We woke up Wednesday morning in fair Roma, capital of Italia. It was six a.m. when we got in and we went to see if we could drop our bags at the hotel so we wouldn't be encumbered by them anymore (at least for that day).The hotel had its own cute little courtyard.
After we dropped our stuff, we had the classic Italian breakfast: cappuccino and a pastry.
Mmmmmmm! From there we headed to the most famous site in Roma, Il Colosseo.
It was so early in the morning, and the light was perfect.
Though I had seen the Coliseum before, I had never been inside. It was astounding.
Down there, below the platform, was where they used to keep the animals before the fights. I don't know if "fight" is the right word, but it was hostile indeed.
(we were still pretty obsessed with the tats.)
Wooooo! Jumping with glee outside of the Coliseum!
Roma is an odd city. It has the oldest relics inhabiting random spaces, surrounded by modern buildings and people and roads and automobiles.
We walked around the city, and found this beautiful fountain that Kerri and I made a wish upon.
This guy's like, "Stop throwing coins at me!"
This was the ceiling of the Pantheon, I believe, though I didn't take many pictures of the inside. Actually I didn't take many photos of Roma in general. About half of these are from Kerri and Shannon.
I LOVED this bookstore. Oh man.
What is it about writing materials of the highest quality that inspires me to write? I wanted to fill every one of these books.
We had lunch at this li'l ristorante. Wait, was it this one? Well, we had lunch at one similar. I had orange ravioli and at the end we all shared some homemade berry pie. Be still my tastebuds.
We went home to take a much-needed nap and freshen up. I tells ya, I haven't napped in years, but the moment my head hit the pillow I was out like a light. I slept like a dream in Italia. (pardon the pun.)
When we awoke, Jennifer had decided to head back to Firenze on her own to do some schoolwork, so out the remaining three of us headed again.
We got some gelato, naturally. I had pistachio. I bet you can guess how it was.
Yummy. We had that just outside of the Trevi Fountain. Here something happened to us that has never happened before, maybe in the history of the world. We asked a girl sitting nearby to take a photo of us, and she SAID NO. What?!
We made wishes here. Supposedly if you toss a coin in, you will return to Italy. It worked for me last time.
The sun said goodnight, and we made our way around town, over to the Spanish Steps. It was crowded with about a hundred and fifty teenagers. Seriously. Field trip week.
We chilled, people-watched, and Shannon contributed to the journal.
Then we were tired and hungry so we headed to an enoteca listed in Shannon's guidebook (which had served us well thus far) that happened to be located a couple of blocks from our hotel. Let me tell you, the best meal in the world is bread, olive oil, and a variety of cheeses and meats. And wine, of course.
Good Lord. Hungry just looking at it. AND we capped off the night with some cannoli.
Sigh. Made us so happy. We were plum tuckered out, and spent the remainder of the night trying to make sense of an Italian "American Idol"-like show wherein interpretive dancers, singers, and ballerinas get criticized in front of a live studio audience. It was weird. We fell asleep by 9pm.Tune in next time for the Vatican!
My favorite day of our trip was the day we spent in Venezia. This city is so beautiful in a strange, old, watery way... everywhere you look is a postcard (as you will see from the hundreds of photos I took.)
Before the photo taking extravaganza could begin, we gathered our thoughts in the a.m. and I pretended to understand the map.
This was the view from our hotel room.
That day, Kerri and I were matching/opposite, which would later prove to be foreshadowing our events of the day.
We headed out for breakfast across the big river of Venezia (the name of which escapes me at the moment) via a walk and gondola ride and more walking.
This guy was NOT amused my my photo-taking, even though I was really trying to get a picture of the architecture behind him. If I was a gondola driver I'd be surly too.
There was much window-shopping to be had on the way.
I forgot to get a picture of our breakfast, a steal for 5 Euro and included unlimited orange juice, cereal, milk, coffee, and a wide assortment of fresh breads with Nutella, jam and butter. Mmmm, it was GOOD. Anyway, afterward we stopped by a convenience store and I was charmed by the Italians, as usual.
