9-16-06 and 9-17-06

This weekend was nice and quiet, something we don’t get very often around here. Next week we head off to Rome for almost a full week, so everyone decided to stay home and conserve energy, and more importantly, money.

It’s been raining for a few days now, nothing heavy or hurricane-force, just a nice constant drizzle, much like the glory days of England. It’s cooled off a lot too, so much so that I actually had to pull on another sheet last night. So it’s a lot nicer around here, not having to shower off the sweat every 3 hours.

On Saturday, the regular gang of guys (Me, Matt, Mark, and Brandon) all headed out to Florence for the day. It costs about 10 Euro for a roundtrip ticket, so it’s not that bad. And it only takes an hour to get there, so we hopped on a train and cruised down there. I slept most of the way, still catching up from my overnight ordeals of the previous week. We got there just after lunch and wandered down to the heart of the city, around the Duomo. It was raining, or trying to, so I bought a 3 euro umbrella from a shady stall on the side of the road. The first opening worked fine and it actually kept me dry for about 5 minutes. Then I closed it to go into a store, where I bought a nice shirt by the way, and thought nothing about it because you shouldn’t have to worry about umbrellas, especially in the heart of a beautiful city. Anyway, after making my informed purchase, all 15 euro of it, we walked outside into the rain again. I opened my umbrella and half of it collapsed on my head. As my good friends rolled in laughter, I tried to figure out what the heck was going on, only to discover that 3 of the bars under the fabric were completely bent and one had snapped. Great. We’d already walked a long way into the city, and the chances that the shady guy that sold it to me would let me exchange it were less than good. So I bent the bars so they would at least protect a small amount of me, and tried to drown out the howls from my friends and avoid the amused stares of Italians passing by.

The day was not completely lost though. I thought it was just as funny as everyone else, so after a while we started betting as to what would break next. I won when the handle fell off.

We made it to the Duomo and by that point it had stopped raining for the most part and we went into a pizzeria directly in front of the cathedral. So I ate a slice of pizza while looking at one of the most majestic buildings in Italy. It was quite cool. Everyone was quite taken aback.

After that, we wandered around some of the stores close to the cathedral, not really having an agenda, just going in stores that looked interesting and expensive. They don’t charge you for having a look around, so we looked at all these fancy Italian fashion stores and leather places. And that’s where I found it.

The second leather place we went in was around the corner from the cathedral, on a smaller street. Bargello’s Leather Factory was the name. We went in because Matt wanted to get a leather jacket. I did too, but I wasn’t really looking for one at that point. Anyway, we got inside and these two Italian guys hustled us down to the guys section and started letting us try on all these fantastic jackets. For some reason, they wanted me to try on tons of them, just to see and feel all the different types of leather that I didn’t even know existed. Buffalo? Lamb? Crikey!

So after about 12 different jackets, I found one that was absolutely just what I wanted. It was a nice and simple fitted jacket in a dark brown, with two pockets and a small collar. Perfect. I really wasn’t intending on buying a jacket that day, but I couldn’t really resist. We’d been joking around with the owners, who spoke perfect English, laughing about girls and all the things different in our cultures, and when I said that I was thinking about buying the jacket, he said he would give me a 40% discount. So that kinda sealed the deal. And for some reason I get a 20% tax refund at the end of the trip too. So a 540 euro jacket ended up costing me about 240 euro. Which is still expensive, but how can I resist buying an Italian jacket in Florence, right around the corner from the Duomo? I couldn’t. It’s fantastic, and I’ll love it for ages.

Matt ended up getting a jacket too, but his is almost American, in that goofy bomber jacket style. I didn’t really like it, but he did, so that’s good. Brandon was very very tempted to get one, but ended up not, and neither did Mark. So the entire rest of the day, we reminded them of our amazing purchases by letting them feel the fantastic fabric or smell the rich leather. I’m really happy with it, as it was one of the things that I really wanted while I’m over here.

The rest of the day was kinda overshadowed by my purchase, and we headed back home to Castiglion Fiorentino, where the rain fell harder than before and my umbrella completely sucked. I think only my nose didn’t get wet on the way home.

That night was an unofficial movie night at the center, because the rain kept everyone inside. We somehow split into two groups, mainly the Circle and the not Circle people. I didn’t really want to go and watch a movie with the Circle people, even though they aren’t half as bad as I first thought, so I went with about 7 girls and Brandon and watched the longest and most girly movie ever: The Sound of Music.

Don’t get me wrong. I love musicals. Moulin Rouge is one of my favorite movies. But that thing just kept going and going. You know they actually kept the intermission in the DVD version of Sound of Music? That’s ridiculous! Anyway, as usual during slightly hilarious situations that I get caught in, my mouth seems to go off without my brain checking first. They’re usually funny, or at least I think they’re funny, but when you’re in a room of 7 girls who love this movie to death, it might not have been the best idea. However, they seemed to thoroughly enjoy it and by the end of it we were all rolling in laughter at the well lit close-ups and the terrifying Nazis. So we all had a really good time after all.

After that, the Circle people started watching Seven downstairs, so I went and watched a bit of that. It’s a thriller kindof, but I’ve already seen it about 5 times, so it wasn’t as interesting. I went to bed and dreamt of nuns singing and hills that were alive.

Today was just as rainy as yesterday, which is fine by me. We had a goofy little lesson thing in studio, which I used to full advantage by sketching in my sketchbook and trying to figure out what to do for the next individual project. After that, me and Josh went up to Hermes to get a pizza. When we arrived, we were greeted by those 7 girls that I watched the movie with yesterday, so I sat with them and gave them most of my pizza. I’m such a pansy.

Josh went back after a while, and I went out with the girls to get Gelato, which is about time number 6 for those of you counting (LAURA). It was fun. Then we all came home and I worked some more on figuring out my project.

We’re supposed to represent our experience or something involving the project we just finished, the cube one. So I’m thinking of maybe splicing together scenes from movies I have into one rather humorous rendition of what we went through on the project. It should be kinda easy, just because it’s so open ended and completely individual. I’m thinking of turning in an empty can of Sprite filled with napkins. That should sum up my experience nicely.

Tonight we had a dinner of pasta and chicken, which was ok, but not up to the usual high quality of the meals around here. I sat next to Haley, who was the most excited of the 7 girls in the theater last night, and talked about nuns and other related topics. It was quite fun. Then a bunch of us went and watched a much more manly movie, Gladiator, and then gave up for the night. And that was about it.

I’m pretty sure this will be my last blog for at least a week, thanks in part to the fact that I won’t be around a computer anywhere. We’re off to Rome for a week, so you’ll just have to hope that I haven’t been stabbed by Russell Crowe or anything along those lines. Goodnight my friends, and remember: “Sometimes the frost… makes the blade stick. HYAH!”

DAN