photos

not too much to report from today, but I have photos to post so here they are...

This is the view from Michaelangelo's Piazza. I LOVE THIS CITY.

Night time view from Michaelangelo's Piazza

Sunset at Michaelangelo's Piazza... with a fake David... of course.

For the top photo and the bottom photo, I captured the movement of the Arno's water so that's why it looks all blurry...

Sogni d'ora a tutti!

(golden dreams all!)-- instead of saying sweet dreams, the italians say dreams of gold :)

insert clever title here

I made it through Yom Kippur in Italy!! Last night I went to Ne'ilah for closing prayers and when that shofar blew, I definitely got chills up and down my body. The echoing was incredible. It was such a spiritual experience listening to the echos. Truly amazing. Afterwards, I walked outside to see if Chabad was going to do anything for break the fast, and they weren't... and since I didn't want to break the fast alone, I decided to look around to see if there were any people who looked about my age. I saw two girls standing around so I went up to them and asked them if they were studying in florence. They said they were and we started talking and then the three of us went out to break the fast. ITALIAN STYLE. 4 cheese gnocchi? AMAZING. A huge bottle of water? Refreshing. Meeting new friends? Wonderful. After dinner we went to the best gelateria in allllll of florence... so good. I wish I could break the fast EVERY year with gnocchi and gelato! At the gelateria, I started looking around and I saw a girl wearing a WWU shirt on... so of course I went up to her to ask her if she goes to western, because who knows, she could've had a family member or a friend who got her the shirt, but she said that she does go to Western! Talking to her made me realize how much I really do love Western. I mean, I love it here in florence, how could you not, but I really do love my school back at home. Everyone is so friendly and warm and it's just wonderful. It's a great feeling to be able to look back on a decision you made and confirm that it was a great one.

Today was so beautiful so I took the super duper long way home... and took a lot of pictures. I always get the strangest looks from people when I am sitting or standing in one place taking a ton of pictures... but I don't care. I don't care what people think. I'm an artist. and that, is that.

The top animation is a series of 19 still pictures pieced together... And the bottom one is a series of 18 still pictures pieced together.

Hope everyone who fasted had a fast and easy fast!!

Yom Kippur. Italian style.

I was debating with myself whether or not I should go to class today since it's yom kippur... but then I decided to go for a few reasons...

1. The class only meets once a week
2. I really like digital photography and that was my only class today
3. Let's be honest. I really was not planning to spend my entire day in the synagogue

So, I went to class. It was nice being distracted, but then it got kind of difficult during the half hour break when everyone left to get food and I stayed in the classroom to work...

I'm glad i went to class today... it was fun. Here are some pictures of what we learned...

We learned how to take an image and make certain things in the image look miniature! Pretty cool, huh? And then for the second part of the class, (it's a 5 hour class, so yes there are parts) we took a class field trip to the museum of photography here in florence... I was just blown away by some of the photos. I looked at a few photos and said to myself "oh that's simple, I can do that in photoshop in 5 minutes" and then I looked down at the date and the picture was taken in 1837! to create a photo like that before photoshop and before digital cameras is amazing!! wow, I was seriously blown away!

Oh my goodness, fasting in Italy is hard when every cafe, every restaurant, and every gelateria smells and looks SOOO GOOD.... so far it hasn't been too bad though... I've just been keeping myself busy as a bee.

After class, I went over to a student travel center and booked a trip to Prague! YES! Actually, last night I planned out most of my trips sooo for this semester the places I will travel to or have traveled to are...

• Florence (but that's only a small possibility)
• Fiesole
• Pisa
• Cinque Terre
• Viareggio
• San Gimignano
• Bologna
• Lucca
• Verona
• Venice
• Switzerland
• Greece
• Prague
• Paris
• Rome
• Barcelona
• Germany
• Austria

WOOOOO!! And that's not nearly half of all of the places that I wish I could travel to. Oh well, I guess I'm JUST going to have to come back to Europe again... and again... and again....

After I booked my Prague trip, I headed on over to the only, yes, only, synagogue in allllll of florence. It's BEAUTIFUL. Seriously, hands down one of the prettiest if not THEE prettiest synagogue I have ever seen. I was really excited about going to services, but I was a little disappointed. I was there for Musaf and the beginning of Mincha. On the women side, there were all very old ladies who couldn't stop gabbing for two seconds. It probably was pretty juicy gossip... if only I could speak Italian... but since I can't, the gabbing gossipers were just annoying. And it didn't seem like everyone was praying together... each person was just doing his or her own thing... that made me miss home.

At home, there is such a warm sense of community around yom kippur and everyone participates in the service together... here? not so much... COME ON 7:46 PM COME FASTER!

