V E N I C E

Another trip this past weekend, and I am exhanusted! We had classes in Venice, so our whole program took a train and left Florence to explore the land of canals. We left on Friday morning and got to Venice around noon, then took a water taxi to our hotel! Talk about inconvenient...those things move so slowly I could probably swim faster. But that would be gross...the canals smell terrible. One of the girls fell in. She reeked of sewage water the whole next day...gross.

Anyways, Venice was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better. No rain! The only down side to the weekend? Class. Usually it's not too bad, but the lectures we had were so long and boring. On Friday we walked around all of Venice and went to a bunch of churches and saw San Marco (and obviously frolicked around with the pigeons), but our professor kept going and going and going...so literally FIVE HOURS LATER we were done, only to do the same thing on Saturday...and Sunday. So I could say that I truly experienced the finest Venetian culture, but really I spent more time inside churches, fading in and out of listening because my stomach would start growling, or something else would distract me. O well! During the little free time that we actually had I got to go on gondola ride. I went with two other girls, and some random German couple (so not exactly the most picturesque, romantic expectation, but great nonetheless) and we ate cookies and sipped wine while our nerdy gondolier showed us around the city. There are no cars anywhere in Venice...I think that was favorite part about it. You didn't have to worry about getting hit or run over like in Florence. And there weren't really any bikers either. (Speaking of which...I was walking to get lunch yesterday and some lady decided to run into me on her bicycle. She just peddled into me and then yelled at me and rang her little bell while she continued to peddle. I don't think she understood that she would have to go around me, not through me).

But yeah...the gondola ride was wonderful. And then we had a group dinner. SEAFOOD at last! Obviously Venice is known for having delicious seafood, so I had some shrimp rice stuff and clam spaghetti and some sort of white fish with potatoes and peppers for dinner. yummm. I was little bummed to miss out on dessert...but I left early to go see a chamber concert of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It was incredible. I don't usually go for the all instrumental classical stuff, but these musicians were unbelievable. Best part ofthe whole concert: the cellist had his nose pierced. It was pretty subtle, but every now and then he would start swaying his head around and the light would catch it just right, and the little diamond stud would glitter. It got to the point where I just couldn't stop laughing...plus his emotional sway dancing expression was hilarious. He was def into the music way more than any of the other guys. Hah.

Other than exploring around some of the glass shops (which were extremely colorful and beautiful), that really was the extent of my Venice adventure. I think I did a lot with the little free time that we actually had. So now I'm back in Florence with no plans for the weekend and I couldn't be happier. Perhaps I will try to get ahead on some of my work?! Doubtful...I will probably waste my time watching TV on the internet. I found an awesome site that lets you download episodes from pretty much any show, any season. Dangerous. Currently I am "catching up" on about 7 shows. In other words...I sit in my bed and watch Grey's Anatomy for 4 hours before doing my homework. Then once I'm caught up on that...I move on to One Tree Hill, Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl...you name it, I'm pathetic.

Well, in the hope of being productive, I'm gonna go read some more of my Mafia book for a research paper. A plus...the reading is actually interesting, and it's for a class. Who would have thought...