Hey everybody.

It's been a while I know.  I'm a couple of events behind, but I figure it's better to write about what's fresh in my mind right now, so I'll give you a run down of my trip to Cordoba to see Elliott last weekend right now, and catch you up on previous travels later.  

Also, don't mind my somewhat incoherent writing - I've been struggling to write a paper all day and although I've finally started getting somewhere, (yay!) I'm kind of out of brain juice.  What better time to attend to my long-neglected blog, eh?

Well anyways.  So last weekend I hopped on a teeny plane at Florence's equally teeny Amerigo Vespucci airport.  After a somewhat bumpy, but rather stunning flight over the various coastal mountain ranges of Italy, France, and northern Spain, I arrived at Madrid's beautiful international airport.  I was very impressed with Terminal 4, but I can't say much about Madrid itself because it wasn't my destination.  I caught a taxi right from the airport to the Atocha train station, which was probably the coolest train station I've ever seen.  Kudos to the architect that decided to plant a small rainforest inside the building, complete with a lily-pad covered pond inhabited by many lazy turtles.

I took the AVE (Spain's high speed train) from Madrid to Cordoba.  It was probably the nicest train I've ever been on, quiet, spotlessly clean, and fast!  The whole journey took just under two hours, at an average speeds of 250(!) km per hour.  The countryside flying past my window was truly beautiful - miles and miles of olive groves and cork forest, all underlain by green green grass.  I expected a much more arid environment for some reason, so after the cobblestones of Florence the lush green was anice surprise. (unfortunately, the train was going so fast I couldn't take a picture for you!)

I arrived in Cordoba safe and sound, to be greeted by Elliott and Ben, who was visiting from Madrid.  It was great to see both of them - it's been a while!  Ell showed Ben and I around the city after we dropped my stuff off at his apartment - the weather was beautiful, and we knew it wasn't gong to last!  Rain was forecasted for the rest of the weekend, but that afternoon was perfectly sunny and warm.

Cordoba seemed very relaxed to me - cars stopped at crosswalks, and the general pace of life seemed a little slower than that of Florence...although I did arrive during siesta, which is definitely not one of the high energy points of any day!  Most of the city is quite modern, with unremarkable apartment buildings and shop windows, but literally every street is lined with beautiful orange trees full of fruit.  I also saw alot of nice public spaces, and in general it seems like a very pleasant place to live.

Once we arrived at the historical old part of the city, however, I found the image of Spain that I had had in my mind previously: narrow winding streets lined with white-washed houses overflowing with flowers.  The old city was lovely.  The heritage of Cordoba's Moorish conquerors was everywhere: from the patterned doors on tiny old houses to the cobblestones beneath our feet.  A few streets were more like stairs and there were nice little plazas everywhere shaded by the ever-present orange trees.  Here are some pictures to give you an idea:

After seeing a handful of other sites - the old Roman Bridge, for example, and the adjacent tower, we headed back to get ready to go out for some tapas with some of Ell's friends.  Hanging out spanish style is fun - talking for hours while refueling constantly with tasty snacks - perfect!

Ben headed back the next morning, and a combination of persistent rain and my stubborn flu kept Elliott and I close to home the next day.  We did venture out during a dry spell to see Cordoba's famous Mezquita, a beautiful mosque, now converted into a cathedral (naturally) in the center of the old city.  The history is fascinating, but this post is too long already, so ask Elliott (he knows alot more than I do about it anyway).  Here are some pictures, which don't really do it justice:

Also, the day we went to the Mezquita seemed to be a some sort of festival requiring the presence of at least 6 full marching bands, which arrived from all corners of the old city to play in the Mezquita's beautiful Courtyard of the Oranges.  So that was strange, and interesting.

Anyhow, this was a long and somewhat disorganized post, and I didn't cover everything, but basically it was a great trip, and I'm looking forward to visiting again at the end of my classes here in Italy!  

I hope everyone's doing well and I'll post soon about my trip to Rome (which happened in mid-March - sorry guys, I hope this doesn't make your brains explode!)  

Love meagan

Supermarket Woes

Hey guys.

Don't worry, I'm not going to go from being post-negligent to post-obsessed, but I thought I'd share this story because it's making me laugh, anyway.

So I went to the supermarket today to buy stuff to make pancakes (yay!) tomorrow for my landlords and their friends.  The supermarket was insanely crowded, and I kind of buzzed through the isles at high speed trying to get what I needed and get out as soon as possible.  

On my way to the register I grabbed a packet of pantyliners because I'd run out.  I didn't look too closely but they seemed pretty normal.  An older gent rang up my purchase and I left.  In general, pretty painless.

It wasn't until I got home and was putting my groceries away that I realized that I had in fact purchased pantyliners intended for use by people with bladder incontinence.

Whoops.

If you think getting your tampons rung up by some dude at the supermarket, wait until you buy Depends at the age of 19. 

All the old people I was in line with must have thought I was crazy.

But anyhow.  The weather here is beautiful, and I've had a great day getting veggies at the market, getting ready for the Festival of the Pancakes, and talking to friends.  I hope you're all well!

The Second Post Arrives

Sorry guys.

I know it's been almost exactly a month since my last post.  The truth is, I wrote one about a week after my first one, and blogger.com seized up and refused to post my post and decided to erase it instead.  After that, I hated the idea of rewriting that post so much that I procrastinated for a month.  But I've decided to just scrap that one and move forward.  It really wasn't that interesting anyway.  If you're curious, you can send me an email.  Basically I got lost on the bus.

