cloud nine

I have reached it. I have reached the point where I officially know that I have made the right choice in moving out here and pursuing my passion at this school.

I had my first class today in a large white building that I am guessing used to be a church (or a Roman Palace.. because you know hipster city San Fran had Romans before it was cool.) The sound of the professor's aids voices carried through the high chandelier lit ceilings with echos. The class was History of Film: Post World War Two and I can already tell I am going to enjoy it. After already being in three classes similar to this in my past studies, I know that it will captivate my attention and yet still be a challenege. I know I will walk away from it knowing more than i go in with, and to me, that is always important. We watched the beginning of a film and talked about why we love movies and a few of our favorites. I tried to make friends with three different people sitting around me and ALL of them moved to a different row during the break. I know it was not because I spelled funny (i spell like Victoria Secret,  who doesn't like that?) and It wasn't because I said something wrong (i held my tongue on my usual sarcastic remarks) but yet I was alone at the end. Hmph. These film majors are going to be a lot harder to crack than I thought.

After class I was still excited about the days to come, even though I was still friendless. I went to dinner by myself, waiting in a long line to get into the cafe. Once I got there, it was pretty crowded, with only a few extra seats avaiable. The lady at the front desk (who scans my card) asked if "it was okay if I sat with someone I did not know or would i like to wait for an empty table." I practically screamed "force me to sit with random people and maybe I will get friends!" And guess what, it worked. I sat down with two guys and a girl. Pretty soon their other friend showed up. They included me in every conversation possible  (except for the video game one... i had no clue what they were talking about.) They are pretty nerdy, but also pretty normal and were a lot of fun to be around. They even asked for my number at the end! I am proud to say that Robert, Nick, Kyle, and Cali are my new friends!

Tonight was supposed to be some "Fashion Night Out" thing at H&M, but it was kind of a dud. So here I am, relaxing in my hip dorm room, practically high on life.

I have no classes until monday, so the weekend starts tomorrow. Phoebe and I have planned a lunch date which will turn into shopping because we both have want little slippers to wear around the dorm and just because shopping (even if it's just looking) is fun. : )

I hope you had as wonderful of a day as I did. Good night and pleasant dreams.

19.

Thursday, March 1st was Justin Beiber's 18th Birthday.
Thursday, March 1st was also Kesha's Birthday.
Friday, March 2nd was Dr. Suess's Birthday.
But most importantly.

Thursday, March 1st was my 19th birthday, and I have been celebrating ever since. I warn you, what you are about to read will make you incredibly jealous because my birthday weekend was amazing. Let's start with Thursday. I was awoken to fire, filling up my room. The heat was pounding against my drool stained face and the echoing sounds of my Mother and Sister singing Happy Birthday out of tune hummed the room. It was such a sweet surprise, literally. My family brought me a donut in bed, not just any donut, a donut with glazed and then chocolate and then sprinkles and the a candle. We are talking, the king of all donuts. I looked like this kid:

(Please note that this photograph was borrowed from burlingamebarley's photostream and I will return it when I am done. Don't call the occupy website clan or whatever they are called that will get me in trouble.) I received a glitter eye liner from my sister and new outfits from my parents. They are so thoughtful. The rest of the day I went to class, did things that normal people do, and then I was taken out to dinner at Vintos, one of my favorite restaurants, before class.

In film class I watched Moulin Rouge, it could not get any better. And well, it really didn't. See, when I was in class, Utah experienced the wettest snow storm they have had all year (do not quote me on that, I am not a weather professional and I do not have a white blazer to wear when it is snowing.) I came out to find my car looking like this:

Except there was no smiley face and the car was black, not green. Anyways, driving home was scary. My little buggy boop boop is not made for the slopes. Driving down an averagely steep hill, my car lost control. Slowly. But. Surely. I glided down the hill, my foot slamming on the breaks, my heart racing, and my mouth gaping with no sound. The emergency break was pulled, but nothing was stopping. I felt like I was going a hundred mile per hour, roller coaster speed (but in all actuality the boats in Its a Small World in Disneyland move faster then how I was.) I turned horizontal in the lane and stopped barley before bumping the silver four wheeled drive car in front of me. My head instantly hurt and I was shaking. The rest of the ride home was alright, but with a constant fear of loosing control again.

