the entire internet, all of it, and found just one reason for the warning. From a forum, "littlefrogling" said:  
There's an odd outcropping of a building that creates a very large blind spot. You will see people walk here in the day, but at night it's best to walk around the block - and the next street over is Via de'Ginori, which has plenty of stores and restaurants that are worth checking out anyway. (BTW - Via Sant'Orsola is basically a public toilet, so besides the safety issue, it can get pretty rank in the hotter months.) 
Maybe I'll take a look in the daytime. I'm curious now.

Well I'm really tired. Can't write more. Have some Kris Kristofferson in the meantime.


Later.

To The West

Hello all, this is Chelsea speaking.  Yesterday was an extremely long day.  I was up at 3:30AM, at the airport by 4:30AM, through security by 5AM... and boarded my first plane at 5:30AM.  From there I flew to Houston, and was on the second plane by 8:50AM (central time).  That plane felt like it lasted forever, however I landed around 11:30AM (pacific time) and I finally arrived at my apartment around 12:30PM yesterday. (I didn't fall asleep till 12AM pacific time.)

I don't have too much to write about, so I'll put some pictures in for fun.  If anything we got a "safety" brief from Glenn Platt (IMS Director) -- we're supposed to avoid Market Street and night, and basically never go down 6th.  However.  Last night my roommate, a few of the guys, and I went out for food after the meeting, and on the way back we went down 6th.  Let me tell you, the advice is correct.  It's rather uncomfortable -- there are a lot of homeless in San Francisco (temperature is great here)... but that street specifically seems to have more than the others.  We may have heard a few of them fighting over who had to pick up a dropped bag of crack.  So.  You know.  We were safe.  Haha.

Another fun time was putting together our second bed.  The apartment has a queen bed... so Miami bought a few fold out "beds" (I'd call them cots) so we each have our own bed.  We couldn't get it to not fold in on itself.  We almost gave up for the night, and then we found the extra parts (yes, we had dismissed them before because we only saw wheels... and at the time we thought "wheels, we don't need those - we're not moving it around anywhere").  Turns out that there were also some connectors and knuts in there to make it not fall every time you touch it.  It was a real struggle to make it work, but we won.  We're doing what Colin and Tyler did last semester - I'm on the small bed for half the semester, and then I'm taking the big bed over Spring Break till the end of the semester.  I've included a picture of the tiny bed for your viewing pleasure.  The upside is that it's right under a window with a great(ish) view of things.  Another picture of said view is included for your delight.

Otherwise I don't have much to write.  Today we're adventuring to Whole Foods to get some groceries (apparently Walmart/Target/Kroger/any major store is more of a midwest/not San Francisco kind of thing... so expensive r' us is what this trip is going to be) and for lunch (yay salad bar and mac n' cheese!).

Oh! I do have an interview for an internship on Tuesday.  It's with a company called Zozi (basically, Groupon with a focus on "adventurous" things, like learning how to ride motorcycles, and such).  They're interviewing four of us with the hopes of taking on two of us.  So we'll see how that goes.  Also.  Here's a big deal:  we're going to Google on Friday.  So that's going to be really exciting and fun.  Pictures will be taken.

That's all I have for now.  Exciting times are to be had this semester.  Adventure is out there!  Haha.

Cleveland is the reason.

Tyler - Well now Colin's started this precedent, and I like uniformity, so y'all better start your posts with your name in bold from now on.

I don't leave Cleveland till the 20th. I actually found out recently that I should have made plans to leave the 21st, because pretty much no one in Copenhagen wants anything to do with me to the 22nd. So, alas, my first night overseas will be spent on the chilled streets of a local to which I know nothing of, desolate, left on my own to incur the peril and jeopardy that await me on the frozen thoroughfares of a bare, Nordic town. Or in a hostel.

Anyways, these days I'm spending my time in bed till 3 in the afternoon, eating mini-ravioli at 4am (seriously, the last 3 nights), and watching fringe television shows on Netflix that I normally wouldn't have time for. Man, Netflix better work in Denmark, you know?

This is more or less a test post so I can have a grip on using this site once I'm overseas and have too many other things to worry about. So here's a picture of a building in Cleveland that randomly has whales painted on it. Because I can Cleveland can:

Man, Cleveland's great.

Peaces,

-T

She Packed My Bags Last Night

Colin here (I think I'll start every post like this, so you know who it is),

I got to Florence this morning (central european time), and thus begins my blog. With my new haircut, I arrived at O'Hare from Columbus, bought a beer and a hot dog,
and did nothing more important. I took the next flight to Munich, then finally to Florence, all the while feeling the weird semi-hallucinations of sleep deprivation.

I met up with one of my roommates Weston, and we ducked outside for an while. Looked around the streets, inside the school's building (right next to our apartment), did an awkward job of ordering pizza, and took a quick peek at the Duomo.

We had a few different locks to figure out just to get to our apartment, including one that looks like it belongs to a vault. Plus the corridor outside our door uses a light that has a timer of maybe 20 seconds, and if it goes out, you trip in the pitch dark on a weirdly placed step. It's a good apartment though, lofty ceilings and tiled floors and real life funky European outlets. 

I am now severely jet lagged. I'm fighting to stay awake for a few more hours at least, so the next day feels normal. I'm overwhelmed, but Italy is looking promising. As the semester goes on, you should see better posts than just a summary of my day (plus, Tyler and Chelsea and Emily), but this will do for now.

here's to staying up