Quality Life Choices

So after yesterday there is so much to tell! Saturday was proably the best day I've had here yet. SOO great. Lets start at the beginning.
I met my host mom and her name is Pia. She has 2 sons and they dont live at home but the older one came to visit and he is... well pretty is an understatement. But its the best word to describe him. His name is David and he has a supermodel wife. Whatever, still nice to look right? Its a great house and she has a little pug. Ugliest pug I've ever seen but so cute because of it.
Saturday we all got to go to Chianti (key-an-ti). It is a Tuscan hill town and so the drive was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, ever. First we stopped at a town right before it called Geneva and it was so cute. They were having a little concert recitale thing in the square and when we first got there the song they were playing and singing was Summer Lovin from Greece. So great. We just walked around and I got Gelato. The best strawberry gelato I've had yet.
Then we went up to the Villa that we were going to have lunch at and do a wine tasting. The hill was a bitch and a half. Imagine, the mount + Booth's hill on top. Terrible. But so worth it because the Villa was AMAAAZING! This guy that owned it couldn't have been more than 30, my roommate and I are thinking 27 to be exact. He had a huge garden, huge house, amazing view and it was all just breathtaking. Then we had lunch. Nothing to really write about just some pasta and Prociuto and so forth.
But we also tasted his wine. And yes... Erin tasted it too. I had my first free will sip of alcohol and I don't know how you guys do it because it was absolutely disgusting. Even the sweeter wine that was later, which apparently tasted like apple juice to everyone else, was repulsive. Ew gross, no thank you. And don't worry, everyone at my table had a camera ready so there should be about 5 different points of view on Erin's first drink. Then they all thought that since I was having my first taste that I wanted to start drinknig, clearly these people have only known me for less than a week. I continuely was like but I'm not looking to start drinking. I was simply tasting it here because its Italy and the best in the world.
Anyway, so I'm to about 3pm in my day here and it ended at 1 am. Bare with me.
After all of the food we just walked around the Villa a little, our guides were amazing. Fillipo liked me a little and kept coming over to say hi. But he's great and we did italian kisses when we left. Left to left cheek then right to right. Mike was also great and sat with us at the table and talked to us about everything. We'll definitely be seeing him again.
ok so then we went back to florence, and I dont really remember what we did. We had dinner, very good of course and then met people up at the school. Have I mentioned school yet? I think I have, Villa Rosa, goregeous garden etc. When we got there, like typical American college students they all wanted alchohol and they wanted it about 10 minutes ago. So we go off to the Piazza right by school where there is a kiosk for wine and other drinks. There are also alllll these Italian teenagers hanging out.
We were trying to figure out where we were going to go to get bottles of wine for everyone when an italian guy started getting closer to us like he was eavsdroping so I just said Buon sera, buon sera. And he kind of walked away. I looked over and said you cant fool me! Then about 5 minutes later he was back with a girl on his arms and they were saying they were an exchange couple so I kind of slowly walked up and said again buon sera. From there we started talking and it was extremely entertaining. I found out that he was looking to exchange his italian gf for an american girl and that they would help us find good wine. So everyone else is kind of freaking out like what are you doing but I was just doing my thing and they loved me. Then the original guy's best friend came from behind and grabbed him. It was strange but he (italian #1) said oh he's gay. Very gay. So I turned to him and spoke very clearly and loudly, WE ACCEPT YOU. WE WILL ACCEPT YOU IN AMERICA. They couldn't handle that. They were laughing very hard. It was fabulous. Then I tried to introduce myself and the girl, who I later found out was named Virginia, said her name was nipple, no nipple cow. And because of that I was like ohh really? well I'm titty cow. And again I cracked them up. (toot toot) They were trying to show us where to go to get wine but it was like a 20 minute walk. not something we were totally up for. But I ended up getting a picture, finding out that the "gay"'s name was Luca and having a blast making new friends.

