Crazy time

This is what my life looks like for the next several days/months....

1. Mad packing this afternoon (all day really.... how do I make such a mess?)
2. Show tonight... Tosca at Opera Colorado. Final paperwork, goodbyes, etc. (sniff)
3. Tomorrow morning: off at the crack of dawn!  Driving to Houston.... 16hrs.  Might try to do it all in a day.   But probably not, as my butt might stage a revolt if I try. 
4. Thursday:  finishing the drive.  Sleeping in my own bed.  yay.
5. Friday: more mad packing in preparation for....
6. Saturday: MOVING DAY!  I am finally moving into my new house!  Also, my parents arrive to help. 
7. the week following:  home repair projects, visits with the parents, seeing all my Houston friends, taking care of home ownership tasks, finishing driver safety course, and more packing for....
8. May 10:  GOING TO ENGLAND!  Yep, I am off to merry olde England for a Shakespeare trip with my good friend Kate Pogue and 25 senior citizens.  That's right. I am a "travel host."  If I survived the two weeks with the group, then I have a week of sight-seeing for myself.... hello European pals!
9. May 27:  Home for a couple of days, more packing...
10. Drive to Central City.  Where I am once again spending my summer.  Apparently I cannot get enough of Colorado.    (ColorAHHHHHHHHHdo if you will)

Does reading this make anyone else tired?

FLOOD

Have you heard about this? Venice is flooded! (ps. I just realized these pics are getting cut off on my blog... click thru to see the full picture.)


It's the deepest flood in 22 years. Says the Boston Globe: "Although this flood was severe enough for the mayor to ask tourists to temporarily stay home, Venetian floods are fairly routine, several occurring every year, and residents usually take it all in stride."
Wow. People, your city is underwater! Nice that you can take it in calmly now, but maybe consider retirement options elsewhere?
See more amazing pics HERE.

Georgia... Georiga...

Arrivederci, Firenze.... I depart for Georgia in the morning!
Thank you to all of my pals who have been so supportive about keeping in touch during my time here... I have missed you!
I will be in Georgia for Christmas, then I am off to Salt Lake City on the 28th. I will be visiting Houston at the end of January before heading back to Dallas.
My next post will be from the good ol' USA!
Ciao!

A room with no view

"Well, Tara..." you may find yourself wondering, "what have you been doing with your time in Firenze?" You might be aware that I am in class every day from 9am to 1pm and then the sun sets at approximately 4:30 in the afternoon here. And maybe you know that Firenze is a relatively small town and once you have looked at 20 gorgeous Renaissance piazzas you feel you have a pretty firm handle on their charms. So that leaves a person with a fairly strong aversion to cold weather with a lot of spare time, particularly in the evenings. So what does a gal like me do with her time? She studies Italian diligently of course. She checks her email at a local internet cafe. Then she makes dinner with her international pals and afterwards, settles down to read a good book. These are the ones I have read during my time here. I recommend them all strongly.

Siena, or Freezing My Buns Off

How can one little duo make me so very happy? Today's clip is in honor of my current linguistic struggle...


In other news, it is a gorgeous Saturday in Tuscany and I thought I should take a little day trip to Siena... forever hence known as THE COLDEST PLACE ON EARTH. I enjoyed a lovely quiet bus ride to this nearby town, admired the olive groves and rolling hills of the tuscan countryside, and arrived in the center of town to be greeting by an arctic wind like nothing I have ever felt. I don't think it was the Black Plague that killed 1/3 of this medieval town's population... somebody's daddy forgot to pay the heating bill. Siena is a jewel. Truly lovely, and while yes, fairly swamped with tourists, not as bad as Firenze. That said, DO NOT GO THERE IN MID-DECEMBER FOR A CASUAL DAY TRIP unless you want to spend the afternoon wiping icy tear-sicles off of your numb, solid cheeks. Intrepid travel tip writer, I am.

italian haiku not possible

Italian haiku
is not possible, I think.
Too many sylla...

hahaha. but seriously, i have spent some time on this... not a lot, but some... and since even the simplest italian words have 2 or 3 syllables it makes the 5-7-5 limit pretty restricting. i will keep you posted as developments arise.

in other news, as i am wandering around the streets here, i spend most of my time obsessing about one stupid thing or another that i can't control, or crafting italian conversations in my mind. since at this point i have the conversational skills of a 3 year old, these conversations are neccessarily rather brief, but matching up all the tenses and types of verbs with the cases of adjectives, etc provides hours of scintillating entertainment. Since I really only know one tense at this point, everything I say sounds a bit like an overly demanding, slightly hyper-caffeinated child. "I WANT COFFEE. IN THE MORNING IT PLEASES ME TO TAKE THE COFFEE."