I'm going to head on back to the synagogue for Ne'ilah at 6:30 and then maybe I'll try to figure out where the chabad is for break the fast... I want to break the fast in style and not just come home to make myself a bowl of pasta. BORINGGGGG....

Okay it's now 5:45... I can do it, I can do it... Only 2 hours left... I think I can, I think I can!!

woooo

Sorry that i haven't updated in a few days!!! but at least I have stuff to update you all on! Including pictures!!!

WEDNESDAY/MIERCOLEDI

We went to the fiorentina soccer game against Sampdoria. And we won 2-0!! GO FIORENTINAAAA!!! The game was really, really fun!! It was the first professional soccer game that I went to and it was a great experience. That night when I came home, my bug bites were really hurting and were really itchy... I looked in the mirror and this is what i saw...

and the rest of my body looked like that too!! The bug bites kept getting bigger and bigger which meant that I was clearly having an allergic reaction, so I went to the hospital with one of my roommates. One of the staff members from my study abroad program (API) came and met us at the hospital. I got a couple shots: one of cortisone and one of pretasone. Why they gave me both, I don't know, but they both helped a lot. They also gave me a couple of antibiotics. Both the shots and the medicine has helped a lot. Since yesterday, you can't even see a single bug bite on my face... it's wonderful.

GOOOOO FIORENTINAAAAA!!!!!

After the first goal... the team was so excited...

And the crowd was excited as well....

THURSDAY/GIOVEDI

I had an Italian test on thursday and sleeping through my alarm and getting 2 hours of sleep the night before didn't help. In class, my teacher saw me reapplying the cortisone creme to all of my bites and she asked me what happened. I told her and then when the rest of the class was doing classwork before the test, she let me study, which was really sweet of her. So because she let me study, I knew my stuff for the test and did well. Thursday night all of my roommates with the exception of one left for the weekend. It's reallyyyy nice to have a huge place to myself and to have the quiet. Well, it's actually not that quiet considering that I'm blasting music, as usual...but it's nice to be able to do what I want, when I want.

FRIDAY/VENERDI

had class. had fun. relaxed.

Friday night, my friends and I went to an american diner... in italy, go figure. I caved in and had a milkshake...and i'm glad I caved in for those 8000 calories because that chocolate milkshake was DIVINE. yes, divine. I used that word even though it's definitely outdated. I'm bringing it back. After that, we went out to bars as usual and just enjoyed the night life. I told my friends that I wish I could go to the top of the duomo right then and there and yell "I LOVE FIRENZE!!!!" and I would scream that because after all, that would be 100% true.

I've pretty much decided that after I finish up my degree in the US, I will probably move to Italy at some point for at least a couple years. I might look into doing grad work here, because I can already tell that 4 months is not enough for me....

After class, I went into the first pet shop that I have seen in Firenze. And what were they selling? Oh the normal stuff... birds, hamsters, bunnies, guinea pigs, chipmunks. THAT'S RIGHT! CHIPMUNKS!!! You read that one correctly. The chipmunks were going crazyyyy in their cage. They were jumping all over the place! Poor little guys... I guess italians aren't aware that chipmunks aren't meant to be domesticated...

Untamed chipmunk...

Lovers.

This picture is just for you, mom. The bunny was SOOO cute!! bright blue eyes and just adorable. And of course I obviously thought of you.

SATURDAY/SABATO

My friends and I decided to check out San Gimignano. To get there, we took about an hour and ten minute train ride from Firenze to Poggibonsi...and then from there we took a twenty minute bus ride to San Gimignano. The town is like a tuscan medieval manhattan. VERY touristy but absolutely gorgeous. The scenery was incredible...full of hills and flowers everywhere!

After quite a while of trying to figure everything out, we finally got our train tickets!!

ANNNNND then once we arrived in San Gimignano....

Friends! From left to right... me (duh), Caitlin (from texas), Nasreen (from california--redlands area), Jackie (from Boston), and Adriana (from New York but goes to school in Mass.)

AND ONE FINAL PICTURE FOR THE POST....

such INCREDIBLE gelato in San Gimignano!! The top was chocolate orange and the bottom was chocolate mint. SO GOOD.

CIAO!

oh my.

My schedule of events that have occurred or will occur today:

• Class
• Shower with water
• Shower with cortisone
• Shower with cortisone
• Shower with cortisone
• Fiorentina Soccer Game tonight
• Shower with cortisone
• Shower with cortisone
• Sleep

So why am I completely drenching myself with cortisone over and over and over again? Because I graciously fed a full course meal, dessert included, to a full family clan of 27 mosquitos last night. I have bites on my face (5), neck (4), shoulders (2), left arm (5), right arm (4), left leg (3), right leg (2), and on my hips (2). It is quite pleasant, let me tell you. 

