today in anthro my teacher asked a question, which doesn't happen often since it's a big lecture class, and i actually raised my hand and got the answer! before italians! it wasn't a particularly difficult question, but i was ridiculously proud of myself for really speaking out loud at all in a class here.

yesterday i walked by a shop window with a display of a RIDICULOUS amount of porcini mushrooms, and i was like whoa, that is an enormous amount of funghi. then i realized that the WHOLE SHOP was devoted to mushrooms. a mushroom shop. totally normal. the sign over it said "profumeria: the sweet perfume of porcini mushrooms" in italian. i'm going back to take a picture at some point.

my salsa lesson yesterday was disappointing and meh, but i won't bother going into the details of why because it's not that interesting. however! afterwards i went to a discoteca that was having a salsa night, and it made up for absolutely everything the lesson was lacking. i have never been to a dance where all the guys were experts and were showing the ladies what to do. i have also never been so well salsa'd in my life! i learned a new style called "bachata", which is sort of like latin america's response to the blues. the whole evening was also free, because i didn't buy any drinks. unfortunately the club was reeeeally far away from my apartment, so i had to walk for quite a bit after dancing all night.

tomorrow i'm going to modena and parma for the afternoon with laurel, which should be cool. i'm looking forward to an exquisite lunch, because parma is famous for parmesan cheese, parma ham, and balsamic vinegar. oh yes. i've been planning a visit for quite some time now. :)

next week my contemporary history of europe class ends and my philosophy of music class begins! that means there's a history exam in my near future, but i'm not sure exactly when. hm.

i washed my hair today and my new haircut is still working out. my perm has grown out enough that the bangs only curl a little bit naturally, and didn't prove to be much of a problem to make presentable.

got the grade for my grammar/culture pre-session course, and i got a 29! translating from the voodoo that is the italian grading system, that's about a 97%. woo!

today i have anthro class and a salsa lesson! i'm pretty excited. i realized i don't have any dancing shoes with me, but i'm sure i can figure something out. see mom? i didn't bring enough shoes!

the other day i saw this movie called "Italians", and it was by an italian director and in italian and didn't involve any english speaking countries, so i'm not sure why the title was in english. all in all i didn't like it that much. it was split into two parts that had absolutely NOTHING to do with each other. both halves had cop-out endings that were unrelated to the plot. there was a drag race between two ferrari 430s though in the first part. i enjoyed that immensely.

hello world. today i made a huge leap in the world of hairstyles and got bangs for the first time since age six. my inspiration photos that i brought to the hair salon (called FABIO, how appropriate) were of anna friel (chuck from pushing daisies), zooey deschanel (from yes man) and mary jane from the old spiderman comics.







i figured either they would be horrible and then guys would finally leave me alone, or they would be great and i'd be happy about that. the amount of relief i feel because of how much i like them makes me realize that i really thought they would be AWFUL.

the mcdonalds next door includes a "mcroyal" and "chicken mythic" on their menu. are these new in the USA or are they just weird? chicken mythic sounds awesome, i may need to try one.

yesterday i had my first italian theater class, and it was fairly interesting. the teacher is easy to understand, which is nice. we played a little improv game at the end of class, which was terrifying, because it was improv in italian.

this morning i couldn't bring myself to eat the rest of my oranges, so i made fresh orange juice instead! they were tarocco oranges, so it was closer to blood orange juice, but still delicious.

thursday laurel and i are going to a free trial salsa class, and if i like it i'm going to sign up for lessons. they have three levels, so i may be able to learn some awesome new things.

this morning i also signed up for a wine "lesson" on march 5. basically you go to an enoteca (wine bar) and they let you try different kinds of wine and tell you all about them. not entirely sure what to expect, but it should be interesting!

there is a LOT of racism in italy. :T a lot a lot. my history teacher spent a pretty significant time badmouthing the united states today, i was not really into that at all. yesterday when hilary and i were walking down the street speaking in english, this guy (adult) was like HEYYYYYYY AMERICANS YEAH HOW'S YOUR *bleep* PRESIDENT DOING. how charming. to be fair they hate lots of other countries, not just america. arg.

today will always be considered my greatest downfall, because i didn't bring my camera with me.

i walked out of my apartment planning on a harmless walk around town, when i heard a song from star wars echoing through the streets. i started walking toward it when it switched to a high school musical song. thoroughly intrigued, i kept walking, and then stumbled upon the CARNEVALE FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN.

it was the CUTEST thing i have ever seen. so cute that i can't stop using CAPSLOCK.

little kids in costumes everywhere, floats (including one with an aladdin theme), confetti (so much confetti), COTTON CANDY, lots of music, live bands here and there, a royal procession, oh my god. amazing. thank god i decided to take a walk today.

yesterday i saw someone famous! i don't know who it was, but he had a big bus, a van, and a police escort into his hotel, not to mention bunches of fans taking pictures and freaking out. i was just trying to walk home and somehow got pushed right up to the front, so i saw whoever it was in the flesh! :P

after that i went to a cafe/restaurant for dinner which is supposed to be THE happening place, but the food sucked and the service was worse.
C---, would not eat there again unless absolutely necessary.

thursday night i went to the "irish pub" here with laurel, which was awesome. the music alternated between good and hilariously lame. they had standard american fare, like chicken nuggets (dubbed "crok chicken" and thankfully breaded with corn flakes and cornmeal instead of breadcrumbs), hamburgers, and french fries.

today i took some time to relax since i had nothing to do and had the apartment to myself, so i spent a long time on the balcony garden eating fruit and reading. pretty idyllic. the balcony is always much warmer than it is anywhere else, even in the park, since our balcony is above all the other roofs and directly in the sun. walking around town is still freezing, since the porticoes keep everything constantly in the shade.

speaking of eating fruit, 80 or 90 percent of everything i eat is now fruit!* my junk food and carb consumption has been really out of hand, so i'm trying a wheat-free and delicious alternative with enough sugar to satisfy my sweet tooth. mostly apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, rice, peanut butter, and granola/nut bar things. i'm also drinking more milk and orange juice instead of soda. don't get me wrong i still drink a lot of soda, but i'm broadening my beverage horizons. i still don't really ever drink water. maybe one day.

tonight i will probably be going to a discoteca for a carnevale themed dance, so that should be fun. not sure what i'll be doing tomorrow, probably something similar to what i did today!

*there was no math used in the creation of these statistics.