Luca(Gay), Eavsedropper, Me, Vittoria

Everyone I was with was like Erin has game, I'm so glad youre with us, You're so good with the Italians etc. It was awesome. I liked that hahah.
Then we walk towards the Duomo and find this group of guys celebrating their buddies 26th bday and totally drunk. We still hadn't found vino yet so I asked them. Again I start making friends and before I know it the bday boy has all the girls lined to either side of him and they are trying to get someone to kiss him on the cheek. No one was doing it and they were looking like if they did they would get a disease or something. But there was nothing wrong with him. So i lean over and give him a little kiss on the cheek and everyone erupts AYYY!!!! Woohoo Erin saves the day, again. They can't tell us how to get to any vino store so we end up moving on and keep going. But I think one of the guys tried to tell me that they thought American girls were easy. Which isnt news to me, its pretty widely thought here, but I never thought someone would say it to my face. He said in broken english, we think... American girls and vino... and just made hand gestures like keep going with me on this thought. So I go nooo noo noo! I swear they were harmless and not as horrible as it sounds while I'm writing this. Dont worry mother. Another one of the guys said "raggazze americane sono belle" in a whisper and i turned and said grazie which was answered with a prego. (American girls are pretty).
We ended up never finding a place to buy bottles of wine but just sitting on the steps and drinking the bottle someone had bought at the Villa earlier that day. (It was opened by my original friends in the piazza when Lauralise came and said she couldn't get them to open it. He just took it from her and she said no they wouldn't open it, and go them to open it no problem). It was a fabulous night and everyone is now jealous of my broken not so good italian skills. Anyway, long story short most people reading this, from cuse, are friends with a P I M P or just a kick ass person, either way.
Fabulousness.
I get wireless internet tomorrow in the school buildings YAY! and today it was raining :( but whatever. We went shopping with Pia which was very interesting. I dont really know what else to write about. And I think this blog is lengthy enough since I've been writing for about 20-25 minutes. I hope you were able to read it all. I miss EVERYONE but I'm having an awesome time.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVON!!! that too.
I think I'm going to get going here. wow 43 minutes online and only 1.5€ sweeeeeeeeeeet. maybe gelato time? i dunno.
LOVE YOU ALL,
the Diva. Erin :)

ITALIA ITALIA ITALIA

Boun Giorno,
IM HERE!!!!!!!!!!!
It is unbelievably beautiful. Like I can't explain it, but the pictures and the postcards are real. They are right in front of me and its like they have just come to life. It's so crazy and I'm loving it SOOO much.
I haven't met my host family yet and I'm so beyond nervous. Like who am I going to live with? How is everything going to go? I hope it's going to be good and I'll be living with someone I like.
The people that are here on the trip are 90% awesome. Some people are giving me bad vibes and there is one girl here that just explained why. She's a tridelt and I thought instantly, so that's why you give off the I'm-better-and-prettier vibe. Gotcha. Anyway. I'm so glad my dad got a cell phone and some euros for me before I left. Everyone is scrambling around trying to get those things figured out and I'm just sitting there like, oh, mine's kinda done.
So yesterday we took this AMAZING walking tour with a cutie named Tom. He has a gf who is italian and came with us and they were adorable together. Anyway not the point. The point is it was supposed to be about an hour long but since there was only about 15 of us and we were enjoying ourselves we took about 2 hours. It was so gorgeous, we got gelato, and we just wandered. Parts of Florence remind me of Paris and I'm thinking it's just the European way of things that is doing that.
We finaly saw the Duomo that everyone is talking about and OMG I can see why they can't really describe it. Its just HUGGGGE! and so breathtaking. But it's crazy because the front of the building was just done about 140 years ago (just ha). The rest of the building however, is about 700 years old or from the 1200's I can't remember which. Can you imagine making something now and having it be something people are still using, talking about, loving 700+ years down the line? That's just amazing.
Right now I'm in our little computer cluster and it feels so good to be back on the internet. So many of us were just going nuts over not having the technology we do back home. Like no txting are you kidding me? But anyway. (I say that a lot) there is a Skype room so you best all be getting Skype and we'll chat. I miss everyone but I'm having so much fun and meeting a bunch of new people and it's just begun.
I'm pretty pumped for everything that is coming my way. We already have some trips in mind, like going to Siena for the horse race around the Piazza, I'm going to Venice with my class and others. I'll keep you all udated as much as I can. I'm getting wireless access around the school buildings and have class TTh 8:30 (shoot me) -12:30 then 1-3. So hopefully I'll be able to update this a bunch.
Arrivederci. I LOVE YOU ALL!!

The Day Has Come

So it's finally travel day. I'll be on my first plane in less than 5 hours. I have everything packed and thanks to packwhiz.com i don't feel like I'm forgetting something, however it's me and I will forget something. Its just bound to happen.