We headed back out, and from there it was really just walking around Venice. I'll let you look at as many or as few photos as you want, but I'm putting up almost all of mine from this day because I was so in love with the city: the architecture, the color, the people, the canals, the bridges, the shops, the food...
It's me!
We would walk through the piazze and hear beautiful music coming from we know not where; sometimes opera, sometimes an acoustic guitar, and sometimes, as in this case, we heard orchestras. This turned out to be coming from the Vivaldi museum, which was free and filled with beautiful music and old, old stringed instruments.
Imagine, instead of crossing the street, you cross a bridge.
Gasp. God it was all so gorgeous.
The biggest "tourist destination" in Venezia is, well, Venezia itself. You just walk around and look at stuff and gasp with awe every thirty seconds. Other than that, the other thing to see is this church and its piazza with a bunch of pigeons. You may remember it from that jewelry commercial where the guy shouts, "I LOVE THIS WOMAN!!!!" and all the birds scatter... then he gives her some fancy necklace and she whispers, "I love this man."
So Kerri and I, with no one to declare our love for, just scared the pigeons for the heck of it.
It was pretty amusing. Shannon got in on the fun.
Kerri & Shannon have a tradition wherein, in any city they travel to they take a "jumping with glee" photo.
This was the church that goes with the pigeon piazza.
And here's the inside. There were a lot of field-tripping teenagers there too.
We continued walking around after that. This was my favorite canal/bridge area that we saw.
Couldn't resist this shot - a Snow White boat!
It's hard to convey how freaking narrow every alleyway is. Umbrellas do the trick.
Venezia is known for its blown glass. I watched this man do his thang for a bit. Such an attention to detail, such delicate hands. He kind of looked like Stanley Tucci.
For lunch we stopped at a pizzeria, as usual. A hundred teenagers stopped in as well.
Kerri and I had decided earlier in the week that we wanted to get tattoos. A guy we met the night before at Vino Vino told us that there was a respectable place (well, it's the only tattoo place in Venezia, it better be respectable) "near the casino." So towards the end of the day we tried to find the casino. We started to feel rushed, which was terrible because that's when the sun started to come out and the light got really good.
Shannon and Jennifer, suddenly it seemed, became peeved with me and Kerri because we were not helping to navigate. I guess we were both just taking photos all over the place. Jennifer and Shannon figured, Hey, they're the ones who want these tattoos, they should find the place themselves. So they gave us the map and said "Have at it." Unfortunately, there's a reason we had not done any navigating. I don't know about Kerri, but I, for one, have a notoriously bad sense of direction. Whatev's, we found the place. SO.... the tattoo. We wanted something meaningful to us, meaningful to this trip, and, most importantly, something that we were confident we would not regret. I've wanted a tattoo on my wrist for the longest time (since before my first tattoo) and I had the idea of "amici" which is Italian for friends. Then I thought "amiche" which is more specifically girlfriends. I was afraid it was too corny, so I consulted my ultimate cheese-tester, Jennifer. I knew I could rely on her (and her rolling eyes) if it was too corny. She said, "Nah, not too corny. But what about 'amicizia?' That means friendship." I loved that, and so did Kerri. She wanted hers on the inside of her wrist, so I thought what the hell.
We almost ended up not getting these things. At first, Kerri freaked out over the cost "for just one word!" (which is actually nothing considering it's the best and most lasting souvenir you can possibly buy) and I spent half an hour convincing her of the once-in-a-lifetime awesomeness of this tattoo. Finally she agreed, and as we walked back to the parlor, I said meekly after a few moments of silence, "Um... I don't think I want to get mine." Ha ha ha... I just had cold feet, but I got over it.
Here's one of the last few moments of our naked wrists.
