just singing in the rain..

So it's been raining for the last three days and I'm a little worried. Because instead of putting me in a bad mood, the rain is making me realize how much I really do love this place. The fact that I am this happy in even the shittiest of conditions makes me worry that I may not be able to make myself leave. I think now would be a good time to shoot me an email telling me how fantastic America is.

I am sitting on the bus right now on my way to a museum across the Arno to sketch and I just feel so at home here. I really am concerned about not being able to leave. Hopefully I'll get homesick or something. Otherwise you guys may want to start saving up to come visit if you ever want to see me again. Kayak.com has great airfares, just fyi.


LATER


Ok the day only got better from there. It kept being rainy and gorgeous, and after the Specola, my sweet friend Ali came to meet me in Piazza Santo Spirito to wander around and do a little window shopping and grab some lunch. And of course, we are in Italy, so "grabbing" lunch took us a satisfying two hours, and SO miraculously, my friend Marinna just HAPPENED to walk by the adorable little outdoor caffè me and Ali had decided on (which was covered, of course), and just HAPPENED to be starving and looking for lunch. So along with Marinna's pleasant company, we also got an excuse to order another entree. SUCH a win-win. (Just fyi, we ended up with an antipasti of bresaola, rucola and shaved parmigiano reggiano, sprinkled with olive oil and fresh black pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon, followed by an insalata greca with those insanely fragrant Italian tomatoes and some particularly luscious feta, and a pizza vegetariana, layered with mozzarella di bufala, mushrooms, and grilled eggplant and zucchini. All for less than €13 each. Fantastico.)

And over lunch, Ali brought up this incident that happened a few days before, when I was scurrying around the city running errands and I ran into her and Danny on a site visit with one of their architecture classes in Piazza Signoria and we all chatted for a minute, they helped me decide that I needed a Vivoli gelato, and then we went our separate ways. I was sweaty and unshowered and in gym clothes so I really didn't think much of the encounter. But apparently after I left, Danny was all glazed over and was like "That girl is SO cool. Did you know her mom is an actress? Yeah. She's awesome." And Ali was like cracking up and was like "....yep. Pretty cool..." and said it was the funniest thing. That made me laugh. But he's still "involved with" this little dumpy girl from the program named Tamar. Boys. Who understands them?

Speaking of which, Fabrizio is REALLY not getting the whole I'm-not-so-interested thing. He still calls me at least every other day and texts me every day, and no matter WHAT he says in the text, it is always followed with one of those obnoxious winky faces. Without fail. "Alex! Are you life? ;)" (read: are you alive?) or "When you come back from Capri? ;)" or "A question? Do you like me? Sincery. Because you like me so much! ;)" (read: because i like you so much! - he seems to really struggle with the whole reflexive nature of the verb "to like" in italian... oh, language barriers...) I finally answered this last one (I had been strategically avoiding previous ones) and was like "You don't even know me! How do you know you like me so much?" to which he replied "Because when you speak you always smile! I like very much the smilegirl... What do you think of me?" and I was like "I barely know you! You seem nice... but very persistent" and he was like "the italian boys are like these. sometimes we are boring but if i like a girl i don't have any problem talking with she. Sorry for the imbarace! (no idea what that is supposed to mean.) But I am sincery with you and me. I imagine your smile.. and want to you a kiss!" Oh Jesus. How I wish I were attracted to this kid. He seems like a sweetheart but honestly it's just kind of annoying at this point. God, I'm so fucked up.

Ok I need to go digest a little. I'll keep ya'll updated... baci!