Taglio no tinta!

Some craziness has gone on in this past week. Let me recap for you:

Lunedi (Monday): We had class on the Spanish Steps! Which, by the way, were actually made by the French so they're not really Spanish. Anywhoo...we had an assignment which was to go into one flagship store in the area we were in and take a survey of the space and get notes/sketches/pictures, etc. for ideas for our retail design coming up. (I'm partners with Mary Kate for this project btw) We were assigned Louis Vuitton. Now, yes that's crazy that we will be walking into a Louis Vuitton, but to intimidate us more it's the 6th best retail designed Louis Vuitton in the entire world. Yes. Scary concept. So we head towards the store. We walk in and ask the front security guard if we are allowed to take pictures. He said no. So we walk in with our assignment sheet and sketchbooks in hand. About halfway through of us surveying the space a lady who works there comes up to us and starts speaking to us in Italian. I guess we looked like natives that day! Once she realizes we don't have any idea what she's saying, she asks us in English what we were doing. We had to give her a very detailed explanation on what we were doing, showing her our assignment sheet and all. Ever since that moment happened, our every move was documented in the security personnel's minds. We were watched like hawks on every single level of that store. However, the store itself was incredible. Words can't justify it. It used to the Rome's first cinema that was converted into the Louis Vuitton. They kept part of the cinema in the store. It seats 18 people and they still have movie showings on occasion. It was a crazy awkward day.

Venerdi (Friday): Some of you know this, some of you may not who knows. I don't know how much y'all stalk me haha but I shaved part of my head! I swear being here is making more crazy. Partially it's because I'm living with Mary Kate :p anyways, yeah I shaved part of my head. And.... I love it!! I think it's super awesome and pretty badass (sorry for language :p) haha I feel pretty cool and I enjoy the change a lot. It was weird having someone who's native language is not your own cut your hair. A very popular phrase around here now is taglio no tinta, which is cut no color. I was not about to go red!

Oggi/Sabato (Today/Saturday): To end the week of crazy, my life level of crazy got bumped up by having the ability to go to Tuscany for the day. Apartment B9 room C (me, Mary Kate, and Sally) took a day trip to Tuscany while the majority of the other ID students took an optional trip to Assisi. We first stopped in Montepulciano and had a cellar tour with some wine tasting. The wine was good! But the cheese they served with it was absolutely amazing. The spicy one was my favorite and even though it was kinda pricey, I regret not buying the wheel of it. I'm totally going to look it up online and see if I can find that place. I want that cheese!! We then had a little down time to ourselves in this adorable town. We saw absolutely incredible views that words and pictures can't justify. We also saw the building where Edward from Twilight walks out without a shirt on and sparkles :p It was a surreal moment even if you aren't the biggest Twilight fan. We then stopped for lunch at a cute little restaurant and did a little shopping before moving on. Our next and final stop was in Montaicino. Here, we got a vineyard tour along with a cellar tour and more wine tasting. No cheese tasting here, but the wine was better! I enjoyed the selection a lot more and bought myself a 10 Euro bottle of wine. The trip was completely worth it and I fell head over heels in love with Tuscany. I will be going back one day in my life I'll guarantee it.

I have now shared all my craziness with you all! You may think I'm crazy for thinking it's crazy, but hey if you have an opinion that means you actually care enough to be reading through my blog :) Till next time!

School now in session

Made it through the first week of school! I'm super excited for every single one of my classes. It's going to be a fantastic class schedule. I enjoy all my professors too! Throughout the week we went out to eat a few places. There is a Chinese restaurant (weird right??) near the Cat Sanctuary. It was delicious. Best sweet and sour chicken I have ever had in my lifetime. Next to that is a place called Pizzeria Florida and we stopped in there once this week too. It's super cheap and one of the most delicious pizza places ever. Potato pizza is my all time favorite. Anytime I can find it, it's what I order.We also tend to get coffee a lot and we get it from the same cafe each time. We go to a cafe that is on our way to the studio. We have made friends with the owner and he is super nice. He's an older gentleman. He speaks some English and when he learned that we were learning some Italian in one of our classes he told us that we would help each other out and learn from each other! :) He has also given us free cookies as a sample. He's incredibly nice!

Food wise we are mostly eating at our apartment and cooking. We eat a lot of pasta because it's easy. The one thing I am craving and don't have access to is peanut butter! It doesn't exist here in Italy. Super depressing. I've already decided that I'm eating it by the spoonfuls out of the jar when I get back home ;)

This weekend we did some more exploring and a little more shopping (always haha). On sabato (Saturday) we went to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. Both were absolutely incredible. Breathtaking. We were fortunate enough to go inside the Colosseum. I have never seen anything so amazing than that. I was blown away. It's so easy to picture what it used to be like when it was used. Being here in Rome is a mix of traveling back in time and still staying in the same century and that feeling is one so incredible that I won't ever forget it.

Today, domenica (Sunday) we went to the market that is directly outside of our apartment. There is so much stuff! The market literally goes on forever. A lot of the stuff is repeated though, but there were definitely good finds there. We then made our way to the mall and did a little shopping there. The rest of the afternoon/night is dedicated to relaxing and homework (no, I haven't forgotten about school although it sure sounds like I have). Not too much homework yet which is nice. It allows us to still site see and do what we please on the weekends without the stress level of school.

It was a good week here in Rome! A laid back yet still eventful one. More exploring ahead :)

Someone should be filming us!

My life totally feels like a movie. These past few days have been unreal. On Thursday we had a neighborhood walk around near our studio. The neighborhood we live in is the Jewish Ghetto. The term Ghetto was meant as closeness and tight-knit group of people, not what we typically think of. While walking around we came to what is known as the cat sanctuary. Basically it's old ancient ruins of palaces and it is now home to a ton of homeless cats that just chill out there. It's pretty crazy! Another crazy thing is when you are standing in front of it, you are standing in the spot where Caesar was stabbed. Yes, that happened.

Friday night our professors took the Interior Design group out for dinner after our orientation was over. I had a potato, cheese, sage and onion pizza that was absolutely freaking amazing. Heaven on a plate followed by a nutella crepe :) The Italians really love nutella here!

The next day my apartment group minus one girl decided to take the day to go shopping. We shopped literally till we dropped. We walked around for six hours and we were all successful! Walking around and shopping that much while trying on expensive clothes and passing stores like Dolce and Gabbana felt like we were pulled out of a movie scene. Just insane. We resisted the urge to walk into those kinda stores...wayyy to dangerous haha. Adding to the movie scene, on our way home from shopping we walked by a restaurant that had an accordion player outside playing music. Apparently that's just normal! Italy is a movie scene. If you've ever wanted to feel like you are in a movie Rome is the place to be. Just saying.

After shopping we came home and cooked dinner and then headed out around 10:30 for a night out on the town. My apartment group (all seven this time) ended up at a bar right next to the Colosseum. We spent the night there bonding and getting to know each other till the wee hours of the morning. We arrived back home around 2:30 haha

Today was a casual day. We just went to the beach on the Mediterranean Sea. No big deal right!? While we were there we were serenaded by a group of young Italian men who were super nice. My roommate Emily even got kissed ;) it was entertaining.

Those have been my adventures so far, and there will be plenty more to come! Keep checking in and I'll post as often as I can! Arrivederci!