On Friday I had my friend's birthday party thing. It was Tangled theme, because I simply love that movie and like to pretend that I look like Repunzel. We ate, partied, danced, partied, and laughed incredibly hard. I had an amazing night.

Chatting with Saia and Bella. It was such a sweet surprise to see them:) 

A few of the party gang.

Just Dance and sisterly love

The Party Crashers who were such a joy to have around:) 

On Saturday, I had my family party, which was equally as enjoyable. On Sunday, my Father came home for ten hours, which was a nice treat. I really had a great weekend and am thankful for my wonderful family and friends.

Monday was my Father's birthday, Friday the 9th is my Mothers, and the 20th is Gabrielle's! Let the march madness begin!

xoxo

Ciao Bella, Ciao

I am exhausted despite sleeping in until eleven o clock this morning. I spent the entire day running around the city, just because I can. It was quite chilly today.  Although the sun was out, the clouds covered it’s heat. The wind blew any warmth that may have been there away, following the heavy flow of the Arno River. Thank goodness I had those cute mittens to keep my fingers from falling off like my nose nearly did.

Like promised I took a few photographs of the golfing off the bridge set up. They are not very good, but hey, it was hard to capture such an abstract sporting event.

I also stumbled upon some other interesting street artists.

Yes, this man is real. Yes, he is covered in paint and doesn’t move for thirty minutes. Yes, it is creepy. No, I did not push him over.

The silliest thing I saw today was this puppet show. It was these two men that looked like they loved life to much (not a bad thing) and were making everyone smile. (I uploaded the video on YouTube so I apologize to those who get this emailed to you, but you wont see it in your email. BUT please check it out. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXITxmUyZpQ )

Tomorrow is my last day in Florence. What a journey this has been. I have no regrets and have enjoyed this experience more than anything. I am truly lucky and thankful to have this opportunity.

I am going to end with Verbaledudette’s Gift Guide Item Number Eighteen: Natwerks Mounting Sauces. (I think I may have called last nights number eighteen but that is a lie. See.. I check my numbers by looking at the date and when I wrote last nights, it was really this morning, so two posts both written on the 18^th. I know it is not important. I just needed to explain my faults.)

These are fun for the whole family. What more would Dad want than to put ketchup on his hamburger like a working tool from his tool box you got him last year? Also Ladies, you know how you want your man to fill in the cracks in the tiles in the shower, let him practice with this first! He will be pro when he finally picks up your hint that the shower needs finishing touches.

Where to find this: http://www.natwerk.nl/natwerk-specialties/montage-sauzen

Price: Hmmm… good question.

Have a goodnight Friends. : ) xoxo 

oh my life is a wonderful piece of art.

My Firenze journey has changed locations. Instead of writing this post from the comfort of a yellow kitchen under a window that looks upon eerie statues of children, I am sitting in the center of queen size bed looking out the window where the sun settled against the dirty red tiled roof and flowers.

Hotel Bretagna feels like the Hilton of Italy.  I checked in this morning and they already knew who I was and were waiting to help carry my bags to my room (where were they on the long treacherous walk to the hotel? Hee hee.) When I asked the lady at the front desk what the best way was to ensure that I had a taxi leaving the hotel at four a.m. on Tuesday morning she seemed very confused. I asked if I should do it the night before and have it reserved. She told me just to do it that morning. I looked at her with utter shock as my mouth uttered “You mean someone will be at the front desk that early?” She looked at me like I was speaking fluent German and said “of course, we are here twenty four seven.” I really wanted to reply with a “ well excuse my confusion but every other Italian hotel I have ever stayed in, the owner went to bed and doors were locked until seven.” But instead I smiled sweetly and said perfeto, like a true Italian, if I may add. 

