_ _ _Running_ _Stitch_ _ _

Yay, Swappers Day

Swappers Day.

A 15-20 minute drive out into the farmlands of Johnstown, Ohio - a long line to park in a big field filled with cars that got there hours before you - hiking from the back of the field to the entrance - and a four dollar fee at the gate... provides you with access to a redneck shopping extravaganza!  

Oh!  No offense at all, though!  I mean that in the best possible way.  

It reminded me almost exactly of Brimfield, which I've written about before here.  I'm in total love with Brimfield and this was like Brimfields little backwoods baby.  

The focus of the day is really and truly... guns.  There are booths with guns for sale everywhere you look.  And knives.  And swords.  And tools.  But there are also puppies and turtles!  

And I even happened to find a few treasures of interest, myself - neither guns NOR puppies.

These tractors for example.  Notice anything special about them?

UM YEAH.  THEY ARE WERE SEWING MACHINES.

A few treasures even made their way home with me!

I've been longing for a bright red purse, preferably vintage.  Found it!

I'm not sure what this was supposed to be.  A scarf?  A sheet?  Neither?
It's a darn cute print is what it is and so it came home with me as well.

Some beautiful vintage trims!

I stared at this necklace for a long time, trying to decide what the heck it was made out of and whether or not it was really awesome or totally not.  I decided on awesome.  I can make it work.

And by the way, I think it's made of carved and painted wood pieces.  I gave it a good washing when I got it home.

OH!  AND!  I didn't take photos of this, but inside the purse were a few things.  The first thing I pulled out was one of those little plastic granny rain caps freshly folded in a packet.  That went in the trash, stat.  The next thing was a teeny tiny little pope-looking metallic gold plastic figurine in a container.  Yeah.  What to DO with such a thing??  

Finally, a stack of about 15 little religious cards that look like trading cards.  I thought they were (I'll trade you two Marys for your Jesus!) but on the backs there were "In loving memory of So-And-So, July 29th 1972".  Oh.  So she kept all of these... remembrance cards of everyone she knew, in her purse!  Aww.  So, now what to do with them?  The art on them is cool.  Maybe someone wants them for that?  Or for the fact that they're all almost 40 years old?  Holler if you want them.

Lesson of the day: I love buying treasures in fields.

Y'all Been To Kentucky Before?

I have not been to many of the southern states so far in my travels.  I have been to Georgia one time and to Florida for a moment.  That's all.  

This weekend changed that.  We went to KENTUCKY! 

It's amazingly only two hours from where we live in Ohio.  Drive two hours through corn, cross the river, and there you are.  Let me tell you... the worst part was driving out of Ohio.  Massive amounts of boring corn. 

 We were worried that when we entered Kentucky - it could just be a lot more of the same.

Luckily, it wasn't!  Kentucky was so beautiful!!  And every single person we talked to was so friendly.  That could have been coincidence... but I do not believe in coincidence.  So I guess that means they're actually all nice :).

I loved the buildings, the historical homes and even the farms were more beautiful and stately than the Ohio farmlands.

For the first time, we even saw what actual tobacco plants looked like.  I had no idea.  I also had no idea that so much of it is grown in Kentucky.

I love photographing small towns.  Even more so than big cities.  There is so much charm to them.  Something so much more innocent and modest and real.

We spent the night in Maysville, Kentucky.  We didn't plan ahead for it - it's just how it happened.  I wouldn't have had it any other way and now that we've been there, we want to go back!

We also ventured over to Versailles, Kentucky to tour the Woodford Reserve Distillery.  They are responsible for the creation of Bourbon Whiskey!  Mind you - I'm NOT at all a fan of the stuff... but it was truly awesome to see the process and hear about the history!

It burned going down, lemme tell ya.  It is supposed to have a hint of vanilla and carmel with citrus and fruit tones.  All I tasted, with my completely unsophisticated mouth, was fire!!

I prefer this:

The trip was amazingly scenic.  I want to share each and every picture here but that would honestly take forever.  To see them all (and they're great, so seriously check them out) go to my Flickr!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/runningstitchpics/sets/72157622100710475/

Thanks for reading, y'all!!

I DO Live In Columbus

Sometimes I forget that I actually live near a pretty big city.  We live a bit outside of it - but honestly - compared to how far we have lived from a city that even had a MALL when growing up (3 hour drive)... we are IN the city.  We probably don't take advantage of it as much as we should.

 

Once in a while we head downtown, usually for one event or another.  You know how it is.  But I realized during this specific trip that we have never just wandered through the city by foot to really SEE it.  I'm so glad we did this time!

It was very photogenic.  And surprisingly lacking in people.

Just the way I like it.

