Room with a View

Ciao my friendsss!!!

Can you believe I've been in Italy for two weeks!?!! I talked to Mother On on the phone today and she can't believe that I'm still alive. Gotta love the phone calls home!! Anywhoooo I really want to talk about my Florence in the Cinema class because I lowkey love it...even though it was my last choice. I think it was meant to be that I ended up in this class because it's different. We learn about Italian cinema, american and british influence in Florence Cinema and we watch all these movies that take place in Florence. It's not just a cinema class though, the best way I can describe it..it's kinda like a self discovery/self help class- it's a pretty hippie class hahaa.  One of our required reading books is about finding yourself and the creative inner child inside you. I know at first I was kinda skeptical about this too....but you get out what you put in right?!

Speaking of getting out what you put in... we have these "assignments" that are called "artists days" where you pretty much venture out and discover yourself. I know all of this sounds like some cheesy bullshit hahaha but what better place than Firenze to do some self-discovery. After class this week I went to Piazza Michelangelo. This is a view that overlooks the entire city, the arno, the duomo, everything. This is my all time favorite view of the city and the place where I knew that I chose the right place to study abroad. So I grabbed my cola(no vino today) pen, paper, hiked up those steep hills and sat there writing and reflecting for about 3 hours. My professor would be so proud....

On the first day of class my professor asked each of us why we came to Florence. Obviously we all have our own reasons...some of us came for the good food,to escape their lives at home, the history buffs and their love for the renaissance, to drink wine and eat cheese , to find love, to find ourselves. I didn't really tell anyone I was study abroad or leaving until...like the week before hahaha but one of my best friends who's known since the beginning told me "Don't go looking for something Lin...." As if he knows me! But he actually does...pretty well... (only going to admit this here because I know he's not going to read this) He was absolutely right...I did come looking for something. But by being here... I know it's been 2 weeks(#florencesnob) I've realized that a lot of things don't matter...well i mean they matter..but all my petty problems seem so unimportant. Okay disclaimer...I didn't come to Florence to find love!!! But whenever a group of us girls are together with a bottle of Vino...the topic is inevitable which has led to a lot of reflecting on my part. Piazza Michelangelo  can do that to you!

I've been in love twice...both questionable types of love. The "First Love" forces you to reflect on its authenticity..which honestly i'll admit I still do from time to time. I still question if it was REALLL love...or if it was just my stupid teenage fucked up version of it. It happened so rapidly and unexpectedly that it became intoxicating and suffocating. I was entrapped in a destructive romance and I didn't know how to escape it. I was so in love with the idea of love. Now as I look back in retrospect- I was def stupid LOL and "blinded by love" but there wasn't a time where I didn't feel like love wasnt the answer. 

Then the second time...whoooo the second time. I didn't realize it until he was gone. He showed me genuine love that I should have never asked for. I refused to accept it because I was obviously immature and just a bitch..hahaha. So i abandoned it because i was afraid. Afraid to accept something and someone who had the power and potential to destroy me. I traded love (the one thing everyone would choose over 1 bajillion dollars) for cowardice. 

Now I'm in Italy sitting on a terrance overlooking the city that people come to..to find love. I realized that  I let go of both good and bad love. In the first relationship...destruction did not breed creation and in the second one my cowardness hindered growth. I've come to realize that I'm in love with the world around me. I'm not going all eat pray love I don't need a man, but I realized that we all have yet to be saved. And this savior...aka love..... can be anything that transforms our weaknesses into strengths. That can change our vices into virtues...

For me...it's travel. I am probably the youngest person in our program...but I feel like I've already experienced a quarter of the world (i know pretentious travel snob) but on the real.. the farther you go the more you grow and honestly sometimes you kinda just need to leave your comfort zone and discover yourself. 

A.M.I.C.I

Ciao my friendss!!!

Sighhh. Today is Friday...thank god..This has seriously felt like the longest week ever. Contrary to what my mother and brother believe...I do attend school five days a week for about 3-5 hours everyday. They tell you studying abroad is the best experience ever-and so far it has been...but they do leave out that you actually have to study while you're abroad. Our program is extremely intensive with a 3 hour Italian course every morning and for two days a week we have a culture courses. I honestly don't mind learning Italian because well... I'm living in Italy hahaha and I don't think I've ever really enjoyed learning until my culture course. It's a Florence in the Cinema class which is kinda self-explanatory but it's also a self discovering class. I'll explain more later. I really love my professoresa because I feel like she genuinely loves learning from us as much as we like learning from her. Anywayss I know today is Friday... but I really wanted to write about Monday...San Giovanni Day because it was an excellent day.

