listen to this loud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_lPd0Dpt5s

k.

8 days and not counting

my program is coming to an end and it feels like someone is dying. it's so amazing to me how these four months have gone by. slowly at first, rapidly next, then slow, then reallllly slow, then picking up, then faster, now i feel like my breakfast is even running away from me i can't get a grip.

the last few days are starting to break my heart as i start to realize that never again in my life will it be like this. will i be with the same people all at the same time, where we'll be about to march to our apartment together, where we'll be able to travel together in the same immature and unprepared way that we do now. my friends here have been a huge part of my experience abroad. and strangely enough, that was my biggest fear and concern coming into this unknown land and experience.

last night i found myself uncharacteristically nostalgic for all of the months that i feel were fleeting. it's not necessarily a sad thing, i know i will stay in touch with my friends that i've made, and also i know that i will be back in europe another time in my life. it's a matter of everything happening so fast. finals, pack your bags, airport, home. a part of me wants to go home perfectly fine, but i know i'll be fighting the bittersweet feelings until the end of time.

now i just have to wait for the reverse culture shock to set in once i'm back home..

k.

FOTO

some pictures i took and entered into a photo contest at my university here in florence...

capri

castello del matese

cinque terre

fiesole

love locks on the Arno

la villa di adriana

la villa di adriana

lucca

pisa

pizza at the pitti palace

tivoli

torre del lago

venice

lido di camaiore, viareggio

k.

narragansett beach

k.

today i feel like posting these

zoooey ahh you're so cooool

fresh rhode island grass, photo credit gc circ. spring 2010

celebrate

k.

singing

i haven't sang in almost four months. do you have any idea what that's done to my once-beautiful vocal chords?? ha! if anything, my ears (and my roommates') have benefited from the fact that i feel too embarrassed to sing here.

a) i don't have a good voice

b) i don't consider singing a hobby of mine

c) a long time ago i thought maybe i had a shot at the opera.

keeping those things in mind, believe it or not, i do find myself missing singing. sounds strange. but usually at school, i have my morning rock-out session in the cute Rabbit VW. here in italy, i walk down the street wanting to scream the lyrics in Italians' faces. so mature, i know.

at this very moment i'm listening to one of the best ballads ever "unbreak my heart" by toni braxton. i'm alone in my apartment, and i find myself not being able to sing! not even celine could bring it out of me with "it's all coming back to me now".

needless to say, america better be ready for my untrained and crappy voice....in a mere 9 days. wow. i'll designate an entirely different post to the last fact mentioned..

so here's my car. i love how they try and make my car look like it's a badass beast on the road.

doesn't it look so...jazzed up? think it's the camera angle

what i wish my car actually was...my dad says i can have it.

"start saving your pennies," would be a direct quote.

k.

i like lists...

over the years, i've finally realized that lists are the only way i ever get anything done. i'm an avid maker of lists and try to follow them as best i can...though many get lost in transit because they're usually written on scrap paper, the back of class notes, anything really. i've created a list of things that i miss from america. nothing that i can't live without or that i'm depressed about, the list was genuinely a fun thing for me to make. leaving out family and friends because this is a give-in! and actually, on the flip side, i am now compiling a list of things i will miss from italy when i leave, but that will be a whole other post ;)

cominca così:

..medium dunkin donuts iced coffee with cream and sugar

..broccoli

..my mom's cooking

..my dog daisy!

..my blackberry

..bbm

..chunky peanut butter

..peanut butter in general

..my bed at 50 wanda

..50 wanda

garden state mall

..franzia (hah)

..the gym

..heated seats in my car

..car in general

..making money

..spending money

..dirt cheap thrift stores

..my backyard

..brown boots from target

..target

..a few shirts from home

..going to the movies

tree in my backyard at home

k.

colors for a gloomy day

found all these on google images,

thought they were perfect colors for it being such a gloomy day out!

would love said marble globe to be in this study,

in my apartment,

in new york city,

in the next two years...

love her, need i say more?

besides her teeth looking creepy snagging a hangnail, her hair is awesome!

21st birthday appropriate lip gloss??

wish this were real

k.

people you touch,

the way you've touched them,

i hope they've touched you too.

'cause in this life it's hard to tell,

what's false and what is true.

the things you see,

the way you've seen them,

will never be seen again.

let's go through life,

living on luck,

betting ten thousand to ten.

mistakes i've made in this life,

i can't say why or when,

but the thing that's strange is,

you only live once,

and you never look back again.

-- "dying to be alive," hanson.

k.

a year of movies

i never considered myself movie-illiterate. sure, other people know and can identify actors and actresses, socialites and other celebs better than i can, but i don't remember feeling like i've missed out many more movies than others. not much happens in mahwah so we frequent the movies, quite frequently. or enough to have seen popular movies.

studying abroad, i've been successfully pinned the stock of all jokes related to anything about movies. it's actually really funny. last night's dinner with my girlfriends proved to display my lack of movie knowledge. on my place mat, we decided to write down all the great movies that i haven't seen. it turned into a list of movies that i have to see and also want to see...before i die at least hah

so here it is. i'm going to type it out so i have it written down forever and not just on this paper place mat from the restaurant down the street...