Although we were getting the same word, we decided on different fonts. Kerri got a script and I chose a typewriter font ('cause... well, you know me). Kerri wanted me to go first, so I sat down with the wonderful Davide and showed him exactly what I wanted.
I had no real fears about the pain or anything, and the place was clean and as nice of a tattoo parlor as any I've been in. But when you get a tattoo, the artist has to shave the area first, and when Davide came at me with a razor blade and jumped "Boo!" at my wrist with it, I freaked out and started crying. What a baby.
Anyway, I was okay. In the first few moments of the needle scraping my wrist, I could not even look at what he was doing.
Luckily I had Kerri there to hold my hand and distract me while Davide worked. Now I can officially say she's held my hand for every tattoo I've gotten.
Afterward, I felt a rush like no other. Sure, it hurts, but it's an exhilarating feeling. It was the longest and coolest five minutes of my life. I think I became even more translucently pale with all that hyperventilating I was doing.
Then Kerri started freaking out. I held her hand and she bit it in fear and anticipation while I was saying, "You're gonna be fine! It's mind over matter! Your mind is stronger than your body!!"
As Davide began, I saw a look in her eyes like none I've ever seen. Her eyelids started flapping up and down furiously and she tried to make herself breathe normally. I just kept thinking, "I hope she doesn't pass out. Then it'll be uneven."
So I kept talkin'.
In the end, I think she was pretty exhilarated too.
Thanks Davide e Michela! (that's his wife/assistant/generally awesome chick.)
Though Shannon chose not to get a tat (she's afraid she'll get sick of it in about 2 weeks), we drew a reasonable facsimile on her wrist and she also rejoiced.
I felt like a psych patient walking around with a bandage on my wrist.
At a pub later, we tried to toast the day's events. "Hi-five!" I said. "Cin-cin!" Shannon said.
"Oh, cin-cin!" I said. "Hi-five!" said Shannon.
After about six hours Kerri and I were allowed to take off our psych-ward bandages and reveal the beautiful permanence beneath.
And share with Shannon. We're like a puzzle that fits.
After that, I bet you can guess what we did. Walked around and window-shopped. I will admit, we had the one not-fantastic dinner of our whole trip here in Venezia. Ergo, no photo. You get tulips instead.
For some reason, we were all really amused by this all-purpose vending machine. You would not believe the things you can get on a street in Venice.
Alright, I'm well aware this falls under the category of "you had to be there," but this sample photo on a photo booth in the train station cracked us up. Mostly because when I saw it, I did what I thought was an impression of this chick, a goofy voice that went, "I said, 'huuuhhh?'" Ã la Alan O'Day's "Undercover Angel." I know, I know, it's probably not funny to anybody but us, but we seriously laughed uncontrollably for about fifteen minutes beside this photo booth, all four of us on our knees and slapping our hands against her picture with the crazy laughter that comes only from the exhaustion of walking around for four days with backpacks.
We splurged on a sleeper car for the overnight train to Roma, because we figured it was like paying for a hotel and train ticket in one. Since there were four of us, we had one all to ourselves. It was so fun! Except the sleeping part. That kinda sucked.
They give you these cool disposable slippers.
And water! And blankets! And pillows! And trays for your personal items!
Monday arrived and, over our jet lag, the gals and I set out once again to see the sights in Firenze. I promise, this is the last post about Firenze.
We headed to Il Duomo.
This structure is a marvel of the architecture for its time. Because of Brunelleschi's structural design, it was built completely free of scaffolding. You can read more about it on Wikipedia.
The inside of the dome is painted with a gorgeous mural.
Kerri and I each lit candles with prayers.
We thought, why not go to the top?
Then we saw the line.
So, in an unprecedented move never before pulled off by a group of four travelers, we all agreed to not do it, and decided to do something else.
We kept a-walkin'. I loved this old guy:
We stopped by this bronze boar fountain... supposedly if you put a coin in his mouth and it stays, you will return to Firenze. It almost never works, but we tried anyway.