This one is like Baby New York.

I never thought I was a "country" girl.  In the small town I grew up in, I always longed for the city.  I yearned for buildings and people and events.  But now that I've tried all of that... I can honestly say that I love retreating to a quiet home away from it all.  

As long as it's not too far a drive from city life :).

28 Days In Italy: Day 28

All Done!

We are back in the U.S. now!

I didn't get a chance to write during my last two days in Italy so I'll reflect.

We went to the Duomo finally on our second to last day in Milan, even though we had to walk by it every day.  It was so huge and beautiful inside.  It's weird - that's probably one of the first things that people want to see when they go to Milan - but because we saw it every day on our way to class it became more of a normal sight.  On our first day, when we walked past it I remember saying "Can you believe we get to walk by this thing every day?!".  

We took a train to Lake Como on our last day.  It's not touristy where we were at all and no one spoke a lick of English.  We went to the lake so we could lay on the beach on our last day.  We got off the train and began trying to ask people where to go to get to the beach.  No one could tell us anything but they all pointed us in a similar direction.  How did we ask for beach?  We played charades - and "swam" with our arms.  It came to that!  We walked along a road near the lake for about 15 minutes or so and we started to hear splashing sounds.  Yess!  Beach!

Wrong.

It was a pool.  A fenced in pool.  Outside of the fenced area was a makeshift beach with rocky chunky "sand" and people sunning themselves on chairs.  No beach.  We find out that you can't actually swim in the lake there... so there are pools.  We had to pay 6 Euro to get into the beach/pool area, 3,50 for a mandatory bathing cap to go in the pool and 4,50 each for a chair!  For an umbrella it was another 3,50 so we just roasted in the sun.  14 Euro was way more than I had planned on paying that day for anything, including food.  Luckily the snacks were cheap.  I got a nice burn but it's okay because I was lacking any sort of tan from the whole month of sitting in class while it was sunny.  

When we tried to pack our suitcases to go back home it was beyond amazing that we even managed!  I left a few things behind that I just couldn't fit - like my shampoo & conditioner, soap, towels, magazines that I didn't want as bad.  Stuff like that.  The plane ride back home was fine.  Same movies as last time but I didn't really watch any last time because I was too tired.  I sat by a southern lady who was in Romania and a guy from Illinois who was in Poland - both missionaries.  It was so great to finally hug Evan after that long month.  It was the best feeling.  The best hug I have ever felt.  

Overall I think Italy, Amsterdam and everything was just an incredible experience and it was so worth it!  I would go back in a heartbeat.  I will never forget all the interesting people we met, things we saw, food we ate and how we learned so much about the world and about ourselves!

..........

A List of Things to Remember

The Alexander McQueen Store

Sunflower Bar & their chocolate brioches

Solero Red Fruits & Magnum Bars

The guys who sell roses

The lady with big ankles we saw everywhere

Crowded tube that smells like B.O.

Guy who was peeing outside

Umbrella salesmen who appear at the first drop of rain

Acqua Naturale

People that talk on their phones and stop walking in mid sidewalk or escalator

Guys in business suites on mopeds

Ladies in stilettos on mopeds!

Kickstands of mopeds that sink into the blacktop

Heidi tripping over nothing every day

Paying 5 Euro to rent a movie from the front desk 

Hollywood, not Loolapalooza

Bruschetta from the Royal Restaurant by the Duomo

Italian McDonalds = yucky

The Italian "save-a-lot"

Wine for only 1,75 Euro

Never being able to switch from saying dollars to euros

Military time isn't just for the military

Medicine comes in powdered form

Italians laughing at us all the time

Italians saying "Bon Appetite!" if we carry food down the road

Thinking that we could cheat the system with re-using train tickets = bad idea

Never getting carded to get alcohol

Slot machines in cafes

Cigarette vending machines outside

Accordion player and little singing gypsy girls on the subway

Not being able to NOT shop

Great advice from travel mates... "Get it!"

Street performers like the hula hoop girl or the xylophone guy

Seeing America/Americans from another perspective

Finding really long Dutch words with 22 letters in them

Seeing the same annoying commercials on TV every day 

and still never getting them because they're in Italian

British Pimp My Ride double decker bus

Avoiding the vents in the sidewalks for a whole month, successfully

9 pairs of shoes, one suitcase

28 Days In Italy: Day 26

July 28, 2005

Day 26

Today we got up, crammed all our new junk into our suitcases and realized we bought way too much, had a quick breakfast (yay toast!) and checked out.  Besides for the fact that my bags were so heavy and crammed that they are bursting at the seams literally and my duffle bag broke a wheel so I have to carry it - the trip back to Milan was fairly easy.  No getting lost or running late or making expensive mistakes for once!!  So proud of us.  So proud.  

