overload

There is so much to write about I don’t even know where to begin. I had a case of the overwhelms yesterday. Patience and I are becoming better friends. You just can’t be in a hurry in Venice or expect to get anything done quickly. It took me two hours to get the Venetian equivalent to a “fast pass” for the boats.
The communication barrier is starting to become exhausting. Every time I go into a shop I forget for a moment that I will have to speak Italian and then I go into panic “find the right phrase/word” mode. There are so many tourists here that people seem to almost expect that I won’t say the right thing and they start speaking English right away. As nice as this is, I am having a hard time keeping my Italian and English separate.
I continue to be the luckiest girl around. My host Pietro has a very active social life and has been very nice in including me along to dinners. So far every night this week I have had a dinner at someone’s house. Wednesday night we went down the street to a friend’s house and had a meal where every course had eggplant in it. It was amazing!! The eggplant chocolate torte was especially yummy. Last night I had just gone to bed with a English speaking DVD (for a bit of relaxation) at around 9:30 when 6 Italians came bursting into the flat with food to cook dinner. We ate an awesome meal and got to leave the dishes for la Donna (the housekeeper) they eat dinner really late here, which is making my mornings extremely difficult.
Today it has been raining since I woke up and I’m totally unprepared for it. It isn’t cold, just wet. It is easier to get around on the streets when the weather is crappy, less tourists out and about.
When I do get to speak with people in English I am learning fascinating things about Italian culture and history. I met a really friendly Italian named Gianni who used to live in Oakland. He is studding to be a city planner and he was telling that the forecast for Venice is that by 2030 there won’t be any locals living in the city. Right now there is only a 60% occupancy in the houses. Stores for groceries are being closed down and replaced by mask shops. It is kind of like Disneyland here already and He said that it will become more so in the future, with all of the workers living on the mainland and commuting into the city.
Tomorrow I am taking a train to Bologna for the night. I am looking forward to getting to see what the mainland looks like. I would also love to find a hill somewhere and enjoy a view.
Hope everyone is wonderful, I miss my friends and family. As easy as I find it to make new friends, they can never compare to the friendships that have sustained me in the past. I love you all! Goddess Bless! ~Drea

catch up!!!!

Sorry to you dedicated blog readers. This last week I have been in between figuring out the Internet situation. I have, however, kept a blog every night (ish) so you can catch up with my journey. The Internet has been sorted, so it shouldn’t be a problem anymore. Thank you all for your comments, it really makes me warm and fuzzy to hear from you.
Much Love and Light!! ~Drea

may day in the campo

Today was a national holiday in venice. My roomate arrived home late last night and we started to get to know each other a bit. Pietro has never had a student in his house before, so I'm trying my best to tread lightly. He speaks some english so we can communicate if we both work at it. We had breakfast together and then I headed out to Campo della Bragora to hear a band play. Campos are square's where people hang out or meet each other. This Campo had a pottery exibit today and live music. A new friend of mine, Marcello, is the drummer for the band. I had the pleasure of meeting all of his friends who came out to see the band play. They treated me like family and we danced and soaked up the beautiful venitian sun. Afterwards we went to Marco's home to eat dinner. I wasn't surprised ( well just a bit) when we got to the house that the woman were expected to cook. I jumped in to help Suzzana and enjoyed the meal we had together. Marco is a painter and the house was full of his beautiful paintings. I have been invited to Bologna for the weekend. I'll keep you posted.