Sure bug bites aren't fun to have in any circumstance, but at least you can hide those most of the time. But when they are on your face?? You can't really cover that up unless you walk around with a paper bag over your head... and around here, they only use plastic. Guess I'm out of luck. Goody.

Oh and why did I get so many bites last night but not on other nights you might ask? Ma nishtanah? WELL. last night I went out with friends and we went to an awesome italian concert in Santa Croce Piazza... and from there we went to this club called 'Bebop' which was having a Beatles cover band play... Unfortunately it was a sauna there so we didn't stay too long... and by that time, I obviously did not want to walk home by myself, so I slept over at my friends' apartment in order to be safe. And then, that's when I was victimized by 27 very hungry mosquitos. 

this week has been going well...nothing too exciting has been going on... hence the lack of blogging. here is a picture. enjoy :)

The fruit here is the most delicious fruit ever. I'm obsessed. It is so ripe and so juicy and so incredible! 

Pisa + Cinque Terre

Modes of transportation used this weekend: Feet, Bus, Train, and Boat

Low points: it rained.

High points:

On Saturday, all 120+ of us boarded 3 buses and headed up to Pisa. Pisa was interesting. I imagined that the leaning tower was much larger, and much skinnier... boy, pictures are deceiving! Then again, things are never the same when you see them in person as opposed to when you see them in pictures... we took a tour of the city, and of course I zoned out. Let's be honest here, when you are in a beautiful place for the first time, with a ton of beautiful sites around you, how likely is it that you are going to listen to EVERY word that the tour guide says. yeah, can't do it. I rather experience everything and just take it all in, and then look up info on it on the internet. It was nice to walk around Pisa for a bit though, and it was nice to go, but I'm not so sure I would go back a second time...

You can't go to pisa and not do the "typical" pisa poses....

After that we went to some cute little beachy town called Versilia. It reminded me a lot of home with the beach and the boardwalk... but it was still nice to just lounge around and relax.

Last night we stayed at a hotel called Versilia Holidays. The shower in my room did not work. It was so weird. And then the air conditioning? yeah that didn't work either. However, last night, we had a full 5 course meal that DEFINITELY made up for it...

We had...

-Spelt Salad

-Pasta

-Vegetable Soup

-Chicken (and they made me a delicious omelette instead since I told them I'm a vegetarian)

-Spinich and Potatoes 

- And a dessert cake/pie thing

We probably all gained at least 10 lbs by just looking at the food and another 10 from eating it! It was so good. 

And then last night we went into the town right by the hotel... not sure what it was called, but we were there! There was a live concert to raise money for people who were killed in a train accident a few months back... or something like that. It was really fun to listen to the jams and dance to it. 

This morning we woke up at the crack of dawn: 6:30 AM. And for me, that's a huge struggle. I am NOT a morning person. We had breakfast at 7 AM and then took the bus to a town called 'La Spezia'. From there we took a boat to an island called 'Porto Venere' which was a little town with lots of beautiful colored buildings and a massive church right on the water which a lot of people decide to get married at, for obvious reasons...

Curtains made out of Penne noodles!

From there we took a boat to Monterosso. We were supposed to visit a couple more of the towns in cinque terre, but because it rained, it was hard for the boat to dock, so we had to skip out on those towns. And since we found out yesterday that we were going to be on a boat today, I decided to stop at a farmacia to get the italian version of dramamine. And goodness, I'm glad I did! The stretch from Porto Venere to Monterosso was quite rocky. The motion sickness pills unfortunately made me drowsy, so at one point today, it was a struggle to keep my eyes open, however I didn't feel sick! :) The town of Monterosso was also beautiful. There were churches, cute little walkways, streets, cafes, and restaurants. You know a place is truly beautiful when even if the weather is really crummy, the place still glows with beauty. And wow, it definitely was glowin'!!

We all then walked to a train station and took the train to Manarola. There, we walked on a path called "Lover's Lane" that winds around the cliffs. It was definitely a romantic place to be and the sights were incredible. After we finished the stroll, of course the sun came out because we were getting ready to leave... We then took the train back to La Spezia and headed on home to Firenze. It feels so good to be home!

It's amazing how you can go 2 hours away from Florence and everything is different. The people, the culture, the scenery. Everything. People seemed really rude in some parts that we visited, whereas around here in Firenze, the majority of people are pretty friendly. Of course Florence is a lot more touristy, but still. A few of my friends went out to lunch and one of them was trying to talk to the waitress in Italian, but the waitress refused to talk back in Italian and just replied in English. Whereas, here, if you show that you are trying to say something in Italian, then the Italians help you out and love that you are trying to speak Italian. 