On the plane I sat by this guy that is from the states but he is a college professor in the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi.  He told me that the next big money maker in fashion is the city of Dubai because the Arabic women dress in expensive YSL silk scarves and dresses.  He thinks it is a growing market and very "promising" for me and other future designers with a business mind.

I went on the internet today and checked my credit card balance and savings/checking account balance and I have $1000 on my credit card and $880 in my savings/checking accounts.  Shit.  And the savings is for bills when I get home!  Ahh!!  Debt!  It's worth it.  I will just keep telling myself that.

28 Days In Italy: Day 25

July 27, 2005

Day 25

Today was our last day of fun in Amsterdam!

We fly out in the morning to be in Milan for 2 days and then have to fly back to Amsterdam to fly home!

Today we didn't have any running water because they were working on the pipes in the street by our hotel so we were all dirty all day today!  We just did some more shopping and I got some new shoes because they were on sale for really cheap!  Okay I got like... 4.  One pair was only 5 Euro!  Score.

We went to Boom Chicago tonight for their other show.  It was more funny than last time because it was scripted.  And I didn't get picked on.  ;)

That's all for Amsterdam!  Back to Milano in the mornin!

28 Days In Italy: Day 23

July 25, 2005

Day 23

Today was a very big busy long day for us!

We made a little tentative list this morning of things we want to see/do within the next 3 days we are here.  We accidentally did everything on the list - TODAY - except for go to an Irish Pub (we saw a cool looking one down the street).

We woke up at 10AM and had breakfast downstairs (it's free!).  I loved it because they had toast and I love toast!  I live on it at home (poor college student) but haven't had any the whole month of July until this morning because all they have in Italy is brioches!  After breakfast we headed out on our adventure.  We walked everywhere we went today which was a LOT of walking but it didn't seem like it (due to all the excitement and newness).  It didn't seem like a lot of walking... until we sat down.  

The Anne Frank House was amazing.  It was so moving to be there where she really was and still see pictures she had pasted up onto the walls herself.  Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside in order to keep everything totally preserved.  I think they learned that the hard way - because my Grandma has pictures of the inside from visiting it in the 80's.  We had to stand in a line (in the pouring rain) half way around the block to get in but for the experience it was well worth it.  It rained the entire day so we bought ponchos and umbrellas and were still looking like wet rats by the end of the day.

An unpleasant order of events... the next stop was the Torture Museum!  Talk about sick.  Mostly there were weird metal and wood contraptions for punishment in Mid Evil Times.  What a screwed up time to live on this Earth.  We also went into the Hemp & Marijuana Museum.  It was interesting because they had the whole history of it throughout the place.  They had a case of different things made out of hemp, including some Adidas shoes!

We went out to dinner at a steak place and then went on a Canal Boat ride so we could see Amsterdam from the water's view.  It was really cool (much better than the rip-off gondola ride in Venice).  Amsterdam has so much interesting history!!  That was one really great part of taking the boat ride - they told us what we were looking at and all the history behind it all.  It's amazing to hear the stories behind the city.  There was a story for everything.  

After the boat ride we found our way back to the hotel and then went to a cafe to go on the Internet for awhile.  On our way back to the hotel, a group of break dancers were just starting up a performance on the sidewalks so we stayed to watch.  It's so fun to have little stuff like that going on all the time.  I love cities with a nightlife!  

We went back to the hotel after watching the amazing performance and decided we were too tired to even go back out.  We just relaxed, rested our tired feet, and looked at some new fashion magazines that we had acquired.  We did so much today that we don't even know what we want to do tomorrow.  Besides shop.  We always want to shop.  It's bad.  But how often do I get to shop in Europe??  I just won't buy anything new all year to make up for it....

28 Days In Italy: Day 22

July 24, 2005

Day 22

We just boarded our plane to Amsterdam!  We took a train to Centrale and I just used one of the tickets from Renee's booklet because she had extras.  I threw it away after I used it because I thought we were done with it.  It's what I've been doing every day since I've been in Milan.  Well, today there were police checking people for their tickets after they got off the train before they entered Centrale.  I had already thrown mine away!!  So I was fined 37 Euro!!  I was so so mad!  That was basically all of my cash and now I am broke.  That was the cash I needed to use for train tickets and food for the next couple of days.  So then something even worse happened!  Renee had to get on her plane earlier because the one Heidi and I bought was sold out - or the other way around - but it wasn't that big of a deal because she would go in right before us and wait for us to get there.  But on the bus to the airport she looked at her e-ticket and saw that it said she was supposed to be at the other airport in Milan and it was wayyy too late for her to get there in time!  So when we got to the Malpensa airport we wandered around aimlessly in a panic until we found a KLM Airlines desk.  The guy spoke great English - thank god! - and he said he could bump Renee onto our flight but it would cost 80 Euro.  Of course she was going to pay it though because what else would we do?  So, another very expensive mistake under our belts!  

