This post was going to go up several days ago, but computer problems have gotten in the way. The school computers have been unbeleivably slow, and then the charger on my laptop broke. To buy a new one from apple would mean paying $70, a ton of shipping and customs, and hoping they'll send it to me in Italy. Buying from the Italian store would run me 90€, or about $120. Ebay doesn't have the kind I need, just the really outdated ones that I don't trust, and Amazon won't ship it to me, because I'd have to buy it off the marketplace. I even tried the UK store, and the french one,and if they even have a seller with it in stock, then they want about the same as apple.com.
I will not rant. I will not rant.
I need to remember not to blog when I'm pissed off. But then, I'd probably never blog at all, would I? If only my original name for the blog wasn't taken. Damknit suited me so much better than KnotMagick.
Again, I am ranting.
Yesterday I went on a tour of the Medici villas and their gardens with my art history class. The first six hours of the tour wasn't bad, even if we had to be at the bus station by 7:20 am, but the gardens were lovely and I was so happy to see trees I almost asked one of my classmates to take a picture of me hugging one of them. Thankfully, I restrained. There is already enough evidence of my dorkdom floating around.
The second half of the trip, we went to museum after museum dedicated to Leonardo da Vici. Honestly, I'm sick of hearing about him. I had a week of class dedicated to him in high school, several art history lessons at CCAD, and we'll be having our third class on him on Monday. Please, no more da Vinci!
We got back around 7:30 pm. I was hungry--all day we'd only had one break, a half hour for lunch, in which I scarfed down a nutella sandwich, some clemontines, and a couple of cookies. Alice was a lifesaver who thought ahead and bought me a sandwhich from the snackbar downstairs before they closed.
I've gotten back to writing, picking up a story from this summer based in Montreal. Of course, right as I start writing again is when my charger breaks. Wouldn't you know it? Anyway, Florence and yesterday's tours have been inspiring for that, so I have a bit of research to do now.
I keep trying to be open minded. This is an adventure, right? My chance to get out of Columbus, see someplace new and different, historical and beautiful.
But I keep wishing I was back home. Don't ask me why. I was so ready to be gone. But I find that the only way I can really tollerate Florence is to pretend it's Old Montreal, which only gets me so far and only works at certain times in certain areas.
I tell myself that it will get better, and it will adjust. Already this week has been easier than last week. A few more days, and I will be fine. When I was in Montreal, the first week or two was horrible, and all I wanted was to curl up in bed until the plane arrived to take me home. I find myself wanting to do the same thing now.
I like the new part of the city better. We drove through it yesterday. The streets are broader and there are some trees along them, and there are more parks. I can breathe there, even if there is more traffic and there's a more industrial feel to it.
On the bright side, textiles are huge here. I walked through the market on Friday, and every other vender was selling either leather or knitted garments (machine made, but whatever. Still pretty), or woven scarves. They were all beautiful, and I'd have loved to examine them, but the vendors were really pushy. It's a general rule that you don't stop unless you are planning to buy.
I'm already thinking I might write my term paper on textiles. Florence was really big on that, and there's another town not too far away that still specializes in lace making.
I've also been doing research on schools. Obviously, I am no longer planning on staying in Europe. It's neat here, but it's not me. I'm going to explore, hopefully get to see Paris at the very least, but I'll be leaving in April. I started looking at Concordia University in Montreal. They have a fine art program, but it only accepts about 28 students a year, so I'm thinking of applying to the textiles program and getting another degree. I've never felt as at home as I did under the shadow of Mount Royal, and I know it will be easier for me to move up there if I go as a student. Of course, dual citizenship has it's perks.
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