A Not Too Crazy Week in Firenze.

Hey all. This week was pretty uneventful, but great, of course. Also good, because... Christine had her baby. His name is Owen MacManus. And from the pics he seems pretty darn beautiful.

So what happened this week.

Monday, Tuesday all very uneventful. Wednesday was the big Two year gig with Bryan, so we went out to dinner and did gifts. I had some great gnocci and pork, and he had gnocci and rabbit. He tried to convince me to get the rabbit, and our convo went something like this.

"Just get the rabbit. Have you ever had it?"
"No, have you?"
"No, but I tasted it. It's good, really like chicken."
"I can't have it. I had a stuffed animal rabbit I slept with daily as well as a pet rabbit. It would be like eating Silas for dinner."
"Well I am gonna get it. Serve me up some Silas, waitress."

The food was great, as it always is here. Except the rabbit had this artery thingy in it and B face tried to chew it. It was all rubbery and gross. Rabbit arteries = slightly nauseating. After dinner, we went back and made espressos in the new espresso pot I had gotten him. Espresso tastes that much better when made from a new silver pot.

Thursday morning we have italian at 9. It was pretty slick outside as it had rained that night. As I don't have any rain-proof footwear, I doned my tried and true flip flops. The ones that are so worn that my toes have almost rubbed right through the rubber sole. Anyway, while we were walking to class, I remembered how terrible flip flops are on slick city cobble stones. They sucked in Boston, they sucked here too. I was sliding all over the place and nearly fell about oh, 806 times or so. As I was slopping and sliding all over Piazza della Republic, I suddenly had a very big slip, if you know what I mean. Well, I went and broke my flip flop. My foot went right through the soggy, worn leather thong. I looked ridiculous hobbling to school on a busted shoe, it looked like I had a terrible gimp. Bryan walked really fast, and I just tried to slide along really fast behind him. By the time we got there, he was ready to give me a piggy back, and I just took of the shoe once I got inside and into the stairwell. After class, and after the walk home, my foot was black from falling out of the shoe and landing naked on the cobbles. Delicious. So farewell sweet 6 dollar flipflops, I loved you well.

In light of my inappropriate rain footwear, I finally went and bought some sneakers. I had bought those terrible bronze ones, and finally exchanged them for some nice, euro style ascics. I still don't like sneakers though. Bryan thinks sneaker stores make me cranky, and they do. They look touristy, they don't go with anything, and they are poorly designed for women. Probably because we'd rather buy more exciting shoes than boring old sneakers. Anyway, I got them. I want them to get dirty so they aren't so blazing white and I can rock them as the italian chicks do.

Most people are away this weekend, but alot of us stayed behind as well. Midterms ( I can't believe already!) are this week, as well as two projects. We figured we best just hunker down and get some work done. So yesterday Andrew, Bryan and I went to the Uffizi, saw 'Venus on the Half Shell', as Andrew calls it, by Boticelli, as well as a few Leonardos, more Botticellis, some cool Mannerist stuff and the Venus of Urbino. All good stuff I've been waiting to see.

Last night we all went to Michael Collins in Piazza della Signoria, or all of us who weren't away. It's an 'Irish' pub that has this great live band that plays on Friday nights. Haley and I got there before the band set up, and it was dead. We got a table, some drinks, and met up with the boys who came later. And BOOM, WHAM as soon as the band set up it was packed like a tin of sardines. The band plays beetles and the rolling stones and some beach boys and kinks and stuff like that and they're good. Halely and I were those girls who got to the front of the gently swaying crowd and just went ballistic. I'm sure everyone thought we were toast, but we weren't at all -- just having a pretty fun time. By the end of the night, I was drenched in sweat. I cooled down with a nice cider, which is my absolute thirst quenching fave. That night must have been the first time that I have ever seen anyone crowd surf to a beach boys song.

Today was supposed to be 'Productive Day' but of course I slept until 11, ate, bummed around, kinda went to studio, left, and went with B to pick out a stuffed animal. I selected a really soft aligator. See, I have misplaced (not eternally lost) my stuffed animal bunny, who many of you have had the pleasure to meet or see or whatever. Anyway, he has been gone for some time, and I needed some soft creature to cuddle with at night. I figure the aligator, rather than the bear, will repsect bunny's memory in that I am not trying to replace him. Plus, an aligator is more damn fresh than a bear.

Jackie is comming in a week. Needless to say I am excited. She gets here on Saturday, we'll hang out here for the day, and the next day we leave for GREECE. I can already taste the bacclava and see the blue waters. From Athens we'll go to Santorini and Mykonos and back to Athens, and then Florence on the 8th. Be prepared for some wild and crazy blog updates involving my wild and crazy best, miss. Jacqueline A. John. P.S. the flight costs were slightly ridiculous.

Okay, see, nothing too thrilling about this week. But fun in it's own right. Time to go book some hostels/hotels for Greece.