In 2 hours we will be in Amsterdam trying out another adventure of finding our hotel - which consists of 2 train rides and some walking!  Hope for the best!

.... Later on ....

So, we are in Amsterdam now!  We just got home to our hotel from our first night in Amsterdam and I love this city!!  It's so excellent!!  We found the hotel really easily.  We read through some of the brochure ad books to find some stuff to do.  We found a comedy club called "Boom! Chicago" and it's a restaurant/comedy club in English and it is right around the block from the hotel!  We went to that and had an awesome dinner and then watched the comedy act which was a whole lot like Whose Line only they said more swear words talked more freely about sex and drugs and mocked America a little bit more than we might do.  At the end they all came out and were all dressed up crazy getting ready to sing their end of the night song which was "Guess who's sitting in the front row!" and I was definitely in the front row.  And I got picked on.  Me and 2 other random people.  It sucked - but - it's all in fun.  They told me I was going to be designing stripes for K-Mart.  Oh god!!

We headed back to the hotel and got into our puffy comfy beds.  We are getting up early to go to some museums and see more of the city!

28 Days In Italy: Day 21

July 23, 2005

Day 21

We went to bed really early last night.  We were so tired for some reason.  Finally done with class and spent all day stressed out trying to make our plans for the week.  We went back to Bar STRAF for another (free dinner) happy hour.  They have the best food.  And guess who we saw there... none other than Massimo!!  So were were chatting with him for awhile while he was waiting for his friend to get there.  He told us about his job as a Design Director for a line called Acerbis Republik.  He gave me his business card with his email on it, so maybe I can get him to help me find an internship!

Today we slept in until 2 and now we are all trying to do our laundry and get ready for Amsterdam.  There is only one dryer and two washers in the whole place - and they suck.  Other people are trying to do their laundry too so it's hard to get one and keep it.  Someone took my stuff out of he washer because I guess I didn't get it out the second it was done.

28 Days In Italy: Day 20

July 22, 2005

Day 20

Today was our last day of class.

All we had to do was go and "present" our projects to some of the teachers.  I thought it would be hard or scary but it was so easy.  The only teacher that spoke English was Massimo so it was good because he already knew what I was going to say about my collection.

Then we got on the computers to start searching for tickets and hotels for our trip.  We finally made plans!  After hours, literally, of research, we decided on going only to Amsterdam for 4 nights.  We're going from the 24th - 28th and will be staying in Hotel La Boheme.  Amsterdam!!!  I am so excited!!

28 Days In Italy: Day 18

July 20, 2005

Day 18

I skipped class today.

Renee and I both decided not to go.  Last night, school threw us a party at this restaurant/discotheque called Old Fashion Cafe.  First there was dinner and then dancing.  I met Massimo's boyfriend last night too!   It was pretty fun.  We got free food, wine, then a free drink ticket.  I like free!  

Today there was three sessions of class but we didn't know it.  We all skipped the first one because it was a lecture on Economics (in Italian) so it was pointless.  But then Renee and I slept in too much on accident and so we were just going to not go to the second session either but meet Heidi at the computer lab at 4 when she got out.  So we went shopping at H&M and I got a couple of shirts and 2 belts.  Yay!  So we get to school to see Heidi and she says there is a 3rd session!  We didn't bring our school stuff so we had to skip again!  Oooops.  Tomorrow is our last day of actual class and Friday we present to the teachers.  We still don't have our last week planned out yet.  Yikes.

28 Days In Italy: Day 14

July 16, 2005

Day 14

Today was our full day of Venice!

It was awesome!!  

I woke up this morning and felt like crap.  I couldn't breathe all night because my sinuses and nose were stuffy and I had a sore throat.  Now my throat is sort of feeling better but I still can't breathe out of my nose.  :(

Oh yeah!  I never wrote about last night once we arrived!!

Okay so last night the train pulled into Venice at about 10ish because it makes so many stops.  We get off and were so excited because it totally looked just how we pictured Venice to look.  It was beautiful and calms with happy little tourists wandering the shops.  So we start walking down the first road we come to because the hotel is supposed to be right by the train station.  We go up to a restaurant and ask someone for Hotel Piave and he is like "no, no Hotel Piave in Venice.  Hotel in Mestre." and we're like.... huh.... so we didn't even know what he said!  So we run back to the train station and ask another guy "Mestre?" and he says "Yes, 10 minute, train S".  We find train S and above it does not say Mestre but we ask one more person and they say yes so we get on and sit forever and wait for the train to turn on.  Forever was probably 10 minutes as the guy said, but we were nervous.  No one checked for tickets so we basically rode for free - it was only 1 Euro so oh well.  That seems to be happening to us a lot.  

