Now I Can Write About Music Again :)

So, I've been home for about two and a half weeks and being in America has never felt so strange. I've never actually lived in Budd Lake because we moved here right before I went to school in september. I've had a lot of alone time. A lot of work time and a lot of alone time. Most importantly, I've had a lot of time to find new music. These are some albums I highly suggest for anyone whos anyone and it's summertime. Mainly in a car, alone, trying not to think about boys or friends or anything for that matter. Here it goes. Whoever actually reads this blog will get the download links too.. lucky you :)

Number one- Passion Pit- Manners, recommended to my by my best friend in the world, Ted Karczewski

play this as loud as possible where ever you are
http://www.mediafire.com/?adntk5layk1

Number Two- Discovery- LP, the dudes from Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot come together to make fucked up good beats to sing along to in your car... listen very loud also please.

http://rapidshare.com/files/243279318/Di8LP9.rar

And Number Three- Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, the song "Rome" reminds me of Rome. That's a happy tune.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?uhiozy3tmtm

I hope that at least made one persons day. Then I'll feel ok with myself. By the way, I just got back in to dancing since I've be back from Italy. Ouch.

Bye :)

Arsenale

Me and Christian went to the Arsenale on our last day. I guess this was like an Arsenal, it looked like there were military boats there, apparently people could only go on he Bienalle. Well, the Arsenale was even better than the Giardini and I and So So So happy we went. It was just a lot of interactive art which was amazing. We walk in and there is a room full of glass mirrors shattered. In the next room there was a cabinet full of bread, a bunch of rooms with different colors, free candy, post cards titled "Venice" of pictures of places that were not actually Venice, bags of fake cocain, light-up doors, hoses hanging from ceilings, a diamond Unicorn, juust the craziest stuff you could imagine. It was like a fairytale land. I had a lot lot lot lot of fun. Good for a last day if Venice. We also went to the Gugenheim which wasss not as interesting personally. I like art that isn't art. I like people who can smash a bunch of glass and call it expression.

So we are leaving tomorrow. Throughout this experience I've learned a few things. For one, If you want to learn about how to live your life, leave the country. Just go. I know now more than ever that I need to travel. I just can't wait until I can leave New Jersey again. Another thing is, I should learn a different language, really. Also, i now Know that I can do anything, really. It doesn't matter what I'm doing now or who im with. that all changes in life, if you let it. I'm ready to let it. Cioa Venice :)

Giardini <3

Went to the Giardini on Wednesday.... The Bienalle is amazing. It's so interesting to walk around and see art from all over the world. I went to America, Denmark, Spain, Brazil, Egypt, Australia, The UK, Israel, Venezuela, Russia, just to name a few. Russia was by FAR my favorite. It was creepy. Kind of like a haunted house. Loved it. The way this thing is set up is basically its just a bunch of galleries scattered all over a garden. It's AMAZING. It was the best thing I have been in Venice yet...

When we got there, everyone wanted to sit down and get food so I started to wander around myself, I saw so many countries it was amazing. One of my favorites was a film of random people singing "Revolution" by the Beatles. There were even headphones to put on to hear the sound. It was great. It was like a big playground for art lovers. After that I went back to the apartment and eventually ventured over to the Lido (alone) to get dinner with Becca and her friends. It was good, i had some yummy clams. I miss american food.....