We stopped by this cafè Jennifer and I used to go to every morning for cappuccini on our way to work, Caffe Mailoli. Many years ago I had a Romeo there, and he would pour my cappuccino so there would be heart designs in the foam. That's pretty corny. I was 20.
Unfortunately, it's now closed for renovations. :-(
While Kerri stopped in a shop to get some Firenze t-shirts, the rest of us stood outside and stretched. We did this a lot.
We also stopped by the Pitti Palace, another site where College Me spent hours and hours listening to my CD player, watching flocks of birds fly around, and hanging out with Jennifer and our friend Laura.
Next we went to the Boboli Gardens, which is behind the Pitti Palace and essentially was the Medici family's backyard. Nice views for a backyard.
What the heck. Group photo!
That one was taken by this sweet old couple, who walked away from us holding hands. It always gives me hope to see old people holding hands.
At the back of the Gardens is a maze-like hedge field; one way faces the city and the other side faces the country.
I love my friends.
We decided this statue is all, "Yeeeahhhhh, Boyeeeee!!!" (Flava-Flav style)
There's also a cool grotto in the Gardens, with a very decrepit mural covering it.
After that adventure, I had one more thing I had to do in Firenze: go to the Ponte Santa Trinita, a bridge where I used to do the same things I did at the Pitti Palace: listen to my Discman and hang out. One of my favorite places in the world.
From there, we made our way to the train station to head to Venice!
While there, we grabbed a bite to eat at a sandwich stand. Some of you may know me as a picky eater. I tells ya, even the train station food blew me away. I am a big fan of the Attila sandwich, which is a panino with salami and provolone. And that's it. YUM.
On the train, I sewed my first button! (with Jennifer's help, and her sewing kit.)
I'm going so domestic. Jennifer spent the trip catching up on American pop trash.
Then Shannon caught her up on the latest trends in American hip-hop.
When you spend the day walking nonstop with full backpacks, it's easy to get all tuckered out.
But we arrived in no time and tried to figure out where we were going.
Jennifer's tendrils have a stellar GPS.
We hopped on a boat bus type of thing and went about halfway down Venezia.
Like Firenze our first night, it was beautiful and eerie.
(this was deemed by the group to be a "totally jenna collage." I'm flattered!)
Venezia is odd. An almost exclusively tourist city, the peeps here don't appreciate live or loud music, and I assume approximately 60% of the visitors are on their honeymoon, so after sundown the streets are nearly empty and completely, stiflingly quiet. We whispered the whole time.
We successfully found our hotel, the Albergo San Samuele, which was just adorable.
The foyer:
The moment we set down our backpacks, we were starving and needed food fast. Shannon's handy travel guide listed a place nearby, so we set out wandering the lovely streets again.
The sign below this window translates to "bread for the poor."
Le piazze were all empty.
It's hard to describe Venezia. It's exactly the way you've seen in books and movies. But when you are there, walking in the narrow streets and hearing the constant lap of water all around you, enclosed by tall, colorful, very old buildings that are sinking into the Adriatic Sea, you feel sort of locked in time, in the romance of the city, and you become forgetful of all the banal details of your regular life. You just want a cappuccino, and everything will be fine.
We found our restaurant, Vino Vino, and it's hard to find words to describe it other than "perfect." Quaint, delicious, and... well, in freakin' VENICE.
Shannon really liked the vino, vino.
It was some of the best wine we had on the trip.
Ooh! And Jennifer and I split this amazing gelato dessert with espresso poured on it. Divine.
We walked off the dinner by roaming around some more. I couldn't resist taking this photo of a hotel I would TOTALLY book just based on the name.
We saw this in a piazza. We thought it was a catwalk, so we did some "America's Next Top" modeling. Turns out it's a platform for when the piazza floods, which I would guess happens a lot.
And then we reached the end of the world.
This place seriously is sinking.
Next time: Venezia By Day.