For a hysterical account of similar troubles, see the "Jesus Shaves" chapter of David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day. The man is a genius.

a very short quiz

5 points if you know what movie this is from:

Manager: Why are you smiling like that?
Buddy: I just like to smile, smiling's my favorite

so why, you might ask, if I am in the gorgeous city of Firenze, am I wasting my time writing a blog entry about an American Christmas movie? Because it is the holiday season, dammit, and I am not in America to enjoy it. I am enjoying it here in Italia, but several of my favorite blogs are really gearing up the Christmas schmaltz and it makes me happy to look at it all. Actually, it is probably best that I am in a strange land, as being in the US with no home to decorate might drive me to some sort of craft-related implosion.

In other news, I had my first full day of class today... 4 hours. Not too bad. My classmates are very nice. I am the only American in the bunch (not surprising). I do pretty well for about 2 hours before la mia testa è piena.

tea for one please

(this pic is from a very interesting food blog: Jup's Pintoh)

I have a confession to make: I may have outgrown traveling by myself for pleasure. I am discovering this, unfortunately, on a trip (by myself) that has just begun and will last for another three weeks. Ah, life's little ironies.
Now before you imagine me throwing myself into the Thames or other, let me clarify.
1. You may recall that I am basically a homeless person anyway, so just going to work involves "traveling by myself." This makes doing it on my "vacation" time a little less special. The nice part about going on a job though, is the fact that I am forced to interact with other humans basically every day... and the same humans to boot, so relationships (of one kind or another!) are forged, etc.
2. This may surprise you, but I am finding that I am a fairly activity-driven person. This means I like to be doing stuff... not just going somewhere to LOOK at stuff, which is the primary activity in a leisure-based trip. Now the doing doesn't have to be wild at all... I spend a lot of time just eating my fingernails which is sometimes just the level of activity that makes me happy. But generally I do like something slightly more active/creative.
3. Another reason I am feeling slightly antsy on this leg of the trip is that I know it is just a short prelude to a much more involved part of the trip: the three weeks I am about to spend in Florence, packing my little brain with as much Italian as it can hold. Knowing I have this gargantuan task ahead of me, I am fairly unable to relax and just enjoy.

THAT SAID: London is really really lovely this time of year. It IS cold and damp, but we are seeing a bit of sunlight, and the trees are beautiful shades of yellow. It is just what you imagine an urban fall should be. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to wander around Notting Hill for a bit and then catch an exhibit.

MaMa Mia!

Well gentle readers... I AM GOING TO EUROPE IN DECEMBER!

As you may have read below, I was working up a trip to London in any case, but when a friend of mine casually mentioned that the Italian language school he attended this summer also teaches during the year, my interest was peaked.

Then a quick stream of events:
1. Discovered this school was having a sale.
2. Got a large per diem check from my current gig.
3. Desperately want some Italian chops before working with an "italian-only" director in the spring.

.... and it is done!!! I just bought my ticket to fly, and sent off my registration fee today.

So... London for 3 days, then on to Florence for 3 weeks!!

London Hotels

So I am planning a trip to London and trying to con some of my friends into coming with me. 7 days in UK with Tara. How fun does that sound?

Pardon me as I attempt to woo them with Hotel and Sight-Seeing Options. Let me know if you have any UK travel tips yourself!

Victoria Station area:
Elizabeth Hotel Thus far, this is my pick.

Cherry Court Hotel smaller, cheaper, but good reviews from budget travelers.

Notting Hill area:

Garden Court Hotel Rick Steves says this may be the best value for your hotel dollar in London.