Last Week in Venice :(

Tuesday June 9th, We have class in the morning, and then we go and meet an artist names Gaspare Manos- check him out http://www.gaspare-foundation.com/exhibitions.html this dude is amazing. Very inspirational. I think we were all very shocked by how much he touched each and every one of us. This guy starts out living in Thailand, ends up going to school for economics in London, years later decides he wants to be a painter and is now extremely reputable and famous for his work. plus his work is amazing and he is very charming. <3.>

Rome and Florence

So now i'm about to tell you about the weekend long adventure the 9 of us took to Rome and Florence. First of all, we figured it was cheaper to take an overnight train, so that's what we did. Second of all, we also opted not to go with the beds because they were 20 extra euro, we figured we'd be sleeping anyway.... so to make this long weekend story short ill start from the beginning.
We leave the apartment around 1pm, go to the train station, get our tickets stamped, and wait around a while for the train... meanwhile me and Chelsea go buy a bottle of wine and kill it before we went on . i also got lots of snacks for the trip. so we all get on the train in our designated seats (the trains have like 6 seater booths) me, chel, lucero, and tara get in our 4 seats and we're happy. we're ready to pass out and wake up in Roma. But, oh wait slight problem! The lady at the ticket booth so kindly booked our tickets for the NEXT day, even when I specifically remember pointing on a calender to her the correct date, but anyway, we ALL ended up seat less... all 9 of us... so we all start to sit in the hallway until the conductor told us about some seats that were open. Luckily we got in them and ended up sleeping with some random people, who ended up being very nice. Two of them were around our age, one was in medical school and the other was in the Army, both Italians. It's very interesting meeting new people on trains. There is a lot of time for conversation, that's for sure.


ROMA FINALLY! So we get to the terminal and figure out the metro right away. it helped that Amanda had gone down to Rome the weekend before because otherwise i would have been very confused. our hotel is right by the train station, but when we get there at 8am, they tell us the rooms won't be ready until 2pm... so we all just decided to pass out in the lobby. eventually they opened at least one room and the 9 of us sprawled out and slept until 1pm.

After the big sleepover we decide to venture out into the city. Rome is SO beautiful. I fell in love immediately. It's so warm, there are palm trees everywhere and the view is unreal. We decided to take one of those tour buses where you sit on the top. best idea ever. we got to see everything by just sitting down. we got off and saw the Colosseum and some other things and also got invited to do a few pub crawls whiich we did luckily...but before the pup crawl we got some pasteries that weree amazing looking and tasting, the only problem was the service there... terrible. Then that night the pub crawl happend, which may or may not be appropriate for this blog so i'm leaving that part out (no need to thank me mike and kathy :)

The next day we got back on the red bus and went to see the Vadican City. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I felt very fortunate to be where I was. We found this tour guide (well actually he found us), and he ended up being awesome! I hate tours and I hate listening and standing around, but for 5 euro this guy was great. We saw everything in the Vadican and the chapel. it was beautiful. After that he recomended us to an amazing resturant where we had the best food ever. and lots of wine and lemonchello yumm. we checked out campo de fiore after dinner but everyone was too full to party so we called it a night and woke up for Firenze....

So we take the train to Florence, get to the hotel, and it's pouring rain. pouring. we get some food, i'm wearing my poncho, we try and get another tour bus but its too expensive and Florence is small so we just walked to the market. We all split up and me and chel walked around for a while aimlessly. basically I found a map and we just walked and walked. Florence was very pretty but I wish I had more time there. After the day we went back, drank some vino, got some terrible chinese, and go sing some karaoke. good time. go to sleep, wake up for venice.
we get to the station to go back home to venice.. home haha.... anyway the train ride was hell again, we has to wait for abour 4 hours for the train to come... we played cards forever waiting, and when we got on the train people were in our seats bitching and it took a while for them to leave. they hate americans in italy.
anyway, after all of this I feel like i'm leaving too many things a mess at home, just hope it doesnt blow up when i get back....