We get off at the first stop which was Mestre and the first street we see is Via Piave!  Good!  But we're starving because we've hardly eaten all day and nothing is open because it's 11 at night.  We find our hotel and get up to our room.  It's kinda crappy but not dirty or anything so it's okay.  Not beautiful like the Milan rooms, but you get what you pay for.  The only bad things were the teeny tiny shower and the really flat pillows on hard beds.  And cold tile floors.  

We went back down to the front desk to ask the guy if there was anywhere to go eat and he said no unless we want to walk down a few blocks to the pubs.  What choice do we have?  We started walking and we saw a lady standing on the side of the road wearing black high heels and a short black skirt and she had really big hair.  Yikes, our first prostitute encounter!  We started walking really fast.  About a block later we saw a pizza place that looked open so we went in and got pizza and some wine.  It was about 11:30 or 40 and they closed at 12 so when we were about half done, they were putting chairs away and really wanting to kick us out.  We finished up the wine and headed back.

When we went back into the lobby the guy at the desk saw I had a pizza box in my hand and he asked us if we wanted some beer.  We were like "nooo, water!!".  So he gave us a big thing of water and then he said he could make us a Venetian Cocktail.  We had one and then went up to bed.   

We slept until noon and then headed out for our first day of Venezia!  Like I said, I was really not feeling well so it was hard to feel excited at first.  We walked all around and did a lot of shopping and picture taking!  There are also things going on in the streets like musicians, guys from Africa selling fake designer purses, people that look like statues with the Venice masks on, and also lots of beggars.  Not as many as Milan but we saw the worst one here; it was a guy with arms only down to his elbows and he was sitting there waving his stubs around and yelling things in Italian.  It really sucks seeing all these poor people and I wish I could help them.  But If I helped every one I saw I would become one too because I would run out of money!  

I really wanted to take a Gondola Ride while we were there so we found one but it was 80 Euro.  We ended up doing it anyway because you can't really not do it.  And guess what?  It totally wasn't worth it!  He took us down a bunch of side streets so we didn't get to see tons of big cool things.  We did see a UPS boat though!  That was funny.  After that we got dinner at a place where you get all the "courses" for only 13 Euro so we were definitely excited.  It was really good for the most part.  I got lasagna, roasted chicken, salad and fruit salad.  The fruit salad was from a can so that was sad.  I went to Venice and all I got was this canned fruit salad!

After dinner we went to San Marcos Square for the festival.  It would have been cool but there were just SO many people there that we were shoulder to shoulder even though the place was huge.  We took a bunch of pictures because the buildings were beautiful.  It was so hard to be in that big crowd because we were all carrying a bunch of stuff from the whole day of being out.  The fireworks started and people literally started charging forward toward the water to try to get a look at them.  They were apparently shooting them off from an island so we really couldn't even see them.  People were seriously running and pushing like they had never seen fireworks in their life!  So we stayed for a little bit but we decided to just go back early to avoid the rush of people leaving.  The festival apparently lasts into Sunday!  After the fireworks they go to this island and party on the beach and then go swimming at sunrise!  I can't really imagine that would be that much fun with so many people though.  We went back to the hotel and went to SLEEP.

28 Days In Italy: Day 13

July 15, 2005

Day 13

We are on the train to Venice right now.

It was hell trying to find it and find our seats!  So when we finally think we found the train, we don't see anywhere to get our tickets checked so we just get on.  We don't know how to read our tickets so we keep asking people and they just keep pointing.  We got on the train and we were in car 1.  We had to walk through this really skinny aisle with people in it to get all the way to car 8.  It would have been so much easier if we knew that from the beginning.  And we could have walked on the outside to car 8 if we knew when the train was actually going to pull away.  We were rushing and panicking to find these seats because we thought the train was about to start moving.  Turns out we actually had at least 15-20 minutes!  God!!  At least now we know.

So, it takes about 2.5 hours to get to Venice.  It will be around 8:30 or 9PM when we get there.  Our hotel is supposed to be really easy to find - I hope it is.  I was hoping for some really awesome scenery on our way there but so far it has been corn fields so it looks just like Michigan.  Haha.  We had air conditioning but it just got turned off and it's getting really warm really fast.  

Today in class I finished coloring all of my drawings.  Now I have to start the technicals, figure out my fabrics and put it all in the book and that's it!