So... San Giovanni Day is a holiday in Florence where they celebrate the patron saint of the city. I honestly don't even know...we were just happy we didn't have school hahaha.

There's a huge festival in all the Piazza's that leads to Santa Croce where they hold a soccer match...

So we skipped the soccer match........and it actually started raining. 

It's been super hot the entire week and the second we're enjoying ourselves on the steps...it starts to pour. Tati and I have a joke that Italy's been beating us 53 and we have like 2 wins. Italy is just a little dev..not welcoming us with open doors. At that point...we decided to just try to make the best of the day and we literally ran through the rain to the store, bought ingredients, and went back to my apartment to cook. 

This is our *YES we survived the rain* 

Florence is actually super pretty when it rains...I wanted to capture a picture...but sometimes you just gotta soak it all in....literally..LOL..I thought about that one in class hahahaha. *boom boom pshh*

Did I mention I have a balcony in my apartmento?!

Meet our two chefs... Tati& Eric who made us the bombest meal 

Amici in Italian means friends. Monday seriously felt like an episode out of Friends. We talked, we laughed, we ate, we drank, we reflected(hahhahah),  we might've came close to crying, hahaha we had a great time getting to know each other. The best moments are the most spontaneous ones. 

Florence has random photo booths everywhere...hahaha we had to finish our spontaneous night strong!

& this is how we ended the day. 

Cinque Terre

Ciao my friends!!! 

So this past Sunday a group of us booked a trip to Cinque Terre which translates to  The Five Lands. It's called the five lands because there are five small cities that make up Cinque Terre. This place  is seriously the most beautiful place I've ever seen with my own eyes. Cinque is subtly charming and is so freaken beautiful hahaha. I hope my pictures did Cinque Terre justice!! Cinque is famous because all the terrain and houses are man made.  Let that marinate for a second....MAN MADE!!!!

 Did I mention that in the third city, Corniglia is where Pesto was created?!!

 Jumpin' through the cobblestones of Cinque Terre.

Always good to end a great day with a bottle of Vino. 

Pizza? No PISAAA!!!!

Ciao my friends! 

Today is day 9 and the first night that I've actually stayed home and I really want to write down everything before it turns into mush! Blogspot is in Italian so it's been a learning process hahaha...But I did discover on blogspot that you can check how many people view your blog each day!! So I know yall be tuning innn!! Glad it's not just you Bree <3 On Saturday... we had a very early morning tour and we planned to go to Pisa afterwards. Our plans here never turn out the way we want them to...so we always just play things by ear. After we took a much needed nap, a bunch of us headed to the train station.  

The train ride was about an hour and about a 16 euro round trip...so definitely not bad at all!! Right when we got off the train we took the scenic route and explored Pisa hoping to end up at the Leaning Tower. Getting lost has become such a commonality that we don't even care anymore hahaha. 

This is a mural by Keith Haring who has his little shop in Pisa. I actually didn't know who he was but I'm sure like me you guys totally recognize this. Think of Venice Beach and the starry night wall-that's what Pisa reminds me of. 

 LOL I had to........

The Leaning Tower is impressive in the sense that it's actually like really ACTUALLY leaning...but honestly it was just cosi cosi...(alright.....) It's a lot smaller than I imagined it to be so.. I was def not impressed Leaning Tower!! I think I was imagining it to be as big as the Statue of Liberty but it was actually more like.. the Bell Tower at school lol but seeing is believing. I tried to think of some clever poses, but I resorted to the air martial arts hahahha. 

After the tower we grabbed dinner at the most amazing place in the planet. It was seriously the best meal I've EVERRR HADD. Btw..I'm so sunburned...hahaha

Tip: When in doubt...ask the hotel concierge for the best places to eat!!

This pretty much was Pisa in a nutshell. It amazes me how different Pisa is from Florence when its just a couple miles away. Pisa is significantly  smaller than Florence. I think we covered more than half of Pisa in three hours. The way of life in Pisa is a lot more suburban compared to Florence. Granted we've kinda just wandered around the touristy areas of Florence but Florence is always bustling...... We saw mothers pushing their children in strollers and kids running around- In Florence we wake up to the sound of men pushing their carts to work at 5 AM. 

I absolutely loved Pisa. Everyone who study abroads talks about that moment where you are just grateful for all your hard work and realize that it's all worth it. I definitely felt that well in Pisa and also Cinque Terre and also on San Giovanni day.....hahaha you get the idea... But Pisa will always be the first place I felt so grateful for the opportunities and experiences that I've worked my butt off all year for. I can't owe all the thanks to Pisa... sometimes it's not where you are..it's who you're with and I know it wouldn't be the same without these group of people. They always say that you'll meet amazing people and just go travel with them...let me tell you...it is a hundred percent true. 

