A City of Masks and Exciting Plans

So, I know I have been doing a seriously pitiful job of keeping up this blog lately, and I do apologize but I'm not going to waste time going on and on about how sorry I am, because there isn't any point.

Lots of interesting things are going on. Monday and Tuesday I had no school because of Carnevale and on Monday I went to Venice with my friends Asena from Turkey and Ursi from Australia. Madalena from Portugal was going to come too, but her host family wouldn't let her.

Venice was absolutely incredible. I decided that it's my new favorite city in the world. I guess I just love the mysterious, magical-ness of it and the fact that it's not like anywhere else. What other city has canals instead of streets? I'm pretty sure I'll be going back to Venice more while I'm here. Going is really very easy. The train takes just under two hours, which isn't bad at all. 

So, in short, here's what my day in Venice consisted of:

• Dancing with a very old, very Italian man on the train
• Eating a delicious lunch at the Trattoria alla Madonna, a restaurant once featured on Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods
• Buying a pretty, sparkly mask
• Having tea at the beautiful, frescoed Caffe Florian
• Exploring Piazza San Marco
• Taking lots of pictures

(Piazza San Marco)

(Caffe Florian)

(Masks with Ursi)

(Gondolas with Asena)

Venice even inspired me to write a poem which you can read by clicking here. I don't usually rhyme when I write poetry and I don't usually share much of the poetry I write, so it's a bit different, but there it is all the same.

If you want to read more about it, go have a look at the articles I wrote for the Herald. I had so much to say, I decided to split the trip into two articles. As of now, only the first one is out. You can read it by clicking here. And I'll give you a link to the second when it comes out, which will probably be this Thursday.

I've decided I'm kind of too lazy to routinely copy and paste each article into a blog post. I apologize. I think I'm probably trying to keep up too much at once right now between this blog and my tumblr and my twitter and all the articles. (I'm having too much fun making words into links to the things they're talking about.) It isn't that it's too much to do, it's just that after almost 6 months I still haven't figured out where to post what. And often I'm too busy actually doing all the wonderful things to keep up with telling about them. Oh well, though. It's not such a big deal. The people who are crazy to hear all about everything (specifically, my family) keep up with everything I post everywhere anyway.

Okay, so in some SUPER EXCITING NEWS I am leaving for a trip to Ireland the day after tomorrow. With my class. I've known this trip was happening for quite a while, but for the longest time it looked like I wasn't going to be able to go, because my Permesso di Soggiorno (or residence permit) hadn't arrived yet, and without it I wouldn't be able to come back into Italy on my visa if I left. The whole policy is quite confusing to me, but it turned out not to matter because I got notification last week that my Permesso di Soggiorno would be available to pick up at the Questura on February 24th. That was yesterday, just three days before the scheduled departure. I am super super super lucky. 

According to the program they game me at school, I'll be in Dublin, Belfast, Howth and Dalkey, seeing Trinity College, the Guinness Storehouse, the Troubles Front, James Joyce Center and other things. I am quite excited. And they speak English in Ireland! Not just English, but English with an Irish accent dialect! It will be such a relief to hear my native language again for a while! And I won't be forgetting Italian or anything because I'll be there with my class and speaking Italian with them! So perfect.

Anyway, I'm particularly excited about this trip to Ireland because I've been thinking about how many incredibly talented people are from there. Like Glen Hansard who was in my favorite movie Once, not to mention in the incredible music groups The Swell Season and The Frames. Then there's Lisa Hannigan, and Damien Rice. Then all the writers! Oscar Wilde! JAMES JOYCE! (I've been reading his story collection Dubliners and it is excellent. Makes me want to read Uylsses, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. And maybe even Finnegan's Wake sometime when I'm feeling brave. He writes sentences like "Moments of their secret life together burst like stars upon his memory" and "But my body was a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires" and "The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns." Ahhhh.)

You can definitely expect a post about Ireland when I get back. Until then!!

Snow

All day Tuesday, the sky was heavy and low-looking. No single clouds could be distinguished from the mass.

The sky was all one color - almost pure white, touched gently with gray.

I watched it throughout the day, expecting snowfall to begin at any moment. Someone mentioned to me that this week is, according to the newspapers, the coldest Brescia has seen in 27 years.

I remember thinking that I had to keep looking out the window, checking for precipitation, because there'd be no pitter-patter announcement. It would fall quietly and beautifully.

I have always loved snow. I never outgrew it like some people do. It was never about getting out of school, either. Snow has never been a nuisance to me, or a mess. I love the way it turns the world into a winter wonderland for a little while.

So when, around dusk, the snow finally started to fall, I was thrilled. My host sister, not a fan of snow, was grumbling " che schifo," which roughly translates to "how disgusting," but my excitement could not be curbed.

Tuesday's snow wasn't just any old snow for me; it was my first neve (snow). Like many "firsts," it came with a bit of thinking and reflection.

My host family and I braved the cold and went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Nonna and Lucrezia's dad joined us. The drive to the trattoria didn't last any longer than five minutes, but it was long enough to see the streets I've come to know so well and the mountains above caked with white.

What really struck me was how beautiful it all was. When covered with snow, everything is more beautiful and, more importantly, beautiful in a different way. Impressed by this new beauty, I was able take in and realize once again the beauty that is always there.

Italy's beauty amazed me at the beginning of this year. Then I started thinking about other things and at some point got used to it, but there it was, five months into my stay here, beautiful as ever, made new by a sprinkling of snowflakes.

What I'm saying is that people invariably grow accustomed to beauty and amazement. The people who live in the world's most breathtaking places often stop appreciating what's before them, because it gets to be normal.

In New York City, the only people staring up, marveling at the splendor of skyscrapers, are tourists. And without even realizing it, I got used to living in a picturesque Italian city.

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe by accepting incredible beauty as a regular part of our lives, we somehow become a part of it, at one and in sync.

Then again, I feel more like it's a mistake. Perhaps it's a form of giving in and becoming numb to all the joy the world offers.

It took a snowstorm to open my eyes again. I've been thankful for this experience all along, but I can assure you that for the next five months, until I come home in July, not a day will pass without my looking at these mountains, these painted buildings, piazzas and red tiled roofs, and appreciating every facet of their gorgeousness.

The last thing I want is to be numb to beauty. I have a feeling that after this snow, I'll be finding it everywhere - in Italy and in South Carolina and wherever else I end up going.

When I get home, I'm going to really look at everything as if I've never seen it before - the azaleas in the springtime, the Spanish moss of the Lowcountry, the rows and rows of peach trees.

It's easy to forget how beautiful the world is when you're seeing things without looking. The important thing is to truly look every now and then.

...

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/02/02/3710178/first-snowfall-refreshes-perceptions.html#storylink=cpy