28 Days In Italy: Day 12

July 14, 2005

Day 12

The word on the street is that there is going to be a strike on the Tubes tomorrow at 8:45 (basically that's right when we leave for class) so we have to go in really early in order to make the train before it stops.  How annoying.  I hope it doesn't last that long, we are going to Venice after class gets out tomorrow!

28 Days In Italy: Day 10

July 12, 2005

Day 10

Today was the first day that we didn't have 50 million things to do after class!  We didn't have to go in today until 1:30 and we got out at 7.  So we came home and started doing our homework right away.

It's crazy how much money I have to spend here!  I don't even buy stuff that I want and I still run out of money so fast!  I think it's food, train and random school supplies that really get me.  I'm so scared that I'm going to just run out and not have any to pay bills or eat when I get back home!  I don't have any food for when I get back and I'm going to owe my room mates a bunch of money for bills too!  But I'll get through it.  It's worth it to be here anyway!  I am SO glad I chose to do this.

There was a terrorist bombing on the London subway last week - thank goodness I didn't choose to go there.  I was torn between London, Paris and Milan - but I thought that Milan would be more my style.

28 Days In Italy: Day 9

July 11, 2005

Day 9

Today was the first day of the 2nd week of class!  It went well - and we didn't do too much hard stuff today.  We just picked the poses for our croquis and drew details.  So today for homework I drew my clothes onto the models.  

We went to a new grocery store today and got a bunch of food.  We made our own real meal tonight - spaghetti with home made sauce, salad with home made dressing, garlic toast and red wine.  SOOOO good!  Tomorrow we don't have class until 1:30 so we get to sleep in!  Yay!!  Oh yeah one funny thing about the grocery store was that they had plastic bags but they didn't really want to give us any.  She only gave us 2 and we had about 5 worth of groceries so we just filled our backpacks with food!  

Today we planned our weekend trip!  We booked a hotel room on my credit card so it's official!  We are going to Venice!  I'm so excited, it's going to be unbelievable!  The hotel seems pretty good, I can't believe we found it!  We I actually found it online.  It has 3 bed bedrooms for 187 Euro for 2 nights!  I also found out that there is some sort of festival on Saturday night while we are there with food and fireworks and stuff.  I can't remember the significance of it but it should be fun.  Plus.. it's VENICE.  I need to make sure I bring enough film for my camera!

28 Days In Italy: Day 8

July 10, 2005

Day 8

I definitely don't get the time to write every day like I had planned.

Yesterday we had to go to the fabric store to get fabric samples for our projects.  We each need around 12 different materials.  We got there right when they opened and started looking.  We each picked out everything that we needed  and when we told the girl we were ready to have them cut, she said no!  She said they don't cut strips on Saturdays!  So we'd be screwed because we have to put these into our books and start drawing, for Monday.  I figured if I just explained to the girl that it was for school and we had to have them, that maybe she'd give in, but she didn't.

There was a lady standing there during the conversation and after the girl said no she chimed in by saying that her friend who is there with her owns a clothing store where they make the clothes right there.  She said we could go back there with them and look through their fabric scraps!  So they called us a cab and told the guy where to go and they drove in their car.  When we got there and were getting out - someone ran out and paid for our cab!  They dumped out tons of fabric scraps for us to dig through and we paid them 10 Euro for a bag full.  We also got some sequin appliques and they're so beautiful because they are hand sewn!  

Then we went to H&M to go shopping and I found a really cute suit.  We saw our teacher Massimo while we were shopping.  After that we went to this little bar called STRAF that we found earlier and made a mental note to visit.  It was happy hour which means free food!  So we got strawberry margaritas and had a bunch of appetizers (hello, free dinner), then we hopped on the train back home.  When we were at STRAF we asked the bartender where a good place to go dancing was around here.  He wrote it down for us.  

He said that there are tons of "discotheques" all in one strip at this place called Corso Como.  

The cab driver that came and picked us up was really cool because he was young and was talking to us and he told us which club to go into.  He said that "Loolapalooza" was the best one.   He gave us his number so we could call for a ride when we were done.  When we got to Corso Como it was packed!  You can imagine it like a strip mall - but with bars - and there were people walking all around in the road.  All different music was coming from all the different clubs.  We heard a lot of American songs.  Another crazy thing we learned yesterday - the bars stay open until not 2AM but 6AM - Yikes!  The one we went to, Loolapalooza, was 20 Euro to get in and that also includes your first drink.  Then each drink is 10 Euro no matter what you order.  That is really expensive, but they make them really strong so I guess you get your moneys worth?  It was an international bar so there was an American bartender from California.   She was great and talked to us for a while.  She has been living in Italy for five years now and she is going to start her own clothing store soon.  That would be so weird to just up and move to another country.  (It later turns out that we discovered - after we left the bar - that we had gone into the wrong one.  We were in "Hollywood" and not "Loolapalooza".  Oh well!)