(this is what I looked like when she told me that they are there all hours of night. the only difference was that I was by myself and I still had my shirt on)

My room is huge and welcoming. The bed sits in the frame of the window, to the left a large desk and dresser with a full size mirror. (The full sized mirror earns double points because every girl needs a full-length mirror in order to complete getting ready.)

The bathroom is beautiful. It has fully convinced me that when I have my own house I want a square sink. The shower looks like a space station and it was out of this world talking a shower in it. Let me tell you what it’s all about. It is a box. It has three showerheads. The first is your standard circle detachable showerhead coming from the left corner. On the ceiling there is a giant sunflower shaped showerhead. And then there is a bench, with three rows of ten misters. You can turn each on one individually. Oh also, did I mention that there is a special light that is dimmed and relaxing and it has an Italian radio station built in? Well it does. I could live in it. This shower was worth the entire trip over here. All I can say is thank goodness I do not have this at home or at the apartment I spent the last four months in, because our water bill would be on fire.

Now I know you are probably thinking “wow. This chick showed up to the hotel at ten in the morning and spent the entire day in the shower” but I am here to inform you that I did leave, not only the shower but also, the hotel. After wiping the sweat off my brow from that extra large work out to hike over the piazza’s to get to my hotel (but it was worth it,) I went out to explore the town. Now my hotel is only a block away from the Ponte Vecchio (aka the most amazing thing on earth,) so I did not have to walk far to find excitement. Now I have not photographic proof of this event because it was too crowded to even thinking of getting a shot of the action, but people were golfing off the bridge. It wasn’t just a few old Italian men who had a few too much to drink. No this was an actual planned, sponsored, announced, full on, golf tournament. They were positioned on a platform on the edge of the bridge. Then out on the river were large patches of floating grass boats with those little flags in the hole. (My aunt Michael just had a heart attack about how badly I am describing this golf set up. Please forgive me for butchering your sport Michael. I just do not know the terms and flags in the hole pretty much sum it up for me.) They would putt off of it and try to make it on these boats. It was the most interesting thing. Hopefully I can get in there and document it tomorrow.

Since this was such a big deal, the city was crowded and alive. The streets were busy with crazed Italian Christmas shoppers (much more elegant and intense than those we have in Uh-Merica.)  Piazza Rubbuplica had Volvo booths set up and giant television screens. There was even Santa. Oddly enough, no one wanted to sit on his lap and tell him what he or she wanted for Christmas.

I also stumbled upon this group of adorable, incredibly talented, elementary school children singing Christmas songs. It really put me into the Christmas spirit and I watched them for about an hour.

(Please note the video may not be done processing. I just uploaded my first Youtube video after three failed attempts to upload the video in different formats right to the blog.)

I was the only “tourist” who stayed and watched. I kept getting odd looks from the parents so I decided to adopt a kid and pretend she was my sister. I would smile and clap after the instructor said something that I did not understand. I think people started to believe it. The girl in the on the second row, four people in, is my adoptive singing sister for an hour. She is very animated and we look nothing a like. 

The one thing that annoyed me about this concert was the parents and their iPhones. Now I am one for the iPhone. I think they are great, classy, everyone should have one. BUT there were text message dings going left and right like they were trying to recreate the tune of jingle bells. These parents could not just sit there and watch their kids (like I was doing,) they had to play on their iPhones.

Speaking of iPhones, let’s talk about Verbaledudette’s Gift Guide Number Eighteen: The Dokkiri Hand Case

Do not even ask where I found this. BUT although it is creepy as hell, what a great gift. I just cannot express my feelings about holding hands with your iphone. It will really create a bond to your friend electronic.

Where to find: http://www.strapya-world.com/categories/6034_6035_6136.html

Price: I think $65.00’s

And then just for another phone excuse reasoning here is the: Native Union Pop Phone Handset:

Classic. Simple. Retro. This is for the people that you do not think will find the humor in the hand one. (If you are a buying a gift for me you should know that I am not one for the hand one and secondly I do not have an iPhone.)