the instituto venezia

School started today. It is pretty fun! I haven’t been inside a classroom for a long time so I’m a little rusty. I still really like knowing all of the answers and I can’t wait for the teacher to call on me. I also still love being the class clown. Our class is full of people from all over the world, which makes it very exciting. Today I learned how to count to twenty and ask what your name is. My brain is so scrambled with all of the bits and pieces of all of the languages that I know bits and pieces of that I can hardly speak English at the moment. I am settling in to my new home well. Pietro still isn’t home from his trip and I still can’t wait to meet him. It has been nice having the place to myself. I went to the store for the first time and tired to figure out what things were and where they were. I had to hunt for the eggs cause they are so fresh that they are just on a shelf not in a refrigerator. I made Gnocchi for dinner with fresh tomato sauce and a salad that I made with greens that I bought in the open market. Venice is a beautiful maze that I am learning how to navigate in. I made it home tonight with no wrong turns for the first time and I felt very proud!! They are a million tourists everywhere. My favorite part of the day is early in the morning before the streets get too crowded. The evening is also amazing! The city is lit up like a Christmas tree. Lights shine up on the buildings so you can breath in there beauty. I’ve never been anywhere as romantic as Venice. It is unreal how beautiful and magical this city is. I am so grateful that I ended up here. I really am the luckiest girl in the world. Ciao!

not going to win the amazing race

For those of you out there who don’t know what the amazing race is, don’t worry about it; just don’t ask me to be on your team. I was really bad at navigating my way from London to my hostel in Venice. First of all I have too much stuff. I really thought I had done a good job packing until I had to carry it for three hours. I thought I had it I figured out how to get to where I was going, once I arrived in Venice. I mean I spent an afternoon at the apple store in London using there free internet, gathering all sorts of useful information, heck I even helped some tourists at the airport in Venice find the ticket counter. All of that hard work would have been great if I didn’t miss the bus from the airport cause I walked half a mile out of my way to what I thought was the bus stop. When I finally arrived at the water bus stop to take the boat into Venice, I missed all of my boats cause I kept asking Italians where to go and they all had great ideas that meant me walking back and forth between docks, effectively missing every boat. When the last boat left I broke down crying, (for only the second or third time that day) and sat down and said a prayer, thanking the universe for this excellent opportunity for faith. After my eyes had dried this friendly Sri Lankan man, who lives here in Venice now, took my bag (I know, I know, that’s how you get your stuff stolen but he didn’t seem as fast as me so I took the chance) carried it to the other dock, and then proceeded to take me on two boat transfers to make sure I arrived at the front door of my hostel safe. He did try to pet my hair on the way over, which I thought a bit forward until another Italian guy sat down next to me and started pet my hair. I thanked them both nicely and said “basta!” my new favorite word. The hostel was this huge building with giant doors and really small signs to direct you around once inside. I arrived at 1:15am (only three hours after my flight) and my entire room was asleep. Ten beds on a Saturday night asleep?? I thought this was very strange for a youth Hostel UNTILL I woke up at 6:00 to find a bunch of women in their 60’s running around getting ready. Then I went to the bathroom and someone had stolen all of the toilet seats. I mean really, how much can you even get for a dozen toilet seats? I was really excited about the free breakfast cause I missed dinner the night before. I had been dreaming of eggs and bacon and yummy croissants, instead I got a baguette and a cappuccino, which was really good for free coffee, but not quite what my stomach was hoping for. I then proceeded to go the total opposite direction of where I was supposed to meet my host for the next month. I had to take a boat back to my starting point and then I walked through the town up and down a million steps and a dozen little bridges with all my stuff. Yep, ahh ha, feels good, that’s right!! I finally got where I was supposed to be and met the loveliest girl named Elena who didn’t speak any English so we just smiled a lot. She took me to my Hosts house because he’s in San Francisco on holiday right now. His name is Pietro and he comes home tomorrow. I think we are going to get along swimmingly. His house is right on a canal and its full of South American artifacts. He is a surgeon for a living, and from the looks of things very well traveled. I can’t wait to meet him. He has a Mac too!