It's funny how we get so excited to hear our own language.  I am already getting sick of never knowing what people are saying... and we've been here for... 8 days.  Haha.

Tonight after homework, we went out to the Califoria Pizzario for a late dinner.  That place is always packed between 10 and 12 at night.  Everyone is always eating full dinners even though it is so late.  But no one really eats much breakfast.  We've been doing okay with food ordering lately so we're starting to get more brave to order new things.  Tonight, Renee wanted to try and get a salad, so she pointed to the one she wanted and the guy wrote down the wrong thing!  We didn't know that until he put it down in front of her and it was covered with tuna fish, corn, beans and anchovies!  So we eventually got that switched to the right one but it was still weird because they only put oil on it for dressing.  Not even oil and vinegar, just oil.  Oily greens, anyone?  Mmm.  I got a calzone which had pomadoro, mozzarella and prosciutto.  It was good but so huge so I got the guy to give me a box.  We don't think that they really do that around here because we've never seen anyone else do it and they don't really have proper boxes, just foil.

It's funny that entertainment things in this country are mostly American!  MTV plays all stuff in English with Italian subtitles and at Blockbuster almost all the movies are American and just translated into Italian.  Almost every song at the bar last night was one we knew - but most people still don't really speak English around here.  

Tomorrow is week 2 of class!

28 Days In Italy: Day 4

July 6, 2005

Day Four

We have been SO busy here!

I planned to write every night but the past two nights we haven't arrived home until late, had homework and been so tired we had to get to bed.

Class is going well so far.  I really like the set-up and my teacher is great.  We're all split up into groups of about 10 and each has a teacher.  Thank goodness mine speaks to us in English - that makes things so much easier!  His name is Massimo and he has an English accent.  He's really easygoing but teaches a lot at the same time.  Renee's teacher speaks to them in Italian.  

Renee does not speak Italian.

On Monday we found the grocery store!  It's not too far away, thankfully.  It's kind of like an Italian Save-A-Lot because everything is so cheap, especially the wine!  It's like 1,75 Euro per bottle!  And it's good!  We got 3 bottles.  ;)

So, Renee hurt her shoulder the night before we left for Italy and she didn't go to the hospital.  She figured we'd take her to one over here and just use the health insurance the school gave us.  Well we looked for the hospital each day we were here but didn't find it until day 3.  We took her there on our lunch break (it was at least a mile or more to walk there) and holy crap what an experience that was!  I'm praying to God that we don't ever have to go back there again.  It was sooooo scary.  It was like the total opposite of a hospital in the U.S.  Not white, not very sanitary, people on cell phones (even doctors) when there are "no cell phone" signs everywhere.  Doors are all open so the air is free flowing.  All the sick/hurt people are laying around in one room together on those stretcher looking beds and there aren't curtains between them.  Some of the people were moaning and stuff.  I seriously almost passed out (or puked) because I was so disgusted (and germophobic).  Yuckkk!  But at least they actually found her an English speaking doctor.

He prescribed her some sort of medicine and a sling.  That's it.

The medicine is in powder form.

The sling makes drawing in class - interesting.

And the really funny part - it was free.  Free?  Yeah.  They were like "Insurance?  No.  No pay."

So why'd we have to go through the trouble of getting this insurance?

Little Girl Big World - Episode 18

Thursday, July 06, 2006

So the 4th was awesome, for starters!!  

Here is how the day played out:

All of the English girls (Leona, Sian, Natasha, and Guy-Young) and I ate dinner at 12:30.  The Webster actually tried, it was pretty good; BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, cottage fries, watermelon, and lemonade!  Mmmmm.

  So then Amanda and Heidi met us here at 1:15 and we all headed out together. We stopped at K-Mart first to get some cards, which I bought so I could keep them, because they are PINK and they are awesome.  Got some water too.  Then we began our trek down 34th street toward the East River.  It's about a 40 minute walk.  

About half way there we passed a Baskin Robins, which as Leona and I recalled from the other night of seeing a sign, Tuesdays they have buy one get one free sundays.  So we decided it was a perfect idea to get ice cream, it was hot out!  We asked for the buy one get one free sundays and the guy started giving us each 2 scoops in a cup.  We all got our ice cream and went to the cash register and the lady tried to tell us that the type of thing we got wasn't the buy one get one free thing.  Amanda stood up for all that is right and just in the world and bitched her out until we got our free ice cream.  It was awesome.  Well worth it too, it was really really good!!  

