So mel and I didn't make it out of italy before the volcanic ash destroyed everyone's travel plans, so there was no budapest or vienna in the cards for me. Melissa finally made it out on a train 5 days after her scheduled departure and Katie got a flight out of bologna airport this afternoon. Instead of waiting in bologna for the travel mess to cool off (more like the volcano) we skipped town to Perugia for a bit, where I'd stayed in a farmhouse hostel with joey over new years.

Not only was april 15th to 21st quite a complicated travel period, but I also managed to screw up/find out a lot of screwy things. I didn't get the Beinecke, that huge graduate fellowship I applied for, which is fine in the end I think, cause i guess in a lot of ways i don't have to worry about having to get a PhD in Italian, so awesome. I can just do this master's and see what's up after that. I'm in a bit of a pinch academically and really need to get to studying, but for some reason my attention span is just destroyed. I cant do anything longer than 15 minutes without getting restless. I'm actually starting to really start worrying about leaving Italy and going into really intense academic environments--I can only imagine how the kids from last term must have adjusted.

Anyway, so no Vienna, no Budapest. Next thing on the agenda is an exam in may, and Barcelona may 22nd.

cocktails

I have a new ambition in life. I want to own a club. I don't think I'd be a good DJ, because I wouldn't play music other people like, but I just want to be able to play my favorite dance music REALLY loudly and dance.


Anyway, Yesterday was awesome. My housemates and i had an aperitivo at our house, which is like a cocktail party with LOTS of appetizers. It was to celebrate my and my housemates birthdays, since they were close together, and I hadn't really done anything for it because my birthday fell on a holiday in Italy and my i was fuggitively sneaking my friends into my dorm so it wasn't like we could go out and do anything to exciting. So, at 8:30 it was supposed to start, because that's the normal aperitivo time, and at like 9:30, its just me, my 3 housemates and one of their boyfriends. I'd bought like hella €'s worth of food and alcohol so i was like, fuck. FAIL. literally thought no one was gonna come. By 10 though, it was a like someone opened the faucet, people started pouring in. So that was fun, cuz 2 of my really good italian friends made a cake (one of them is coming with me to portugal!) and there was a good vibe. Then near the end, my 3 housemates took me into one of the bedrooms and gave me this AWESOME gift. They got me an awesome leather 2010 agenda for me to write my thoughts and poetry in (i'm such a hippy/wannabe poet?) and inside they wrote a jim morrison quote in english and that was just SO thoughtful, and THEN!!!!!! they gave me a music box that plays HAPPY BIRTHDAY which, if you know me at all, you know its one of my favorite songs in the world. I lost my shit about the music box.

I guess I just wanted to write about the party cuz it was so exciting for me I guess. I sort of love when a bunch of italians and americans get together, cuz its just really fun to watch and try to communicate and dance. Also, earlier this week, my advisor Claire, the director of the program, took me out to dinner for my birthday. It was really sweet and I ate super well and I didn't expect it at all! So this week was like birthday redux. it was cool.

Masks, Churches, Friends, Spring leee leee laa la la

First things first! Look at this crazy awesome mask I got in Venice. I'm a dork, I've been to this crazy mask-makers shop 3 times in my life now, and this is the first time I finally bought something I liked. They're a little costly, but I'm happy I got it because it's perfect for a masquerade I'll be going to sometime this summer.



This masks makes me feel like a ferry or forest-dwelling fantastic animal, and basically makes me want to dork out watching lotr. love the color. yeeee

So! What have i been up to? Since my birthday and easter, I've just been visiting, visiting, visiting with friends. Melissa and Katie came first, we passed easter together, and like 2 good catholics, mel and katie asked if we could go to service.(for subscribers to both our blogs-sorry for the overlap-she's got the pictures too!) Even though it was in italian, we went to a mass in a crazy echo-y church, and then went on a nice long walk of bologna including some other fancy churches, and the big public gardens. Next day, the epic 21st, we went to ravenna to see the ancient mosaics, eat piadina, and drink my first legal beer (in the US-seen in prior post below.) Katie and Melissa went down to Perugia and Rome, and in the meantime, Tess, another good friend from Wellesley, came to visit and we went to the huge open air market where I bought an unbelievable summer dress, a super long summer skirt, a white zip up hoody with quirky designs. Then we went to san luca, the awesome hike with unbeatable views outside of the city, and the next day she left early. Same day, melissa and katie come BACK to bologna, and show them the same things I showed tess and her friend grady-the market, and san luca. Then the following day, we went to venice, because I had promised melissa ages ago I would go with her, and it turned out to be the most beautiful day I've seen in italy in a long time. The glistening water, typical venetian beauty basically, which was pretty cool after having been there twice during very late fall and middle of winter. We went to one of my favorite museums, Peggy Guggenheims old house, and I bought more postcards. Then i bought the mask-woops?

It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I'm getting ready to head out for 'eastern europe?' YAY! can't wait. my travel bug is kicking back in.

"Artists ought to be writing/ about what they do/ and/ what kinds of procedures they go through to realize a work/ what their presuppositions in making a work are/ and related things. If artists' intentions and ideas/ were more accessible to the general public/ I think it might break down/ some of the barriers of misunderstanding between the art world/ and artists/ and the general public/ I think it would become clear the extent to which artists are just as much a product of their society as anyone else as in any other kinds of occasion/"
-Adrian Piper

I read an article today about international water crises. It's funny to me that this article was one of the last un-bolded, smaller font, articles in the 'world' section of the NY times website. I wonder what we're going to do when the water crises hits the middle class. Right now, 700 million people are already under sever 'water stress' even if its not a crisis yet. Ethiopia, Haiti and Niger are experiencing real crises. It just makes me wonder about the functions that water parks, hot tubs and pools, and irresponsible domestic water use serve in our society.

i've been really getting into food and what i eat (for health's sake) and informing myself about nutrition and stuff like that. I've recently drastically changed my diet and have started a weekly workout routine with my roommate maria. I'm trying not to set the initial stakes too high, but i hope it works out for the better. We need to change the way we do so many things, and if I can't change myself... well then i'm not going to be effective in any other ways.

21

finally.