Ooh! Until then - check out my new recaps on TVGasm. I get to cover "The Hills" this season, which is a both exciting and daunting task. My first post went up today and, according to every reader, I am neither funny nor clever nor a good writer. Whatev's! You decide: Click Here.
On Sunday we spent the day around Firenze, beginning with this delicious, nutritious breakfast of cereal, cappuccino, and blood orange juice (of which I can't even explain the flavor gorgeousness).
After a solid night of sleep, we were feelin' perky and ready to take on the town!
We met up with Jennifer (who lives a few minutes' walk from the apartment where we stayed) and hopped a bus.
Isn't it funny how everything is a photo op when you're on vacation, even riding a bus?
Our plan was to see The David at L'Accademia. On the way, we did some leather shopping.
We arrived at the (rather long) line for the museum and knew we were in the right place when we saw this:
We were entertained by the graffiti on the outside wall contributed by the many bored David-seekers before us.
... and added a little something of our own.
I love Italy.
Odd thing: all week, everywhere we went, we encountered hordes of teenagers. It must have been Field Trip Week in Italy or something.
Inside L'Accademia, we were only allowed to take pictures in the foyer. Luckily, there was a cool ceiling to look at.
Now, the last time I saw the David, I was an idiot and forgot to turn off my flash before I took a photo of the most perfect sculpture in the world. (Photos = BIG NO-NO.) I was actually banned from the museum for life, but I was pretty sure nobody would kick me out or anything seven years later. This time, I did not take photos, and instead waited until I came home and found some pics on the Internet to convey to you the absolute beauty of this sculpture.
As with much art, the scale of the David becomes lost in photos in books and slides in Art 101. No one realizes how massive he is until you see him. It's NINETEEN FEET. And every inch is perfection.
Michelangelo said, "In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it."
Not to be corny, but you really feel the presence of genius when you are in front of this statue. There are many beautiful inches and angles of David to admire, but my favorite has always been the hand, hanging at his side, taut with veins.
As you leave the museum, there is this photo hanging of everyone staring at the sculpture. It pretty much captures the awe of everyone who sees it.
Anyway, after that we were starving! We headed toward a pizzeria we'd seen on our way.
I love street musicians. (don't worry, I was respectful and gave him some money.)
Pizzeria in Italy is not like pizzeria in America. I am still fantasizing about this meal. Bread, olive oil, salami. That's it. That's all you need. And it was absolute culinary beauty.
Of course, in Italy you have wine with every meal except breakfast. We had the cheapest wine there, the house wine that was actually made by the ristorante. And it, too, was awesome. (I've gotta get a thesaurus or something. There aren't enough words in our language for the things I ate and drank in Italy.)
Shannon and I enjoyed cappuccini.
When I say enjoy, I mean seriously enjoy.
We spent the rest of the day pretty much just walking around the town and window shopping. It was kind of ridiculous.
"Shews!"
And food. Lots of window shopping for food. Since Easter was just around the corner, all the shops had out their best chocolate bunnies and such.
And marzipan!
We stopped by the Duomo.
We went back to the Ponte Vecchio.
And in this piazza, Shannon and I decided it was absolutely necessary to ride the merry-go-round.
After we finished with that, it was nighfall.
So we took a bus to Fiesole, a little teeny town just outside of/overlooking Firenze and shared some wine, looking back on the events of the day.
Then took in the view. Ah, Firenze. Te amo.
We capped off the night with Nutella so delicious that we couldn't even let our plates keep the last bits.
One beautiful, relaxing day in Firenze. Next time: a bit more Firenze, and en route to Venezia!
Here we go! There is so much to blog that I'm gonna do it one day at a time. Also, I cut way down on the photos so as not to annoy you with picture overload (or myself with upload overload) so if you're dying to see everything (and, really, it is all pretty good), email me and I'll be happy to send you a link to all of my photos on ofoto.com. I just don't want to post the link here for any Tom, Dick and Harry to see (unless that Tom is my stepPops).
