allisonglover.wordpress.com

After countless Blogspot issues and watching Katherine effortlessly deal with Wordpress, I've decided to make the swap. When I say I made the swap, I mean my extremely helpful dad back in America moved my posts over for me and set this one up. Thanks daaaddd.

allisonglover.wordpress.com

Protesters these days...

There has clearly been a major delay in blog posts over here. My sincerest apologies, avid readers. Kidding...I know no one is sitting on the edge of their seats. Blogspot has been having some major complications when uploading my photos. I am posting just a few pictures from a protest that took place in Florence last Sunday. As you may be able to see, the photo trouble I'm having is causing some blur issues. Anyway this protest was in defense of women and children, but it brought a crowd including men of all ages. Apparently, Italian's take advantage of most opportunities to gather in protest. I don't mean that in a negative way. If you ask me, it says a lot about their culture. As the ol' Italian restaurant Olive Garden slogan taught us all, "When you're here, you're family". They stick up for one another..men for the women and both men and women for children. These civilians were protesting the Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi. Basically, he was involved in a sex scandal with a 17 year old girl (he is 74). Several days later, it was decided that this case will be brought to trail in April. Whether or not the protest paid a vital role in this outcome, it was exciting to first hand experience something other than the food, leather, wine, etc.

Don't worry, I have been up to much more than taking pictures at protests. We spent last weekend in Rome! We couldn't have left without hitting several major hot spots: Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, Vatican, Sistine Chapel, Pantheon, and the Van Gogh exhibit. This weekend was packed with little time to rest. As much as I enjoyed Rome, I was more than ready to be back in Florence. I have yet to find a place I love more.

I haven't blogged since I developed my first roll of film almost two weeks ago!! I LOVE developing film. It's actually quite therapeutic. I've completed several since that day, but I haven't scanned any into the computer yet to post. I will hopefully have that figured out soon.

Sw'alps

Switzerland from Alli Glover on Vimeo.

Bologna and back

Band of Horses. I'm sure you've heard of them. If not, familiarize yourself asap. It's worth your while. Yesterday morning Katherine and I went to Bologna with a couple new friends we met from OSU to see Band of Horses perform at the Estragon.

What an adventure. This was our first time to experience the train system in Italy, a new city in Italy, missing a train in Italy, completely unnecessarily sprinting through the Prato train station in Italy, getting stuck at a concert venue at 230 a.m. in Italy, and handling food poisoning from a croissant filled with mystery fish...yes, in Italy.  I've realized that it's difficult to sum up stories for blogs. The thought of writing one is a daunting task and what's even more daunting is opening a blog with a 10 second long scroll of words. To be honest, quite often they're words I don't have time to read. That may or may not be the case for you. Not to mention, stories that are super hilarious to me never seem to come out right the second time around. Especially when written and I'm not face to face prepared to justify myself with impersonations, gestures, my own chuckles, etc. So for now, that brief explanation will have to do. Unfortunately, the few pictures of our weekend are on my 35mm and won't be developed and ready to post for another few days. Until then! Actually, until tomorrow. I have a little video to release, but it's taking a year to load on my vimeo account. When I say little video, I mean...it's my first time ever to make one. As in I was reading the iMovie How To as I put it together...don't make any judgement calls just yet. I foresee major improvements in the future.

One down on the ol' Ciao List

For those of you who aren't familiar with what is commonly known in my apartment as a 'Ciao List', here is the official definition.

Ciao List--pronounced "chow list". A bucket list full of seemingly intangible goals that must be completed before returning to one's home country, wherever that may be.

You guessed it!! Skydiving in Switzerland is on the list. How was it, you ask? So beautiful. I don't know if you can sense my euphoric state through cheek situation I've got going on in this picture...but I was oneeee happy camper. I mean it when I say it-everyone MUST skydive. Once. I don't know if it's worth  doubling the risk.

Tim. My hero...

Interlaken. Land of the Swiss.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to Interlaken, Switzerland with my roommates. We went on a bit of a study abroad limb and took a bus ride with "Bus2Alps" and 200 other study abroad students. Yikes. We were extremely outnumbered by about 200 kids straight off of the MTV reality show Jersey Shore. If you are lucky enough to not be familiar with the show, I would suggest googling, youtubing, or even wikipedia'ing it for an accurate idea of our weekend. 

We were able to escape most of the madness since we booked a different hostel. In hindsight it was the best decision we've made thus far. 

Interlaken was beautiful to say the absolute least. A quiet and scenic ski town. Full of chocolate.

 

      

Oh, this little guy? It's just Buster.

Han. Lover of cards. This little series is for you..

In case you were wondering...these are the striking roommates I'm constantly referring to. Couldn't have braved the Jersey Shore storm without you.

mercado centrale

Samples galore... a little different from H.E.B. Who, by the way, could take some serious direction from the mercado centrale.

I have found myself obsessed with designating a single vendor for my every need here in Florence. For example... a wine man, bread lady, cheese guy, meat person, produce man, am I making sense? Riley and I spotted this guy from across the market and knew he was the perfect guy for the produce job. Although we didn't need anymore fruits and vegetables, we figured we ought to get the ball rolling on this new relationship and buy some anyway. As we surveyed the selection, this guy starts making intense kissy faces at me and decides it's somehow okay to touch Riley's backside. Needless to say, we're still on the hunt for our produce man.

Our official bread lady. She made the cut.

touristas

We've discovered some sort of European picture pose trend. What is it with that stance that they can't get enough of? Katherine has it down. We always make fun of it, but now I'm thinking it's not so bad after all. You're welcome Kitty. 

we eat a lot here

So, who knew going out to eat was only for extremely wealthy people in Florence? For some reason I had this vision of going to five course meals, each course paired with the perfect wine by none other than the restaurant's very own sommelier. Well not that extreme, but something along those lines. As it turns out cooking with fresh meats, cheeses, and vegetables can be even more enjoyable than the first option. 

Here's an irrelevant question: If anyone who reads this knows how to upload pictures to a blog without having to majorlyyyy reduce the quality of the picture would you mind helping me out? An e-mail would be exceptional.

alliglover@tamu.edu

Homemade spaghetti sauce. Italian style, of course.