THE MOVIE LIST:

x. man on fire

x. inside man

x. the green mile

x. the mysterious case of benjamin button

x. blind side (fell asleep the first time)

x. finding neverland

x. seven pounds

x. inception

x. the guardian

x. the departed

x. shaw shank redemption

x. the italian job

x catch me if you can

x. becoming jane

x. sense and sensibility

x. hitch

x. fever pitch

x. going the distance

x. the social network

x. breakfast at tiffany's

x. roman holiday

x. sabrina

x. sleepless in seattle (saw it sooo long ago)

x. the little princess (same as above)

x. pulp fiction

x. pay it forward

x. mystic river

x. it could happen to you

x. family man

x. brothers (again)

x. cinderella man

x. the boy in the stripped pajamas

x. one flew over the cuckoo's nest

x. patch adams

x. life as a house

x. blow

x. sweeney todd

x. nine

x. the way we were

x. brave heart

x. gladiator (after seeing the colosseum two weeks ago wanna see it again soon)

x. three kings

x. fast and the furious I

x. bad boys I & II

x. rocky (all)

x. the virgin suicides

x. girl interrupted

x. fear and loathing in las vegas

x. cruel intentions (again)

x. despicable me

x. practical magic

x. the other guys

x. made of honor

x. my best friend's wedding

x. erin brockovich

x. oceans 11

x. good will hunting

x. newsies

x. dick

x. up

x. white oleander

x. avatar (fell asleep watching it the first time with larissa and her mom!)

(last updated november 19, 2010)

gimme some suggestions on movies you've really loved!!, but please don't spoil any endings or else i swear i'll never want to watch it haha

k.

stroll with me

stroll through florence

i don't ever get sick of this view

decking the halls with these florentine lily lights!

feeetsss last sunday morning, bored while waiting to be seated for brunch

k.

maga maga zine y'alllll

i try to read italian newspapers and magazines as often as i can. in fact, on one train trip, i was mistaken as an italian solely because the woman saw me reading the local journal "leggo". it felt great, so anyways, yesterday, i went into a tabacchi store and bought (what i thought was) an italian magazine.

got my cappuccino "da portare via" e then headed back to the school library to enjoy these little indulgences. sitting with my trusty italian-english dictionary, that was a gift from daniela when i first started learning, i was about to tackle this magazine! open to a random page and i see a word i don't recognize (not an uncommon occurrence) what does it mean? so i grab my dictionary and can't find the word. hmm that's funny. next page, another word i don't know. shit did i lose my touch...from five minutes ago when i was translating a poem for homework? anyways, grab the dictionary and can't find the otherrrr word.

my problem? apparently they don't incorporate french words and their translations in an italian-english dictionary. what an idiot, i bought a french magazine. haha! looks like my subconscious took over because in fact, the next language i would like to learn is indeed french. in about three years when i'm ready to tackle that, i'll have a 2010 issue of "Premiere"...patiently waiting to be interpreted, just about three years too late ha!

allora, my mission today is to go out and grab the italian newspaper "la repubblica" which on fridays comes with a cute magazine called "il venerdì" and a small magazine called "D Donne" on saturdays.

k.

i can't translate

the study of the italian language over the past two years has made me think so much about the english language and how we use it. it's amazing to me that i can sit here and type sentence upon sentence without even having to think about it. and then you, my audience, will understand exactly what i say. languages interest me so much. i can't get enough, and unfortunate for all of the other students in my italian class, i'm always asking four thousand questions about minute details of the language. it seems that one cannot express themself as acutely in another language as they can in their native tongue. this may be ignorance in it's purest form, but it seems to me mainly, if it's not said in english. since i've only ever studied two other languages, (if you count latin as a legit tongue..) it's not fair to say that every single emotion can onlyyyy be described so perfectly and correctly in english. but that's honestly how i feel. at the risk of offending the italians...i don't understand how so many words can have so many meanings. yes, we have this in english, but i feel like it's not to the same degree. if i want to take a shower i, ''faccio una doccia'', but i also ''faccio i miei compiti'' do my homework, but then if i want to get a gift for a friend i, ''faccio un regalo''. the verb ''fare'' can mean so much it's beyond confusing to me. there are many words in italian that just can't be translated directly into english. the word ''antipatico'' doesn't necessarily mean ''rude'' or ''antisocial'' or ''mean,'' but something of all those feelings mixed together, watered-down a bit, and then fitted into specific contexts.

anyways, before i get carried away on a grammatical and syntaxical lecture, i'll finally get to why i'm even posting today at all...i found on the internet some interesting words that hold a meaning specific to their language, but more importantly to their culture. they can't be directly translated into english. some of them are really interesting and i just thought that i'd share a few...

fingerspitzengefuhl (german):

to have a good feel for the situation at hand and being able to react accordingly.

jhoota (hindi):

second hand and partially eaten by someone else, used in the context of food.

mammismo (italian):

a belief among young men that no one can love them as much as their mothers.

uitwaaien (dutch):

the pleasure of walking in windy weather.

kummerspeck (german):

''grief bacon" literally, weight gained from emotion-related overeating

kilig (filipino):

the tingling sensation you feel when someone you like did something really romantic for you, or even when you just see him/her pass by.

pochemuchka (russian):

a person who asks a lot of questions.

cafuné (brazilian portuguese):

the act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair

prozvonit (czech):

to call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money

tartle (scottish):

the act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name

iktsuarpok (inuit):

to go outside to check if anyone is coming

dépaysement (french):

the feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country

hyggelig (danish):

connotations of a warm, friendly, cozy demeanor, but it’s likely something that must be experienced to be known, like good friends, cold beer, and a warm fire.

ya’aburnee (arabic):

both morbid and beautiful, meaning “you bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

k.