So on Friday night, Shannon, Kerri and I headed to JFK terminal and checked in giddily. "We're going to Italy!!!" we exclaimed to the nonplussed airline employee.
On the plane, we kept up our enthusiasm, despite the fact that Shannon and I were both so sick we were on antibiotics and that poor Kerri was squeezed between the both of us for 9 hours.
I think the meds must have gotten to Shannon because around hour 3, I came back from the bathroom to find my travelmates replaced by these creatures:
We had a short layover in Rome, where we observed many Italian women's icy exteriors. We decided to emulate them. (Honestly, one guy we met later in the week said to us in broken English, "Really, Italian women are stone. cold."
We then boarded a puddle-jumper to Firenze. The joy of traveling!
Despite our exhaustion, we were beyond excited to be out of our regular lives and onto the upcoming week. What adventures could lie ahead? Only the Mediterranean knew.
We had already begun writing in a journal I had purchased for all four of us to write in during the week, and Kerri kept it up her end.
Shannon and I just window-gazed and daydreamed.
Upon our arrival in Firenze, we grabbed a taxi and I taught Shannon how (I thought) to say "we need to go to..." and then the address. I didn't think there were many drivers out there worse than New York cabbies, but this guy really seemed to be perturbed by us and/or on a suicide mission. Shannon was a-scared.
So were we.
Jennifer graciously met us at our temporary apartment, which we secured through the mother of a friend of Jennifer's boyfriend.
It's hard to catch feverish hugs with no flash.
We were ecstatic to see her, as it was the first time all four of us had been together since everyone up and left New York last summer. Not only was this to be an awesome trip to a foreign land, it was also just going to be great for all of us to hang out together.
So. The apartment. Freaking AWESOME! First of all, super-cool chandeliers all over the place.
Two bedrooms and a nice big kitchen, and two (TWO) balconies, the first of which was in Kerri's room.
Then, Shannon's and my room, also with cool chandelier, and an amazing amount of light.
And a gorgeous armoir.
You know how I get with cool bathroom mirrors.
The other balcony was just outside of the kitchen, and overlooked the network of apartments around us.
Just beautiful.
Sassy!
Jennifer brought us not only fixin's for dinner, but also these amazing little pastries that are like Munchkins, but awesomer, and filled with rice pudding. I don't know what they're called but we've been calling them rice balls (bawls if you now live in Long Island).
"We're in Italy!!!"
We decided the next course of action should be dinner-making. You'll never believe it: I cooked. (with Shannon)
Okay, here I've gotta say that even the airport food on the way to Italy was amazing. Restaurants were, of course, amazing too, but I think one of my favorite meals all week was this one: penne, pesto, chopped tomatoes. Red wine. Baguette. Incredibly simple and, well, incredible.
Cin-cin!
We decided to go out just for a bit and see the city, so we all put on our trusty money belts. You would not believe how dorky these things are, but according to travel books it's your best bet when you don't want to get pickpocketed and/or lose your passport.
We took a bus to the heart of the city and it was quiet and beautiful and exactly how I remembered it.
It was kind of trippy for my first experience back in Firenze to be at night (and exhausted). But it all came rushing back.
The beautiful architecture.
La Piazza Della Signoria, where I spent many an afternoon as a 20-year-old student abroad.
The bridges over the Arno, aglow at night.
The Ponte Vecchio, usually alight with glittering jewelry, empty and eerily lit at night.
You KNOW we got some gelato. I think it was Kerri's first, and maybe Shannon's (but I could be wrong). I think this was the same shop where I had my first gelato so many years ago.
As you'll see in the coming entries, I'm a big fan of staying behind everyone to get a walking photo.
We went to Jennifer's and my old apartment on Borgo Tegollaio, and looked up to our old window.
A surrealistic nostalgia overtook me at the sight of a former life, or rather, a bygone time that changed my life.