can’t wait to get on this train

London. I used to think I loved it here. I’m not complaining, well maybe just a bit, but I don’t understand how anyone lives here and is happy. I guess that’s why I could do it before because I was so not happy. The last few days has felt like a month. It was a chore. I was hoping for an easier time, but I just didn’t luck out that way. Easy in London seems to be directly proportional to the amount of money that you have. I was trying not to spend money unless I had to, and unfortunately I had to quite a bit. The exchange rate (2 dollars for every 1 pound) made me more panicky than I have felt in a long time around money. I think it has to do with the fact that one pound really is like one dollar. You get the same bang for your not buck!
All that aside, yesterday when I finally met up with my friend Amy, we had a great time. She is currently on a break after performing for the last few years with a cabaret show that toured around the world and is based out of a Speigltent in Germany. I mention the Spiegaltent because it’s the same kind of tent that Teatro Zinzanni uses. She even knows some of the performers that used to perform when I worked there. Her show was very similar, only they didn’t have dinner like Zinzanni. Amy was looking for acts for a show she is helping to produce here in London and so we went to eight hours of comedy. That’s right people eight hours. The first four were spent at a Woman’s comedy night at a club called Turnstiles in East London. I got lost going to the bathroom when I realized that had once had a job working there decorating for a club night. Yet another blast from the past. The ladies did there best under the circumstances (there were 10 of us in the audience and 5 were there for dinner and not for the show) after we escaped, I mean left, we headed over to a great cabaret show at proper comedy club. The first act was by a guy named Frank Isanazi. He was dressed in a Frank Sinatra type outfit except his hair and mustache looked very similar to Hitler. He then sang Frank’s songs with the words rewritten as if Hitler had written them. The most particularly offensive one was called “Auwishcraft” It was hilarious!!
I’m getting ready to get on the train to Gatwick Airport. I am very pleased that the moving with all my stuff part of the trip is almost over. I feel a small attack of princess every time I have to lug my stuff somewhere. Goodbye London, may we only meet again if I’m so rich that I don’t care how expensive you are!!

letter from london

Dear Blog,
Its been a while since we chatted. Well a lot’s happened in the last couple of days. I arrived in London via an amazing Virgin Atlantic flight. It was so hip and comfortable. I slept most of the way because I had been up 24 hours the day before, I was very knackered. It worked out pretty wonderful cause when I arrived I was pretty awake to deal with the customs line. It was like a line at Disneyland only the only ride at the end was a tube ride. I made it through customs this time with no hassles. It felt pretty grown up. I gave the woman at the money exchange window 175$ and received 77pounds, a lovely exchange rate if your doing it the other way. I had to just give in to how expensive it is. Thank God I’m only here till Saturday. What are you like London?? Well I forgot how loud and harsh my American accent is until I heard it here. When I lived here the last time I had a pretty English accent after a month or so. This time I’m holding on to my harsh vowel sounds. I have a whole stay in Italy to loose my American accent. I’m staying at a Hostel in Earls Court. Its been a while since I slept in a bunk bed with five other girls. Its an adventure in itself. What else? Lets see today I went back to Greenwich my old neighborhood. I worked in a quarter of the pubs there and drank in all of the other ones. I have been dreaming about going back there (literally) so I had to stop by and see where I used to live thru the lenses that perspective and time have given me. I sat down at bench that I used to sit on and just started crying. I had a really crazy time before and there were a lot of feelings that came up. It felt good to address them. I had a feeling I would bump into my old boyfriend and as I sat there he rode by on his bike. We didn’t bump into each other right then but I saw him a few minutes later and surprised him. It was great seeing him and hearing about life in Greenwich, its exactly the same as when I left. He told me where a couple of people I knew worked and I did stop bys freaking people out. It was fun!! After Greenwich I went to Waterloo station and hung out near the National Theatre where my friend Alesha works. I am getting pretty good at napping in coffee shops so I took a quick nap while I waited for her to get off work. Then we had a really nice dinner and had a great catch up conversation. I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life. I hope you all know how treasured you are. I have these amazing friends scattered across the globe that when I see them I just feel like home. Today I head over to my friend Amy’s house, we went to Dell’Arte together, and then to Venice Saturday afternoon. I can’t wait for the extreme culture shock. I can only imagine what it going to be like. I can’t wait!! The pictures are of the pub I used to live above. My room is the small window near the sign. They remodeled, when I lived there it was a total dump. The view was wonderful though. The picture with the river is the view from the window. And that’s Aleasha and me at dinner. And the tube ride!