Where to find this: http://www.nativeunion.com/us/popphone.html

Price: $29.90

Now back to my day.

The most exciting part of my day is when a fifty-euro bill literally blew in my direction. I stepped on this piece of paper at my feet and goodness gracious it was money. I was thrilled! How many times do you get to claim a random fifty-euro bill as yours!? Never. Never. Never. Except this once. I decided that with this little find I was going to treat myself to something really nice.

 I was walking through San Lorenzo and I saw it: the cutest leather messenger bag. I walked over to the woman, grey hair and a touch of crazy, and asked her how much it was. To my surprise her English was flawless as she spoke, like a waterfall mind you, that it was ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY EURO. I was crushed, but I knew I had to have it and I had to have it for fifty euro. I turned on my Concrete Rodeo Swag Skills (for you who do not know what this is, it is a little talent my father passed to me. I walk into a skate shop and walk out with more product than he would ever get. If I learned anything on the skate tour it is how to bargain (and how to dry out sweaty skater money and take showers with only twenty five cents and three minutes.) I talked to her about the quality of the bag, she told me how it was made and showed me pictures of the artist’s wife. I told her my story. I am student who is studying art for the past four months and was recently kicked out of my apartment because the term end and now is spending the last three days in a hotel alone because my best friend had flight complications. The last part really got to her. She even called over her little assistant guy and told him and he said “give her a discount mama, she is a pretty girl.” I wanted to hug this boy. To bad he was way old and too short for me because after that line and what it got me, we could have gotten married. She dropped the price to fifty euro. In conclusion I got two hugs from people I had just met wishing me happy holidays and a real, paten leather, sexy, red, hipster, Italian, messenger bag, that some poor soul with a hole in his wallet bought for me.

Oh my life is a wonderful piece of art.

(Yes. I did just tie my life in to art in a cheesy line so i could show you this photograph i took of a spray can street artist that I found today. Worth all that extra cheese, eh?) 

Now I am sitting in bed (like I mentioned earlier) and Italia’s version of VH1, DeeJay, is having karaoke night on the television. They are playing loads of random songs (ABBA to The Backstreet Boys, Amy Winehouse to The Killers, Cold Play to songs from Grease the Musical) music videos, but with the lyrics on the bottom of the screen. When the artist sings the lyrics, the words change to orange. It is actually really great because the lyrics will come up and I will have one of those “oh so that is what they actually say there... hmm... that is much different than what I was saying” moments.

So I am sitting in a comfortable bed, in a beautiful city, at one o clock on a Sunday morning singing to myself while writing this letter to you. You should feel special for that.

Good morning to Europe, Good evening to my fans back home. :)

(Spell check just corrected my smiley face for me. I originally had this : ) but then they told me this :) was grammatically correct.)

xoxo

December Rain

Does anyone know how to play Rook?

Eddy rearranged the furniture in the main room, so now I am forced to face Joanna as I type. We are enjoying it by having our feet connected. It is hard to explain, but the two chairs are facing each other, we have our legs extended, and our feet touching so they are suspended and supported in the air. This is what happens when you spend too much time with someone.

This morning I had cinema class and I loved it. We watch a film by Derek Jarman called “Blue.” It was an audio documentary of Jarman’s struggle to fight HIV/AIDS and how the disease slowly diminished his sight. The screen was completely blue the entire hour and forty minutes. Audio included Jarman narrating lines from his diary and supported music/noise. It enthralled my senses and made my imagination go crazy. Go Jarman!

Today’s weather was simply splendid. It rained all last night, so this morning was fogged and wet. The air was humid and the sky a warm grey. It was really nice walking to the store with Joanna as the sun set.

Now for the big reason I know you all came to visit Verbaledudette this lovely December second.