"even if you can't speak the language, your heart will speak"

Is Venice Sinking???; Contaminated Communities and an Inconvenient Truth

After reading and discussing Contaminated Communities and talking about psychological, social, and emotional impacts on documented cases of toxic contamination, it really had be thinking about Venice and how my life would be if I was a real Venetian. The people who live here are in a constant battle; they need to choose to believe that Venice will eventually be underwater, or they can choose to ignore it. I honestly don't know how I could feel if I knew that the city I lived in was in constant danger. When the high tide arrives in Venice, usually in the winter, Venice becomes totally flooded with water. This causes damage to the city and disruption to it's in habitants. Even walking around looking at the buildings you can see the bottoms of them being rotted away by the salt water. In this WiseGeek article by Gary Crystal I found online (http://www.wisegeek.com/is-venice-sinking.htm), it claims that "Over the last 1,000 years, it has sun by around seven centimeters for every century, but recent reports have stated that in the last century alone, the city of Venice has lowered by around 24 centimeters. This may have more to do with global warming and the melting polar ice caps than with Venice Sinking alone"(Crystal). He goes on to say that global warming is an issue and a huge concern for any costal cities or cities built on Islands. Venice is now considering making huge steel gates to block the floods (which we'll see tomorrow at Punta Laguna). After learning all of this I am really appreciating being here, since it may be the last chance I get.

We also had a chance to watch Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". Now I saw this movie a few years ago when it first came out, but I'm happy I got a chance to see it again, because this time I was really taking into consideration the place that I am living in. In the film, Al Gore tries to address the public about the climate crisis. He talks about the political affects on Global Warming as well. It made me really try and relate Venice to Katrina. What if some sort of huge flood came over Venice and killed hundreds of people? Where could the inhabitants go and could be city be rebuilt? Does the city need to be evacuated at some point? After we watched "An Inconvenient Truth" we saw some short films that the people over at Punta Laguna gave us. I saw what Venice looked like in the winter with the floods. A friend of mine was here in the winter and told me she has to bring rain boots and walk around in water the entire time. Scary. I just hope we can find a way to save the city.

San Rocco/ Ca'd'oro/ Murano

On Tuesday, we visited the San Rocco church. Marina brought us there and lectured outside before we went in. I learned about the Squale Grade which was for the wealthiest merchants in Venice. You had to prove your family had been in Venice for Centuries to get in. We learned about when Constantine elected Christ as God and the Doge, who was the Duke, or the head of the government in Venice. He represented San Marc. San Rocco is seen at the Top of the Squale with his leg showing his wounds. Inside the Church, there are paintings all over the place. These were by Tintoretto and are found in the Sala Dell'Albergo. The Paintings were beautiful and I could not take my eyes off them. They gave you mirrors so you could walk around looking at the celling. The artwork of Tintoretto was amazing. Luckily after a lifetime of Sunday school, I was able to tell what some of the scenes from the bible were. My favorite one was a huge celling picture of Jona being spit back up by a whale.
After San Rocco we headed over to Ca'd'oro. There we went into this tiny museum with Marina. I wasn't extremly impressed with anything in there because I am more of a modern art fan, the museum is an ancient patrician palace, which houses precious art given to Baron Giorgio Franchetti, who donated it to the Italians in 1894. The museum was very small and we went through it quickly.
After, we went to Murano, the glass capital of Italy. I loved everything about Murano. Right when we got there we saw a glass blowing. It's an amzing artwork. We saw them burn, blow and shape the glass right in front of us. We also got to shop around a lot , but everything was very expensive. I got a couple gifts for my family but that was about it. Murano is a beautiful little part of Venice, I loved it.

Monday June 1st- A Venetian Lecture

On Monday we got up early and went over to the University to see a real Italian Lecture. Of course it took forever for everyone to get out of the apartment and we ended up being late for the class. Strolling in late for this lecture was very embarrassing. It seemed like no one else was coming in after us. The school itself was actually not very different from how a college would be in the states. It's different than Ramapo because of the class size, but that's just because we go to a small school. For one, at Ramapo we have no problem rolling out of bed in our sweats, un-showered with messy hair, hungover from the night before. We also all have our laptops and type away at whatever the professor is saying. In Italy, everyone is dressed nicely, looking like they are ready for the day. Also, I could not even see what the professor looked like from all the way in the back of the room. There were microphones so we could hear him. Although I had a hard time understanding, I could see the respect the classroom had for him. People were taking pictures and no one was asking questions until the end. At Ramapo, all of my classes are discussions. We sit at a round table and basically have talks about whatever the subject may be. People talk without even raising their hands most of the time. Also, the seats were all extremely close together and if you needed to get out, your entire row had to get up and let you. At ramapo, I get up and go to the bathroom as I please. Also, no one was eating in the classroom. At Ramapo I usually have a water bottle and a snack, sometimes even my whole lunch. Although I pretty much had no idea what was going on during the lecture, it was very interesting to notice the differences in the schools. 

