MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas in December! CHEERS!!

3 x 5

I've grown weary and continuously more unable to fit the world in the naive box in which I used to held it captive. I ran into a conclusion earlier today, one that although I hate to consider is only the divine truth.
(Just a little background on the story so that it makes more sense)
I attend a literature class here in spain taught by a family friend, let's just say we go way back! As the story goes, I had been in this class so far with no major complaints, besides his incomprehensible habit of not wearing deodorant and being able to sweat through two shirts and a sweatshirt by the end of class. He is a man of simplistic views and understandable only because of his major! Seems like all literature majors are people with idealistic views on life and others. I came to test week and although we had all explained to him that he had not covered the information he expected us to regurgitate adequately we still felt like we should still take the test.
Last night I studied for a couple hours with friends and was beginning to get in the studying-roll when curfew hit and we had to retrieve to our rooms. From there everything went down hill. I guess I had just been working so hard and had been so stressed and I hadn't know it until I talked to my mom, my world broke apart. Horrible news hit me from all sides and I couldn't take it! Shortly after I spoke with a old and she told me the condition of friends back at home! Things were really not holding up for me by then! Thinking it would be the wisest thing, I tried to go to sleep but didn't reach any sort of rest until about 4 am.
Mortified by my turn of events I assumed that my teacher would comprehend. As I spoke with him, tears streaming down my checks my worst fear came true. He looked me straight in the eyes and said... well if you fail... you fail! My response was a blank stare! I was dumbfounded by his immediate response and his lack of understanding! I want you to understand that is class is the biggest joke! We don't do anything and when we have class we just talk about his ideals and why he thinks spirituality is so important.
With no other remedy I worked up the strength and followed him to class. I prayed for wisdom in what I hadn't been able to study, but the moment that he put that test on my desk I blanked. My tears had no other place to go but down my face and unto my lap! The sobbing chokes kept me from breathing and I darted out of class. I have never felt more useless in my life!!
All this from a man who spoke to us all quarter about brotherly love. A man who day after day pounded the fruitful idea of understanding into our brains. I've not only been disappointed in this man but so many others that when the time comes to show their true colors, truly do, and it's disappointing.
I've been working on giving all the benefit of the doubt this year! It's kinda of my goal in improving who I am! It's proven helpful many times, but other times I feel taken advantage of. This man not only let me see how hypocritically most people live their lives but he proved to me that no is who they seem to be.

Broken Pinky! Simply thanks giving!

This thanksgiving I gave thanks for so many things!
. Friends in spain
. Family (even though they are millions of miles away)
. Oso (although he is terribly sick)
. Friends (basically my second family, that are also far away) . thanksgiving party.
. warm hugs.
. Amanda Ward coming to visit me
. football games (two hand touch, oh boys)
. becoming friends with my neighbors
. simplicity
. My elementary kids

...and then... I broke my finger! Just another blessing! I love these moment for its just another reason to laugh and share memories with friends!

Where do dreams go?

Just a little movie made by yours truly for an upcoming speech! Enjoy

Ciao Italia. prego

Our luck started and ended when Victoria (my friend studying here from Union) dropped her camera down the tile stairs and it shattered right before we left the dorm. From there we got lost on the way to the airport and almost had to pay for our over sized luggage on the ridiculously tinny plane. Ryanair is a stingy airline because they took just about every liquid that Vicky had in her carry on bag, mostly hair products. The passengers were surprisingly upbeat and almost started to scare me when they cheered as we landed!
Do these planes not make it down safely that often?
Once retrieving our bags we found our bus and took it from Pisa to Florence and arrived two minutes too late to catch the next bus taking us to the school we would be staying at for the night. There was no other remedy but to get a taxi who charged us a ridiculous 17.20 euros for a four minute ride. When we arrived at the school, but found there was no one there to greet us and we ended up sneaking into the and sleeping on some sketchy coaches!
Day 2.
Waking up early was no idea of mine, but we had to sneak back out with out being seen so as to not have to pay for the night stay, we managed, plus free breakfast. That morning consisted of finding our new hostel, settling in, and seeing those sites searched for. We spend most the day by the Duomo, the gates of paradise, Piazza Dela Signoria, and the Accadamia (the David)! At a neat coffee shop we ran into Mateo who informed us about his business. He was a leather designer and told us if we came by his store the next day he would give us leather jackets. We found it sketchy but decided to leave it for the next day to worry about.
Day 3.
Allyson and I woke up early the next morning and found ourselves hurrying through the streets to be first in line for the Uffizi. It was a beautiful gallery containing the works of Michael Angelo, Botacheli (birth of venus), Titin (venus of verbino) amongst others. We had to hurry back to the hostel to meet up with Vicky and check and into our new hostel. It took longer than expected and we almost didn't make it to "leather coat guy's" store!(that's what we ended up calling Mateo) Well he didn't give us a free leather coat but he sure gave us a discount, from 560 euros to 140 euros. I chose to not buy one, I mean it's a steal but i passed! On the way out from shopping we ran into the other group of friends that came from Sagunto college and we hang out with them for the rest of the night.
Day 4.
Sleeping in could not have felt any better! Between the walking we had done the last few days and the stress of traveling I was worn out, so I didn't even bother getting up early. We did take advantage of the afternoon though and visited Micheal Angelo's piazze. It over looked Florence and shown the cities radiance all the more clearer, so we sat and enjoyed the sun and journaled for a good while. From there it was back to shopping and I finally found a pair of leather boots that made me very happy.
Day 5
We leave Florence finally! Needless to say we were more than ready to hit the road back to spain. Although we had enjoyed Florence we found Italians, as a race, completely impatient and rude, their manners were unsettling and far beyond our understanding. Packing our things we headed to Pisa the home of the leaning tower. Once in Pisa we took some ridiculous touristy pictures and laughed about our tough fortune. Time flew by and before we knew it we had paid way too much to check our burdening travel packs and were cheering once again with the rest of the passengers on our flight back home. I will never understand the reasoning behind that phenomenon. I will finish the quickest I can by saying we arrived and had no ride waiting for us, so we had to take a taxi which came out to be 46 euros.
The trip summarized in one word would most likely be, Eventful! I did enjoy myself very much and although it was fairly stressful at times we did take the time to stop several times to take a breathe and remember we were in Italy! Each trip brings me so much more wisdom than the last! There are way too many details that could only be told by word of mouth other wise this would be a book, but all in all I did make it to Italy and back alive. Whether I idolized it before it has changed my life now and for ever will I remember those short but well lived November days.