An entire lifetime has passed

since my last post. which is weird since it's been like 6 days. in those 6 days i think i've slept less than a total of 16 hours. Since Last wednesday, I've been pretty socially active and academically dysfunctional, but you know, it's worth it, especially since my last 7 weeks in Italy are clicking down like a time bomb.

What a whirlwind of events! It's probably not worth trying to recount every detail and thing I did because, in 128 hours of being awake in only a 6 day period, there's a lot of space for a lot of action. However, some really great pictures from 2 different nights out on the town, one trip to florence, and a big group dinner with great friends and awesome conversation are the evidence I have from this insanely busy period I've just had.

The best, most random, and AWESOMEly weird thing that happened during all of this was during a train ride I was taking last night. I went to Vicenza to see Josh Redman and Brad Mehldau in concert, which, might i add, was fucking awesome, and on the late 10:56 train ride back, I couldn't really find a good isolated seat (i hate sitting next to people and will search many cars for a seat by itself. on this train I coudl tell that wasnt gonna happen though) So i sit halfway through one of the cars in an aisle seat. Right before the stop I have to get off at to change trains, the ticket controller came by to check tickets. Mine went with no probelms. then this young looking guy in the seats across the aisle from me goes "do you speak any english?" to the controller, and so i take my cue and i'm like 'i do, i can help you out' So i hear from this kid that his wallet had been stolen from him in nice france and he had a flight from venice the next morning, so he needed to get there but he didnt have any money and he was sorry he didnt have a ticket but he didn't have another choice. So the controller tells me thats fine if he has a 'denuncia' from the police, which he didnt, so the ticket guy said, sorry but you have to get off the train at the next stop then. So thankfully, I was getting off there too, so I talk to this kid and I'm like, where are you from, whats the deal, what were you going to do in venice tonight, because keep in mind, it was already 11:30 pm, and he's like "well actually my wallet was stolen on tuesday (6 days before!!!) and my flight to venice is on friday (5 days later!!!!) so i traveled down from nice all day today on trains without tickets" The ironic thing was is that Padova, the stop we got off at, is one stop before Venice. He was almost there. But 5 nights in venice without money or a place to stay! I was like WTF, i can't knowingly allow this fellow europe-roaming american do that. So I offered to host him at my place on the floor in my room (had a sleeping bag-he was def prepared) and give him some food in the meantime before he figured out the money situation. So we get back to my apartment at like... 2:30 am. neither of us had eaten all day (i was just too busy) so we made pasta, talked, and made a game plan for the next day.

In the meantime, I have to add, this was the last thing to happen in a string of REALLY CRAZY coincidences, awesome moments, and trips that I had done in 5 days. And it was entirely too strange and too much to have this awesome 26 year old colorado-an guy just pop up out of nowhere and be like... i'm temporarily homeless??? the next day he was able to get some money out of his bank account without the card, and then he came to my house for the final dinner of my beloved roommate Maria who is portuguese and moving back to portugal. We made awesome cous-cous, drank wine, smoked cigarettes. It's a very bohemian existence that I'm living here. There's always music, art, laughter, and smoke in the air wherever I am in italy. Not even necessarily in my house, but just everywhere I go.

So, my spirits have been lifted a little. I guess as anyone could tell from the last few posts, I'd been entirely too pensive, reading too much heavy philosophy crap, and spending a lot of time on the internet. I guess with the abundance of socializing, I just...feel like i'm moving forward here, linguistically, making friends, making plans, even though I'm about to leave. it really really really will be the most bitter-sweet thing ever. The only thing comparable I think would be when I left california for wellesley the first time, or when I left wellesley for Italy for a year.

I'm doing really well though. So well I can't really explain. Which is a feeling I never want to embrace too muchbecause i'm afraid it means i'm soon to fall of the other end into something less...Have any of you ever read outliers? Its a book by malcolm gladwell best seller new york times....(whatever the heck that means) that talks about our conceptions of success. So interesting. I'm almost done with it. I read it this weekend on a train. ha!

I MISS EVERYONE AND I WISH I COULD CARRY ALL MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD IN MY POCKET. love and thanks for reading

ali