Gift Guide Item Number Two: Skeleton Coffee Mugs by Phoebe Richardson  

Are you sick and tired of not being able to stack your friends/children’s/parents/neighbors mugs to create cool designs in their cupboards?  If yes, this is your gift. A set of four perfect sized white “bone” china coffee mugs with a simple image of a skeleton on it, create the best little gift for that unique person. These are so retro, no one will even consider them Halloween related, but rather, they will think they are just plain awesome. I call the rib cup!

Where to find them: http://www.farfetch.com/shopping/women/item10076693.aspx

Price: $54.00

P.s. Thank you Grandmother with the package of games and my chocolate Turkey! You are the sweetest! I love you!

P.p.s. Does anyone know how to play the card game Rook? Joanna and I cannot figure out the directions. Two blondes, what do you expect? 

when ones beard is the same length as ones hair.

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.


In the spirit of No Shave November (aka Movember) I share with you a great video about a man, his beard, a giant walk, and Chinese people. : ) Enjoy.

Hey Family!

This video message is proof that I am alive and well (and that it is not an impostor writing my last few blog posts.)

"I am your number one fan. There is nothing to worry about. You are going to be just fine. I am your number one fan. "

Good morning from a chilly seat in my kitchen. I am positioned by the window, but the entire apartment has a cold air to it. I am eating breakfast that consists of yogurt, cereal, and bananas. (My Mother just passed out, I am sure. I never eat breakfast at home.) The yogurt I am eating is like that “all natural- if you freeze it, it would taste like it is from Spoon Me” and it comes with a little side dish of chocolate cereal pieces that you put in. It tastes great, except for that I accidently bought one with coconut in it, so I had to mix some of Joanna’s peanut butter in to help diminish that grainy taste.

The main reason I am writing to you this early in the morning is to tell you about the films Joanna and I watched last night. I need to get them out of my head. The first one was Misery, based off of a Stephen King novel (so you know where I am heading with this.) It was suspensefully (yes, I know that is not a real word) creepy. I am not one for scary shows, but it was sure fun screaming and closing my eyes with Joanna in her little loft/room. I really badly want to tell you the most famous part, but I wont, in case you get some crazy idea to watch it this weekend.

The other one was called Bowling for Columbine, which is a Michael Moore film (again, his name says everything about what kind of film it was.) It was a documentary about guns and the safety of America. I definitely recommend it, but I will say it was more upsetting then the horror film because it was all true. I have always been really interested in the mind set behind someone who does a school shooting, probably because no one knows because the murderers usually do not walk out alive. It is one of those interests that terrify me at the same time. The thing I got out of this film is that The United States is built on fear and murder, but no one knows the reason that makes us so different from the other countries like Canada who only has three murders every few years.

Today we have cinema and I am not too excited. The room is always really cold and we are only watching weird documentary kind of movies. It is not exactly what I imagined the class being like.

Rachel has a friend visiting for the weekend. Just thought I would tell you.

Tonight we are kind of having a little tiny party in our apartment. When I say party, I mean like five people including the ones who already live here. Our German friends are coming, along with Ricardo and a few of his friends. I hope it is more fun than awkward, but I am sure it will be really awkward.

Also, I just want to inform you that my friends have a band called Jahboodie and then played at Kilby Court last night. Isn’t that so cool? I am really sad that I did not get to see it because one: they are my friends, two: it was at Kilby Court (the best concert place ever) and three: Gabrielle and I would have had so much fun wearing our band shirts she made and dancing along. (It would have been Miniature Tigers all over again, except for the Canadian part.)

We are having a really hard time getting Internet in the apartment lately. I just want you to know that I am alive and well and missing you like crazy.  : ) I hope you have a great day! xoxo

**Title: A quote from Misery 

A Journey in These Jeans

I stumbled upon this video, which is quite astonishing. I think you will like it.

Guy Walks Across America @ Yahoo! Video

Oh, by the way.. I think I may start adding labels to my to posts. What do you think about that?