a day spent with dinos and rocks

aka the greatest day ever.

around 2pm, breana and i met alayna and lenora at san marco to go find the dinosaur museum, otherwise known as the museum of geology and paleontology. we could not find it. anywhere. we even knew the general area it was in and asked three different people: the first two looked at me like i was abosolutely insane and the last guy says, "OH! We have a GREAT paleontology museum.... where is it? oh.... well i don't know...." and then proceeds to look in the phone book and find nothing. at which point i call my host mother who says she will call me back after looking it up online.


guess where the darn museum is. on the street i take to school. every day. i pass this museum not once, but TWICE a day. we knew it was affiliated with the university of florence but we didn't realize it was  IN the academic building. whoops. anywho. we got there. finally. AND! that great pass we bought the other day for 4 euros which we thought was only for the four special exhibits at the science museums is also for all the university of florence affiliated museums (anthro, zoology, minerals and rocks, etc. etc. etc....) AND it was for sale for 10 euros here...... meanwhile we bought it yesterday for 4! 


needless to say, we wandered amongst huge dinos, most of which were FOUND IN TUSCANY!!! and the more complete ones were named - pippo, marta, linda and pietro..... very cute. 


then we strolled across the courtyard to the rock and mineral museum which was AMAZING! and beautiful. and sparkly. (there are about 1 million pictures of said dinos and rocks on facebook.... how embarrassing! http://www.facebook.com/album.php aid=379250&id=500755531&l=23c5298291)


anyway! at this point i am in bed with warm milk, mostly packed for SICILY in the morning! how grand!


my next update will be from down south nearby the ocean and basking in weather 10 degrees warmer, although perhaps rainier, than here!


ciao a tutti! baci e abbracci!

a brief rundown of a grand friday adventure (which runs a bit into today)

after waking up around 11am (so nice.....) breana and i attempted to make some delicious plans for the day. upon deciding to go to the zoological part of the natural history museum over by pitti palace, we realized it closed at 1pm and it was already 12:30pm. whoops! we then decided we would go to the history of science museum instead. i hopped on the bus, naturally giving breana directions to the wrong bus stop, so i got there a little before here, only to find out that most of the museum was closed except the "florence science" exhibit in the basement. it was pretty cool, all sorts of instruments and galileo-y, newton-y things. we had not a clue what anything was and the little labels such as "electrical apparatus" didn't really help a whole lot. we did find a huge spark chamber, a large electro-static machine and a model of squash fertilization though! the cool thing about this exhibit is that it is linked to three other science museums in florence and you buy your one ticket and can get into all three until may! after spending all of an hour in this charming basement, we headed elsewhere.

we first stopped in the sede to try to cheer up all the ladies still writing papers and grab a yummy hot cocoa from the macchine, and then we popped in to our favorite panini place, i fratellini (which for some reason we always have called due fratellini but theres nothing really about there only being two little brothers.... i guess we just say that because there are always two men working there?) anyway, we had some yummy goat cheese and spicy salami sandwiches and wandered off in the direction of the photography museum. 




very cool. old cameras, old negatives, super old photo albums, tons of black and white photographs, lots of cool pictures of italy in the 1800s. very neat. 


at this point we still had over 2 hours until we needed to be at a little book reading/immigration literature/aperitivo thing at a cafe over the arno so we stopped by one of the other museums with a science exhibit. this one was way cool: one of the medici palaces whose science exhibit was kinda funny, mostly architectural sketches and portraits of science-y dudes. but regardless! the palace was great! we got to see many many chandeliers and couches and tapestries and a tiny little marble museum full of marble statue heads. it was pretty great.


with at least an hour still to go we first wandered around rinascente, a big department store, looking at all the things we didn't need that were on sale. then we went over to the old stove pub in piazza del duomo and had a pint of strongbow cider. at which point we were much more ready to face the oh-so-exciting book reading thing.....


which had no aperitivo i might add. only a bowl of potato chips. which we definitely took advantage off. but it was hard to hear what the speakers were saying, and it was loud and crowded and we were hungry and worn out. after waiting for an hour and a half we finally parted (after chatting with giovanna and two of our adorable professors who were there, naturalllyyyy) and headed over to dante's trattoria for dinner. it was decently good and well priced, the free wine was gross, and there were a lottttt of dumb americans. 