But anyway, for the last month I've basically just been settling here.  I've been having fun just living - shopping, cooking, going to class, etc.  - mundane things which are somehow more exciting just because I am doing them in a beautiful European city and speaking in Italian instead of English.

But I've done some cool things - many of them when Elliott was here visiting last weekend, which was awesome.  I know most of you probably already got the scoop from him, so I'll try not to overlap too much.  And I have pictures too!  (although I don't have that fancy panoramic picture option - you'll have to see his blog for that business).  To start out, here's a picture showing the dam in the middle of the Arno that we hung out on one afternoon:

As you probably gathered from Elliott's blog, we climbed up Brunelleschi's dome while he was here.  If you don't know about the dome, it's basically the cupola of Florence's main cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, commonly known as the Duomo.  The cool thing about it is that the many architects before Brunelleschi tried to construct the dome for this church, but they just couldn't figure it out.  It was just too big.  Finally, Brunelleschi took on the challenge.  He was successful (obviously), but even today we don't know how he did it.  He was kinda paranoid, and burned all his plans so that people wouldn't copy his genius.  The dome was also apparently constructed without the use of scaffolding, which blows my mind.

Anyways, the dome is actually a big dome with a smaller one inside, and for a fee you can climb up between the two through this tiny little passageway.  It's one of those classically touristy things to do in Florence, but it's just so cool.  I think that's a good way to describe Florence in general actually: even the masses of somewhat obnoxious tourists can't bring down how cool a place it is - the history here is just so vivid.

Here's a view from the top, with the Campanile (belltower) in the foreground:

Well anyways, that was fun, although kinda scary.  The passageway is very narrow, and it got pretty claustrophobic when the 10 or so people going up met the 20 or so people coming down...but it was totally worth it.  Luckily there are teeny tiny windows every now and then...and we passed one that perfectly framed the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio: 

Another place I've been (twice now I guess) is Piazzale Michaelangel0, and the beautiful church above it, San Miniato al Monte.  The piazzale is lovely, with a beautiful view of the city, but you heard/saw about that on Elliott's blog, so I'll tell you about the church.  It's even higher up then the piazzale, and you have to climb these giant Aztec temple sacrificial-esque stairs to get there.  The facade, in green and white marble, is beautiful - complex, but not over-done like the facade of the Duomo.  Inside, the sanctuary is dark and cool, and every surface is covered with geometric patterns, frescoes, and carvings in marble.  Even the ceiling high above is painted in primary colors.  Despite all the decoration, the effect is still somehow harmonious.  The whole place is very peaceful and clean-feeling, high on a hill above the busy, sometimes muggy city.

That was a long post.  Sorry about that.  But I haven't written in a month, so I thought I'd put some details in there for you.  But from now on, I'll be writing weekly (or something like that) so I'll try to keep things short and sweet.  I have a bunch of pictures, so I'll put them in as I go.  Disclaimer: descriptions of buildings/things I've done probably won't go in chronological order. 

Well, that's it for now.  I'll leave you with this cool door-knocker I found in San Frenediano:

Exploring

Hey everybody.

So I thought I'd make a blog, mostly because I really enjoy everybody else's.  So I thought I'd contribute, although my stories may be more cringe-inducing than entertaining - we'll see.  But I figured some of you would like to be kept posted, so here it all is.

I arrived in Florence yesterday at about one in the afternoon.  When I got of the plane it was raining, but it felt so good to be on solid ground in a real place (not an airport) that I could have cared less.  Even sopping wet, Florence is incredibly beautiful.  I took a taxi to my apartment, which was enough to convince me that driving in Florence is a bad idea.  My taxi driver maneuvered his small car in creative ways around the construction sites, vespas and buses creatively, using pathways such as sidewalks in ways that I would not have though of.  There was only one near collision, which was apparently caused by the fact that the other driver didn't know how to drive.

We arrived safely though, and as soon as I walked into the apartment belonging to Jozef and Carlotta that I will be living in, I knew it was going to be a good place to call home.  After sharing some awesome food with them, I took and nap, unpacked, and generally decided to wait until the next day to do anything particularly exciting.

Unfortunately, I made the foolish decision to not set an alarm.  I figured that I had nowhere to be in the morning, and that I was tired from traveling, so it would be good to sleep late.  And anyway, how late could I possibly sleep? 

I woke up at 2 in the afternoon.  After my initial horror, I moved fast and went to explore the city.  I stopped at a gelateria close to my apartment and, with Angie in mind, tasted my first ever yogurt gelato.  It was fantastic, and has me wondering whether yogurt gelato every morning is the same as yogurt every morning.  I mean, yogurt every morning is good for you, right?

The light in the city this afternoon was beautiful, the kind of clear, clean light you get after a storm passes.  In the distance, you could still see the storm clouds moving away to the mountains.  People were taking pictures everywhere, tourists and Italians alike.  Even in February, there are alot of tourists.  It's a little startling, to hear so much english in an Italian city.  I haven't had any problems with people not wanting to speak Italian with me, though, so I think that Florence's status as a tourist destination will only be a bit of a nuisance.

This was long!  Basically, it is good to be here, and I'm starting to adjust to the big city.  Hopefully I can explore more tomorrow, and I can't wait to visit il mercato centrale on Monday to buy some food!  

Mmm, food...