Cultural Diffrences

Just a little spiel about the cultural differences here: On monday we had a long discussion about the Hall reading and personal space. People here are not afraid to get very close to you. Especially on the Vaporetto, people are right up next to you and it doesn't bother them a bit. It's extremely uncomfortable sometimes. Things are very culturally different here than they are at home in America. Day after day I am noticing more and more little thing that go on here that we think are so strange. For instance the issue of homosexuality. Here in Italy, if a man is wearing tight jeans and a tight t-shirt and walking around with a purse, that is totally strait and normal. At home, that man would be automatically flagged as a homosexual. Men here have no problem linking arms and being close to one another. In America a man would have to fight to defend his sexuality. Also hygiene is completely different. Here people smell. Or they do to me anyway. No one seems to know what deodorant is here. We have been raised completely different. Also, I have been finding more and more that Venetians are extremely rude to Americans sometimes. Whenever we go out to eat, we are not allowed to have tap water. We are charged for bread and when asked for oil or vinegar they tell us they don't have any. They also refuse to give change or split up checks. Things like this have been happening constantly. It makes me think Venetians hate Americans.

The Italian Apls <3

This past weekend, we were able to take a train up to the Italian Alps to a town called Belluno. We left the apartment at 6:30 to get on a 4 hour train to the mountains. The ride itself was beautiful!  Stepping away from the city and seeing nature for the first time in a couple of weeks was amazing. Just breathing in the clean and fresh air made me feel a million times healthier and cleaner. We were located in the Dolomite region right on the bottom of the Apls. Everything, and I mean everything was green and blue. When we first arrived we met up with Marina's cousin who would be taking us on our trips. We checked into the hostel first thing, which everyone was  a little skeptical about. I personally didn't find that all that bad. But some of the girls were freaking out wanting to get a hotel and blah blah blah, it was a little ridiculous to me, but it ended up not being too bad, because me and chelsea shared a double room which was a tad creepy but it was really fine. The only strange thing about it was that there was a curfew. We had to be back into the room by 11:30 or they locked us out. The place looked like an old convent or something. Very strange, but we made due. The worst thing about it I think was the food. The hostel cafeteria made me want to throw up, no joke. It was disgusting. But luckily we got some good pizza for dinner so that was good. 

After checking in and eating we took a small bus up to a melting glacier called Marmolada. The bus ride was very long and it took us higher and higher up the mountains. It was beautiful but I was hoping we could have done a little hiking but that didn't happen. Chel

sea got sick on the ride up which was no fun but luckily we were able to pull over somewhere and get changed a euro for a cup of water. Damn. Once we g

ot all the way up to our destination it ended up being a ski resort which made me really want to ski. Hopefully sometime in my life I can go back there. Once we got to the glacier we got out of the bus and took pictures. We learned that it was melting over time and we also learned how the towns were being effected by the landslides due to global warming. It must be scary to live in fear like that. The place was beautiful and we spent about 20 minutes just taking pictures.

We drove back to Belluno and stopped for some yummy gelato. We had a long lecture outside the hostel and finally were able to get some sleep. The next morning we woke up and headed to a damn which we learned once destroyed an entire village in Italy. It's insane how something man made can destroy the people who made it. After the long trip we headed back to Venice and went out to San Margerita. It felt good to be home.