after dinner, breana and i were not quite ready to head home so we popped into kikuya, the english pub, where we a) saw (but didnt bump into, thank god) antonio, a creeper from week one in italy, and b) met two really cute american girls from south carolina and their way less cute annoying friends from tennessee and worcester, MA. we exchanged numbers with the cute ones and vowed to teach them things about florence, etc. in fact, we are inviting them to hang out at braumeister this evening! 


i would say we had an extremely successful day! 


this morning i woke up at 9 to make pancakes for my family, very cute as always. 


as i write, i am chatting with breana and making grand plans to go to the dinosaur museum later! after packing and painting my nails of course. packing for what, you ask.... SICILIA!!! we leave tomorrow. the taxi arrives at 11:30am, flight at 1:30pm, arrive there at 3pm, drive somewhere and proceed to spend 6 nights in various places around sicily - two hotels RIGHT ON THE OCEAN! and if not sunny, it will at least be about 55 degrees the whole week, far better than our 43 tops! i absolutely cannot wait! pictures and blog will be updated as much as possible! 


for pictures of lovely friday (and i think some of , check out the facebook album! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=378979&id=500755531&l=2d9201d064


i hope everyone has a FANTASTIC DAY! i think all this relaxing is doing wonders for my whole person - try it out!


baci galore! 

un giorno worth a blog

today was my first full day off without any commitments, assignments, classes, appointments, or any other kind of require thing. it was grand.

9am. wake up (unfortunately to an alarm but it was soooo very worth it)


10.30am. head over to the stazione leopolda to meet claire and breana to go to a trunk show of sorts, all different italian vintage stores showin' off their goods.


11.00am. find a chandelier that i absolutely must have in my future apartment..... 3,000 euros....


11.20am. explore all sorts of wonderful vintage things including crazy sunglasses, gorgeous felt things, bright patterned dresses and funky homemade pins (i bought two as presents.... you better hope its for you!)

1pm. wander over toward santa maria novella with miss breana to find some lunch. 


1.30pm. munch said lunch in the freezing, brisk air of the piazza, sho-ing (how do you say that?) away the vile pidgeons.


2.30pm. hop on bus 17 toward home.


3pm. sip some tea and share a delicious italian donut-thing with silvia.


3.15pm. tidy room, change sheets, refold clothes in closet. get nice and comfy on bed, wrapped in blue snuggie.


3.30pm. commence afternoon of doing anything i want on the computer EXCEPT opening word to write or wordreference.com to look up words in english. talk with bestie from home, bestie from here, boyfriend, mamma and padre. think about spring break in barcelona, and other various little trips. order valentine's present for parents and have it shipped home. desperately try to think of boyfriend presents for 4th valentine's day.... still stuck on that one.


8.00pm. re-emerge from room for dinner. eat DELICIOUS fried schiacciata aka amazing dough fried into puffy little disks which are then cut in half and stuffed with prosciutto and various amazing cheeses. also broccoli and romanesco and cauliflower. and a kiwi. and some red wine. and a delicious almond cookie that i bought the other day.

9.00pm watch tv with enrico.... aka watch 20 minutes of soccer games and another 30 of grease. in italian. just me and him. it was fantastic.


10.00pm. return to the beloved bed and computer to settle in for a nice evening. load on episode of one tree hill, talk to boyfriend and bestie in florence while munching some chocolate with almonds and raisins.


11:20pm. after much distraction (what else is new....) get in pajamas after very merrily having decided to go on a science museum crawl with breana tomorrow. followed by a literary aperitivo with some other girls and giovanna. a nerdy day, indeed! how i cannot wait!


11.40pm. finish the list of muse-see museums for this semester including not only anthropology and archaeology museums but a carriage museum (by appointment only), the old pharmacy at santa maria novella, the porcelain museum, the synagogue, and the photography museum. it's on, florence, you just wait. 

11.44pm. find out from bestie that tomorrow is national lady gaga day... that must mean i need to find an outrageous outfit and tie my hair into a big bow.


11.45pm. finish blog, snuggle deeper into bed, and watch one tree hill. then fall asleep dreaming about valentine's gifts, museums and travelling.... 




it's going to be a grand semester.




bacione! 


11.54pm. find out that boyfriend is driving home to freshly-snowed-on vermont and even worse, he is stopping for buffalo wings in northampton on the way.... i miss you all... vermont, northampton, wings.... boyfriend.... too bad italy is divine! <3