But i started my packing with about 30 outfits laid out for a 42 day trip. I have it now down to 16 outfits. Mainly because I got so many cute new shirts for this trip it was hard to leave them here. But I know i'll be ok with my adorable wardrobe. My only concern is apparently Italians don't wear flip-flops around and I packed at least 5 pair. (Hello $1 flip flop sale at Old Navy!). 

Anyway, I'm really bored. Its 4:30 and I dont want to go to sleep because then waking up would be TORTURE! plus how much sleep would I actually get?

I'm getting really excited and really anxious. I just want to know whats going on, who i'm living with, who my roommate is. So many questions. Hopefully, they'll all be answered very soon. 

oh also. My professor sent out an email today saying to get very specific paper for the photo class and I read it at like 5pm tonight. All I could think was seriously? You know we're leavingTOMORROW right? I don't have time now to go get that paper. Ugh... whatever. I'll get it there I guess. 

I got my family gifts. I hope they like them. One is a bar of soap. Its handmade and looks like red grapes. I thought of red wine and thought it would work. I was originally looking for something with an Arch on it, so I could show them my landmark but they didn't have anything at the place I went. I also got them Cardinals baseball cards. I thought it was cute because of how big football is over there and so the (kindof) counterpart for me is baseball and especially the Cardinals. I just hope they get it and they like them. I know nothing about them so it's not like I can pick the most perfect thing ever. 

Also, I think... I'm leaving RufRuf home. It would be her first time staying home while I'm traveling but I worry about her. I would never want to lose her and, while no one will steal her, what happens if I forget her? Or my bags get lost for good? She's too valuable to me to lose. So I think for her safety, I'm leaving her home. It's going to be a sad day. But after 18 years you've got to let go a little right?

That's all i've got for now. Talk to ya in ITALY!!!!!

This has nothing to do with traveling... for the most part

I'm going to talk today about birds. Birds being in my freaking house. 

So when I was at camp summer after junior year, I turned on the shower and a moth flew at my face. Thats why I don't like moths and butterflies. And now I'm not starting to like birds that much. So the first bird I found was in my basement and when I came downstairs freaking FLEW AT ME! like came and attacked me. I shrieked and had my dad get it out of the house. Of course it had to fly around some more, come at me some more and then fly out the door. Now this new one was here the other day. I went into my laundry room heard some rustling around which I thought was strange. When I turned on the light the fucking bird flew at my head. I flipped out and ran out of the room, my dad went in again and got the bird to go out the door. NOW there is something tweeting in my freaking bathtub. I'm too scared to look and startle it having it fly at my face. Why are there birds in my house?!?!?!?

ughh.

oh and I don't have anything actually packed. I have stuff laid out but nothing in the suitcase. YAY procrastination!  

5 days left and I'm... Blogging

So it's my first post.. YAY! anyway. I was just in the car rockin out to some song and then the weirdest thing happened. The song stopped and I got this ping of loneliness all the sudden. It just keeps hitting me everyday now that I'm not with my lovers at Cuse. The majority of which I wont get to see till next YEAR :( either. I miss you all and I don't know how I'll handle it. Lets count here.... may, june, july, august, september, october, november, december thats... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... EIGHT MONTHS without Cuse and wayyyy to many Cuse lovers. 

--- on a happier side note, I'm currently watching Two A Days, whatever happened to this show? its so fabulous. this girl is going hunting in PEARLS?!?!---

ok so.. This is my blog for those 8 months where I'll be traveling alllllll around Europe makin it my bitch lol but really EVERYWHERE. And this is so everyone can know what I'm up to and get updates on me when its hard to get in touch. But everyone better get themselves Skype and a webcam. That way we can leave each other videos on facebook and video chat and funnnn stuff!!

in 5 days I head to the first part of my journey, Florence Italy. and can we just talk for a second.. about the fact that I have no FUCKING clue what I'm getting myself into. Like here is what I know.. 1. I'm living with an Italian family, probably with someone else too 2. I'm taking one course thats a photography course 3. I'll be in Florence or Firenze 4. It will probably be balls hot 5. I'm hopefully going to be able travel. FIVE things. thats NOTHING!!! AHHH. and I'm kind of a planner type. I dont need everything planned out in front of me but I like to have a better idea about what I'm getting myself into. ughhh.

Thats my life at the moment. I miss everyone at Cuse. I'll let you know how everything goes with Florence. I know it will be fabulous but I just don't know exactly how yet.