Thank you Pisa for showing us a good time. I will be back! 

Stay tuned for the beautiful Cinque Terre

Cheers to the Weekend

Ciao my friends!!

 Today marks day 8 in Italy and it honestly has felt like I've lived here forever. I really had every intention of writing everyday...but life has been so exhausting lately. Anyways today in Firenze is San Giovanni Day. It's a day filled with parades and fireworks and not to mention....no school :) The roomies and I definitely took advantage of today and slept in because I know I haven't had a full six hours of sleep since I've been here. This past weekend has been absolutely amazing. Lemme just recap on all the events that have happened ....

So after class on Friday some friends and I went to explore Firenze. We wandered around the Duomo and decided to climb Giotto's Campanile  which is a bell tower that is adjacent to the Duomo. The duomo is probably the biggest attraction in firenze it's the huge dome like castle in this picture. Surprisngly, Duomo does not mean Dome. hahaha...we learned on our tour Saturday morning that it means House of Gods. 

This is my roommate Amy....we are totally the lamest people in our program but i loveeeee her<3

A nap and hours later...some people from our program went to check out the Florentine nightlife. Night time in Firenze is crazy hahaha. The bars and clubs usually don't open until 11 or 12. This is a bunch of us at a bar called Old Stove where we got free shots!!

Me and Amy are bout to win the cutest couple award<3

That was just Friday!! Saturday we had a morning tour bright in early which was kinda pointless because we've been in Italy for 5 days and barely got a tour but it was nonetheless very educational. It was pretty interesting to learn about the buildings and the statues...stay tune for the historical educational blog post!!! Anyways... later that day... we went to PISA!!!! I'm super tired to write about Pisa right now but it was absolutely amazing. It was a really great trip...stay tunedd for my leaning tower pics!!!!

Via de Terme

So today marks the fourth day of living in Firenze. I have slowly been adjusting to jetlag and I feel like Italy has finally given me a break from all the craziness. In the past couple days I have experienced some definite highs and some pretty bad lows. hahaha Italy has not welcomed me with open arms, but it's only been four days and I feel like I've already grown so much as a person. This is about to get sappy, but I know if I don't write this now I will forgetttt to. Anyways...

The age old saying "Home is where your heart is" has been marinating in my head the past couple days. I consider myself a lucky person because I can call three places home. Los Angeles- The place where I was born and raised which comforts me with familiarity. New York- The place where I have spent many Summers fueling my ambitions and dreams. and Vienna- The place where my heart always longs to be. And now Firenze- the place where.... well we'll see in a couple of months! But I've come to realize that home is not a place. 

Home cannot be justified to be coordinates on a map or three lines on a GPS- or else I'd be there in a heart beat. I do feel blessed that my soul has been spread and deposited into several different pockets of the world. So as I'm reflecting on my life, and the places that hold it, I'm realizing that I am 3 distinct people. That these places and the people in these places have shaped the way that I am. Building your life in a new city is so exhilarating and exhuasting- but the act of carving out a new life for yourself contrains a magically intrinsic feeling. 

I think I'm realizing that there will always be a part of me that is far away from its home and is lying passively until I am present in the city where it belongs. Living in Florence is beautiful, thrilling , and it's shown me that I can be who I want - on my own terms. Im so grateful for this opportunity because it's given me the  gift of freedom, of new beginnings, of curiosity and excitement. I'm currently suffering from jet lag and lying awake but I've come to terms that I can't be in two places at once and my heart is here in Firenze. 

Ciao from Firenze!

So... guys..... if you didn't know....... I'M IN ITALY!!! I really want to document my travels and write about my experience so feel free to read my blog!

Last year I spent the summer in New York and felt unbelievably invincible. The summer before that I was in Paris, and I remember promising myself that I would one day find something that would compare. Rien ne pouvait se comparer. I think I definitely found that here in Firenze.

Homegirl def got sleepy during our 18 hour travel day
















This was my first Gelato in Florence and it was perfecto!

Meet my roommate Amy and the Neptune behind us!

And this is the sunset over the Ponte Vecchio.

This is just a snippet of the past two days. It has been absolutely amazing... I just catch myself in awe with my jaw dropped. It's extremely sticky humid and not to mention I haven't had my luggage for the past two days- but I'm just so grateful to be in this amazing city. This is just the beginning!