ITALY

2009

Ciao!

Weekend!

So last night there was a cultural event which my study abroad program arranged for us... It was a nextech electronic festival and I could go on and on about it, but I feel like you will get the gist of what it was like with pictures... and a few captions...

And then there was a lot of really "different" types of art such as this...

And this...

Don't ask me what the "meaning" and "inspiration" was for these. Your guess is as good as mine is... I have no idea and I don't get it... it's just too different for me....

On a different note... I got an e-mail from my graphic design teacher yesterday saying, "hi, I'm going to be out of town this weekend, and I'll miss class, but I have arranged from a substitute to come in, so you still need to be on time and be there." hahhh she gets to skip out on the friday class but we can't?? lame. 

So we had a male sub today who was very, very good looking, but completely full of himself. He showed us a bunch of his art and then when we went to work on ours, he was like, "wait, let me show you more!" It was pretty entertaining though, because I think he kept trying to fish for compliments, but none of us said anything... he just thinks he's the greatest thing since water. so entertaining. And then he wanted to take us on a "field trip" to some design place to "get inspiration." so we started walking, and walked more and more and more, and basically walked until we were out of florence and then he turned around to the 3 of us and told us that he had no idea where he was going. He had been to the place before, but he really didn't know how to get there. So he went into a shop and asked someone for help, and they told him that the shop had been gone for over 2 years...... hahahaa

Tonight Rosh Hashana starts, and I was really looking forward to going to services... However, the two people I was planning on going with both bailed, and I don't want to go and then have to stress out about finding someone to walk me home... or stressing about finding a taxi or getting ahold of a taxi service... Safety is the most important thing...So instead I'm going to go over to my friends' apartment to cook dinner and have an early night in...

And then for Yom Kippur, I can go to services during the day when I'll feel more than 100% comfortable walking there and back by myself. 

Tomorrow and Sunday I'll be in Pisa and Cinque Terre. I am SO excited. Cinque Terre is supposed to be one of the most beautiful parts of Italy...!

And for a final picture of the day.... Piazza della Repubblica... 

wow, i just can't get enough of this city!! I LOVE IT....but then again, how could you not??

Rain...

Dear Italy, 

Sorry that I brought Washington state weather, (rain, rain and more rain) to your country. I am very sorry. 

Love,

Lauren

It has been raining for the majority of the day today... on and off. And I REFUSE to use an umbrella. And in some ways, I kinda wish umbrellas didn't exist here... The sidewalks are very narrow here and when people have umbrellas, it makes it even more difficult. So instead, I walk slightly in the road, since there is no other place to walk...so I just happen to get a nice shower every time a car or vespa passes me. No biggie. I really do need to invest in some rain boots, but honestly spending 65 US dollars on a pair of plain black rain boots seems a tad ridiculous...

Today I had my art history class and let me tell you that a 2.5 hour lecture class is BRUTAL. I think art history is so interesting in general, but I just can't stand art history CLASSES, because all of the material that is taught is just meant to be memorized and regurgitated for the exams. What is the point memorizing something to just spit it all out at once? I mean really, we all know that most students do not retain most of the information that they just learn for a test...

Today was also the first day of my creative web logging class. We are working with HTML, CSS, and Java script codes. Okay I'll stop speaking nerd language now, and I'll translate it to English... Every website is made up of a certain code which tells the internet server what colors to use, where certain buttons, text go, pictures go, etc. 

We are all going to buy domain names this semester, but at the beginning we had to create Tumblr accounts and start to build our own websites through that. A couple people in my class were allowed to use a template to start their website, but my teacher wanted me to start from scratch and see how far I could get in the allotted time period of class... So I still have a lot of work to go, but here is what I have so far... 

http://laurenmichellecohen.tumblr.com/

I found out today that pepper spray is illegal in Europe. I've decided that I'm going to find an empty squirt bottle, and put either vinegar in it, or super salty water, or both and carry it with me... either that or I'll continue to carry the spray hand sanitizer with me in my pocket at all times... I can't imagine it would be very fun to get that in your eyes, so maybe that could do the trick as well... in case I ever get into the situation like I was last night and the police aren't around...

So because it rained for the majority of the day, I was not attached to my camera at the hip like I usually am, but I did want to post pictures of the day, so I put my camera out my bedroom window and got a couple street views...

This was the first picture I took of the street... I just stuck my camera out the window and pushed the button without even knowing what I was taking a picture of... After looking at it, I realized that the picture could really go either way for the most part... It's kind of an optical illusion...If you really wanted to, do a hand stand, and then look at the picture and see for yourself... because obviously everyone can do a hand stand and hold it long enough to look at a picture, right?
Ciao a tutti!