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24 October 2012

My Italian Love Affair... With a Building

This will never get old. No matter how many times I see it. The Duomo is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen. And in the afternoon when the square sits in the shade and the late sun hits the front of the Duomo? Well, you'll just have to come and visit me to see it in person. Oh, snap.





15 October 2012

Venezia. YOLO!

FINALLY! I have been wanting to go to Venezia since I did a report on this magical city of canals and gondolas when I was just a little girl (I know, just a few years ago!).

True: I spent a whole year in Italy 10 years ago and never went to Venice. I was 18 and more focused on partying every weekend. Give a girl a break.

But the stars aligned this year, and one of my best friends (Chica!), was sent to Venice for work. Obviously, I had to go meet her, and we spent an awesome weekend riding crowded boats, eating amazing food, climbing many stairs, and getting lost in Venice. Her parents came with her, so I felt like I had a really important role and could play translator for the weekend. Totally unnecessary. EVERYONE speaks English in Venice. Even if you speak to them in Italian. And because I'm stubborn, I kept replying in Italian... and they kept replying in English. I'm nothing if not persistent.
I'm on a boat!
When I arrived on Saturday, I left the station for my first look at Venezia. Beaut. About 30 seconds after I took this photo, the skies opened and the square emptied out. Side bar - I'll admit that the weather here is much better than Vancouver in terms of how many days it rains, but on the other hand, the way it rains here is sometimes a bit of a shocker. One minute it's dry, and the next minute you're drenched if you're unlucky enough to be caught without cover. It only lasts for 10 minutes or so, but it happens all the time!
Pre-Rainstorm
Saturday was pretty rainy, but at least that meant fewer tourists. Sunday was a gorgeous day, but Piazza San Marco (please don't call it St. Mark's square) was PACKED. As was the Rialto bridge and market areas.
The Rialto bridge would be covered in graffiti...
The picture doesn't really capture the crowds, but they were there!
Oh, and it was high tide on Sunday! This helped us understand what we thought were runways all over the little alleys. In fact, they're elevated walkways for when the city really floods. I prefer to remember them as runways though. Here's the flooding that we saw, but the article shows it was much worse just a few days later!
Water, water, everywhere!
It was such a great weekend, but I'll definitely be trying to get back to Venice one weekend when the tourist crowds have died down a little bit. I fell in love with the little things, like narrow winding alleys, alleys that actually appear to get narrower at the top, and gems of buildings like the one on the middle left.

Word of the weekend: YOLO


8 October 2012

Thanksgiving a Milano

I love Thanksgiving. What I don't love is that I have to read about the delicious turkey and pumpkin pie that all of you are eating back home, and how you get to sleep off your food comas the next day because of the holiday Monday.

In Italy, we don't get turkey. We don't get a holiday. We don't get pumpkin pie. (Although I have seen ads for the American Thanksgiving dinner put on by a local restaurant).

Luckily, I have an amazing roommate who isn't fazed by things such as cooking a 10 course meal, or what to do when she can't find the ingredients she needs. Thanks to her, we had Canadian Thanksgiving in Milano!!
Yep. See it, love it, drool, and be jealous. Two key substitutions were chicken instead of turkey (no huge deal), and grapes instead of cranberries (a pleasant surprise!).

Overall, I'm THANKFUL that I was able to post my own photo of Thanksgiving dinner, even if I did have to go to school the next day...

5 October 2012

Trend Forecasting Homework

Well, life as a fashion student is really, really tough.

I have a HUGE homework assignment this week. I have to watch EVERY fashion show from the four major fashion weeks, pull a few signature items, and make a trends report.

It sounds like a blast, but that's a whole month's worth of fashion shows that I have to watch in a week, and then scrapbook together the top trends.

I repeat, life as a fashion student is really, really tough.

4 October 2012

My First Week As A Fashion Student

The first week of classes is over, and it's only Thursday! I'm blessed with a really great schedule this term. I start classes at 5:30pm on Monday, and finish at 2pm on Thursday.

Wednesdays are the worst because we have class from 8:30am until 5:30pm. My roommate and I have discussed how we used to regularly work longer days without a problem, but for some reason, long days as a student are just really exhausting!

Classes are going well. I've officially switched to do the program in Italian, but we usually end up speaking English in class anyway just due to there being very few Italian speakers.

I'm sure I'll have further updates as the term progresses.