Here is a quick Italy update for you all. some amazing.. and some disturbing things have happened. first off, i must tell you how ridiculously hot it is here. ive heard its pretty warm in the states as well, but wow.. no air conditioning in Italy in the summer is a very bad thing. Its too hot to do anything productive.. which i hate! I will have to start waking up very early just to survive my morning runs.
Other then baking, I have actually been very busy. i have had little time to read, study, etc.. as I have been doing daily, because of random outings. its been a nice break from my routine. last week I spent two days at the beach. all day long. wow. i have discovered that I am not a beach person. I dont know how people can just lay there all day.. multiple times a week, baking. Overall, I got some good reading in, a nice tan (possibly too dark), a strip of red around the middle of my body (my poor stomach hadnt seen the sun in, oh... years) and a mini case of heat stroke (I think.. i felt weak and dizzy the day after.. so ive been sleeping and staying out of the sun as much as possible). The beaches are beautiful here though... the water is warm and clear. I did pick up some good tips from observing life on the beach:
1. All ages are welcome at the beach, from 1yearolds to 80something year olds. this was actually a nice change from my experiences with beaches.
2. Mullets... still not cool. the poor Italians are still under the delusion that mullets are attractive. To clarify.. they are not!
3. No man should wear a speedo.. no matter how attracive.
4. There IS such a thing as too tan.
5. "keep your shirt on" is no longer a figure of speech. it now applies to most of the beach-going 50+year-olds. These were not nude beaches, but Ive seen enough topless old woman to last me a lifetime.
so.. those were my main beach experiences. on to something a bit more exciting.
so, to satisfy your curiosity about the love ive found... well.. I did not find it in Italy, suprisingly enough. I am officially in love with Slovania. My family and I spent a day in the Alps, just wandering around a place they vacation multiple times a year. it was the most beautiful place I have ever been! it rivals Oregon.. haha. i am also in love with the Mountains. I am not usually a big outdoors girl (although I do enjoy it).. but I got the sudden urge to hike, camp, and run in the mountains. and I have decided that sometime in my life, I WILL do just that. If anyone is interested (and I am dead serious) someday I want to plan a trip back to camp in the mountains... and Id love to have some company (or I may get lost forever.. i think). I saw the clearest blue river I have ever seen and the place we went to had beautiful white horses. it was amazing.. really indescribable with words. However, I have alot of pictures. While we were there, we saw where they are filming parts of the next Narnia movie! its going to be beautiful! we saw where they keep the horses for the movie. it was an amazing day which resulted in the discovery of my new love.
And last but not least. My recent trip to Verona gave me two new goals in life. 1. to sing the role of Aida in Verdi s "Aida" and 2. to sing in the Arena in Verona. We had amazing seats to Aida this past tuesday. it was an amazing experience. The Arena is I think either the 3rd biggest or the 3rd oldest arena in the world. it was magnificent. the staging, dancing, pyrotechnics, and of course, singing were all amazing. All the performers were Italian, except the Mezzo, who was born in PA, USA!! which have me hope! European countries are usually against allowing Americans to sing in thier operas, but darnit! I am going to work my butt off and try to do it! Here is a link to the Arenas website, just to get a picture of it: http://www.arena.it/eng/ar
While in Verona, I also got to see Juliets house, from Romeo and Juliet. The tradition is to take a picture with her statue with your hand on her right breast.. i opted out of this experience.
so, there you go. the rest of my time here looks like it will fly by! next week,I leave for Geneva and Paris with Josh Bird (some of you may remember him from first year at Olaf) he is studying in Rome for the summer. so on the 26th, he will come here and stay the night with my family. then we leave on the 27th for Geneva for one night, where we will meet up with my sisters friend from Johns Hopkins, and then head to Paris to meet Jonathan Bartz until the 31st. then I come back here, pack,and head back to the states on the 2nd of August. its all going so fast, I cant believe it!
thanks to everyone who has been filling me in on thier lives. I love reading and responding to them! one thing this trip has taught me is what a Blessing all of you are to me. it wierd how having no friends here and very little contact with you guys has taught me how much I love all of you. Not having any friends for a period of time really makes you appreciate the ones you have. so as sappy as this sounds, Thank you all for being my friends. I cant wait to get back and catch up with all of you. Those of you in the Cities or Northfield for the Summer, I will be making a trip up there the first week I am home, Id love to get coffee or a meal with you, if you are free. let me know!
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