Then I turned around and Kerri and Shannon were doing their patented dance to "Get Low" with the ragged, sluggish defeat of two girls who'd just been across the world and around Firenze in 24 hours.
Back to the apartment we went, for a well-earned brick-like sleep. Well, I slept like a brick anyway. Apparently there were some air-conditioning issues for the other girls. I dunno.
Next time: more Firenze! Same blog time, same blog channel.
Ciao amici e famiglia! Just returned from my Paradise Tour of Italy and although I'm jet-lagged and exhausted, I'm the happiest I've been in years. This was truly the most wonderful vacation of my life! And I got to share every (and I mean EVERY) moment with my best friends. I can't wait to blog it all, but I know it's gonna take me like 8 years so I'll give you a few random photos (not in chronological order) to give you a taste of what this week was for me. I'm so excited to share it with all of you!
You may remember our coworker Ned from Borgfest '07. Well, in keeping with an old college tradition, he declared last month Facial Hair February and didn't shave for a full 29 days (quite a feat for a clean-cut rower from preppy Hoboken). Well, on March 1st he shaved, sort of. He showed up to work with an awesome 'stache, which lasted a total of, oh, 36 hours. But before he rid himself of it, we had to take a commemorative photo of PS260's favorite facial hair boys.
Last night, I got the opportunity to see one of my favorite writers, Chuck Klosterman, read from his upcoming first novel and speak about the differences between writing fiction and non-fiction (he has heretofore been known for pop culture and music critiques). It was hosted by none other than the fabulous Ira Glass, of NPR's This American Life.
Chuck came out and read a bit from his book, which I believe comes out later this year and which I'm already excited about.
Klosterman speaks just the way he writes: he is nerdy, quick, eloquent, neurotic, and hilarious. He spoke to a room of 150 people as though we were all at a party and just discussing the music of the '80s.
Ira sat down with him and asked his influences, his writing process etc., all of which is fascinating and inspiring to one such as myself.
They had a half-hour-long Q&A session, wherein the person sitting right in front of me and directly behind me got to ask their questions, but alas, I was overlooked.
Luckily I stayed afterward and got to talk to him one-on-one and have him sign a copy of his book of essays, IV. He was very nice and wrote "Excellent hair" in my book.
One final note: I finally got my glasses repaired. It's nice to have them back... I feel more jenna-ish with them.
And now it's off to bell'Italia! Kerri got here last night. She, Shannon and I leave tonight and will wake up tomorrow morning in a new land, with a new language and new adventures to be had. All will be blogged upon my return.
Take care, America! Much love, many many kisses and mermaid shakes.
I must admit, I'm happy to see this February end. The final good thing that happened that month was this eventful Thursday night twist session:
Sunday morning I went to a volunteer orientation meeting at 826nyc, an organization that tutors kids and helps develop their writing skills. The outside of the center is a "superhero supply store" where one can buy such necessary objects as x-ray vision glasses, capes, and antimatter. To get to the tutoring section one must go through a secret door.
Later, Dustin and I went, as friends, to see the newly updated Japanese room at the Met museum. It was darkly lit, soft, and beautiful.
Large panoramic scenes set in goldleaf.
I especially liked this detailed writer's case.
And this platter made of black granite (I think) and mother of pearl.
We wandered over to the ancient Indian section, drawn mostly to this massive, ornately sculptured dome ceiling.
And ended up in the Japanese garden room, which apparently was lifted directly from a site in Japan and recreated inside the museum.
It was humid and peaceful, with many Zen-inducing elements such as fountains and these cool windows.
And, of course, an open skylight for the ceiling. It must be amazing when it rains. I would love to lay on the floor with the lights off under that ceiling during a rainstorm.
And for reasons probably known only to my subconscious, I have been taking many photos lately of barren winter trees against the blinding bright winter sky.
After we dropped our stuff, we had the classic Italian breakfast: cappuccino and a pastry.
After we dropped our stuff, we had the classic Italian breakfast: cappuccino and a pastry.