We ate and walked and we soon arrived at the water!  We sat on a curb, all in a line, and looked out at the water wondering where the fireworks would actually be and if we were actually in a good spot.  We sat for about 40 minutes or so and other people were starting to sit around as well.  Soon enough a big manly woman cop not even in uniform came over and yelled to everyone that where we were was not a viewing area and we had to move either over to some park or stand back on the sidewalk behind the bridge.  We opted for the sidewalk because we had no idea where the park was, and no one else seemed to move in that direction either.

It started to rain.  We were prepared and all had umbrellas.  We stood, huddled, for hours.

The rain stopped and by then we were allowed to go up to the FDR Bridge to wait some more.

  In total, we waited for 7 or so hours.  Wow, right?  Not worth it, right?  WRONG.  The show ended up being shot from 3 huge barges floating DIRECTLY in front of us!  

THE most amazing choreographed to music show I have ever seen.  

Our mouths were open the entire time.

I think Justin Timberlake or someone was there singing during them but I kinda didn't care/notice.  It was all about the fireworks and the friends.

The last week in New York was happy and easygoing.  

I spent time with Leona, Heidi and the designers Marcus and Terry.

I started to get sad about leaving.

I felt as if I had been living there for so long.

Maybe someday I will go back.

28 Days In Italy: Day 1

Another little travel installment!

In 2005, the summer after my 3rd year of college, I went to Milan to take a Fashion Illustration course at Istituto Marangoni.  I went with two other classmates - Renee and Heidi.

It was my first time EVER going out of the country - or even traveling anywhere far by myself.  I was with Renee and Heidi of course, but it was very new to all three of us.

We learned many lessons and made mistakes and had the time of our lives!

I'm going to share it with you!

............

July 3, 2005

Day One

Holy crap, I'm in Italy!

It has already been amazing.  On Saturday night at 7:10PM we boarded our plane at the Detroit Metro Airport.  The plane was huge.  No, I mean... really - huge.  It had two aisles in it with seats in the middle.  Each seat had it's own mini TV screen with head phones and a remote.  You could watch movies, listen to music, play games or even shop.  That kept us busy enough while we weren't eating or sleeping - and even sometimes while we were eating or sleeping.  Technically, I didn't really sleep but I did sit there with my eyes closed trying really hard.  Renee took some sleeping pills and woke up all confused and weird when they brought us our food and she saw the sun over the horizon and it was probably midnight, our time.

We arrived in Amsterdam at 9AM - which was 3AM for us - and we were soooo tired.  We got on the next plane to Milan.  It was a nice short ride, just over an hour, but we got lunch on the plane anyway.  I was starving so it was great.

When we got to Milan and got our luggage, we had to figure out how to get to our hotel.  We knew we needed to take a train but had no idea where to go to get to that train.  We found a little train ticket booth in the airport and did what the school's instructions said.  Got a ticket on the Malpensa Express to Piazzi Cordenza, which was 9 Euro.  We weren't even sure when to get off because they weren't saying the exact name of each stop.  We just got off when they said something Cordenza and we were right (luckily).  We thought it would be hard to look for a cab from where we were, but they were all just sitting there with their trunks open waiting for people.

So - that was an interesting car ride!  The Italian cab ride of death!

People seriously just did whatever they wanted on the road - merge, drive next to you about 6 inches away, park... wherever, reverse in the middle of the road.  Nuts.

Then we get to the hotel - Contessa Jolanda - and we're expecting it to be, well, scary and gross.  We get up to our room, open the door, and it is beautiful!!  It's not huge but it's not cramped.  We have a little kitchen with a mini fridge, freezer, stove, sink, microwave/oven and cupboards full of dishes/pots/pans/etc.  The ceilings are probably about 12 feet high and the drapes go from ceiling to floor.  We even have a little balcony we can go out on.  All the furniture is deep reddish brown wood.  The colors of all the fabrics are beautiful too.  Everything looks brand new.  Right after that 10 minute excitement wore off, we laid down and passed out for about 2 hours.  We got up at 5 or 6PM and took showers and brushed our teeth (finally) and headed out to find a restaurant and grocery store.

We tried to get directions to the store from the guy at the front desk but we never found it.  Instead we went to a random restaurant and tried to order some food.  After studying the menu forever with Italian dictionary in hand, we settle for something that Renee had tried before and said it was good.  It was noodle dumplings in a rich white cheese sauce (gnocchi).  It was okay, kinda weird, but it's good to try new things even if they are gross.

Now we're back at the hotel getting ready to go to bed for a real night of sleep - yay!  Tomorrow should be another adventure - finding the train - and our school!