Sunday, March 17th
It has begun; my slow and painful melt into eternal despair.
This is it for me, I guess.
It's been nice knowing you all.
Cue the aesthetically pleasing study montage which absolutely doesn't include any crying whatsoever.
Coming to my rescue was Morgan's smashed potatoes which were quite delicious despite the spiciness and the strange tickling sensations it gave to my mouth. With it being St. Patty's Day and all, we decided to watch Far and Away (Ireland + Tom Cruise = True Happiness) to be on theme. While the Irish movie relation was clearly calculated, the potato thing was just a coincidence. We had a lovely time, Tom Cruise's unexpected twinkly magic and all. The ice cream helped enormously. Is there anything that ice cream can't fix?
Monday, March 18th
On this fateful day I arose early in the morn, scrambling to complete my interior design project and frantically trying to submit it online, only to find out when I arrived to class that we had the first two and a half hours to work on our projects.
It took several minutes to recover from the mourning of my morning stress which had all been in vain. Then came the fun part: the presentation. Because you all know how I LOVE public speaking.
I managed to get through it with out breaking down in tears, which is always a plus. I counted that as a success. Now, with that out of the way, I can move on to much more fun things like studying for my other midterms.
Skipping to the best part of today; the creamy gnocchi soup made by the lovely Kinley. Soup is the best, especially the creamy kind, and when you add anything potato-related it makes it 1000 times better. Kinley, you the eternal thanks of a soup-lover.
The blanket of rain pattering down over the whole world wrapped me in a cocoon of coziness as I followed my usual route to statistics class. As I strolled down my favorite street, a slight pep in my step from the jolly tunes my headphones were currently gracing me with, I glanced over to the two homeless guys in their usual spot as they bopped their heads to some sort of rap music. I felt my heart immediately sigh as I witnessed the sweetest thing. Even in the pouring rain, the homeless guys sat there, and the one umbrella they had, they used to shelter their dog from the rain. Whenever I am feeling blue, I have only to think of that heart-warming moment and all will be well once again.
I had only studied about an hour for this exam but as it turns out: I was over prepared. Before handing out the exam, the professor announced that this was an open note exam (which did nothing for me because my notes were on my computer, but a still a nice thought), AND he gave us a formula sheet! This was going to be a breeze.
Worry not, this is not one of those times where I say PSYCH everything was actually horrible. It was truly a breeze.
Tuesday, March 19th
Hannah's Spontaneous Invention Idea #2: a book that makes you think it's going to be predictable and then it's not. Ok yeah, maybe it's not THAT revolutionary of an idea, but I was pretty excited about it at the time. I had just started a new book and it's gotten to the point where I can tell who the love interest is about 5 words into his initial description. I've been right every time so far, and I was starting to get pretty tired of how predictable these books were. For once, I'd like to read a book that makes you think the love interest is going to be this one guy, but PSYCH that's just a random passerby that the author decided to describe in great detail for no reason. Or it makes you think that it's going to be the typical enemies-to-lovers thing but then PSYCH she goes off on an adventure and ditches the entirety of humanity. Or something like that. I tried looking up books like that, but either they don't exist, or they simply don't want to be found. Or I'm bad at using Google.
As usual, I submitted my poster about 10 minutes before it was due the night before and trudged into class, thoroughly dreading my second presentation of the week. Following my super confident explanation of all of the complex and totally unique techniques and ideas I implemented in my project, the professor opened the floor up for comments and critiques. My favorite. To my surprise, I actually was not severely attacked and left to be ravaged by wild wolves.
The sun shown down through the little slots up above for the first time in several days, and almost everyone around me was out and about frolicking in the sunlight. It struck me as quite interesting how much the weather affects people's moods. Hailing from California, the land of eternal sunshine, it didn't take long for me to grow tired of the constant rays beating down on me and making my skin prickle. I always loved rainy days (and still do) because it brought sweet relief from the never-ending sweltering heat. But everyone else in the world seems to love the scorching heat, which often proves to be a bit of a difficult dynamic for me. I'm glad they're happy, but when everyone's idea of "good weather" is quite different from yours, it tends to cause some issues. Like when people invite you to have a picnic in the sun when it's 90 degrees out. No thanks. I'd quite honestly rather have a picnic in the rain. Ok, rant over. Now you have a glimpse of 80% of my first world problems.
In the midst of walking to some unknown sinister location, a guy passed by me balancing an entire chair on head! Woah. Just thought you all should know about that.
Random Midday Thoughts with Hannah #27: Has anyone ever actually gotten sick from not washing their strawberries?
Wednesday, March 20th
I started this lovely Wednesday by missing the only good thing going for me this week: the cheese tasting! How could I have been so stewpid (insert over-annunciated british accent here)?
Today's form of torture: a 4-hour still-life drawing.
Ok, this one wasn't THAT bad, but you'd think 4 hours is plenty of time to draw a still-life, right? Well, apparently not when your paper is 3 times the size of your skull. It was going pretty decently until I got to the end where I began desperately scrambling to shade the driftwood correctly before the time was up. Flash forward to my grade, of course he commented on the poor job I did texturizing and shading the driftwood.
Some honorable mentions from our dinner party conversation:
“I look horrible, and you are the one wearing the salad bag” - Kinley as she took pictures of Morgan with a salad bag on her head
Georgia is above turkey??
Some horrible Irish pickup lines:
“I'm new to Ireland, can I have the directions to your house?”
“Your eyes are as blue as window cleaner”
We settled down for bed with some Nesquick chocolate milk and the raging thoughts running through my mind spurred by my finding that they had forgotten to put the biscuit in my chocolate-covered biscuit.
Thursday, March 21st
Some notable events of the day, SparkNotes style:
Hit my head on the dryer door
Passed by a man who had died his beard bright orange! How about that?
Got mushrooms for dinner that were so fresh there was still dirt and roots on stems
As for my last midterm, it went surprisingly well considering how I failed the quiz a few weeks ago. Fast forward to my results: 100%! How did I get 100% on the midterm and 48% on the quiz in the SAME class?? The world will never know. I'm just glad the midterm counts for more than the quiz.
Some highlights from today's eventide culinary affairs:
“I'm leaving this here with you until you learn to appreciate it” - me to Kinley in reference to a ball of mozzarella.
Kinley stuffed entire half ball of mozzarella in her mouth just to prove a point
Later that night we were blessed with a crazy lightning thunderstorm, garnering Morgan and I's attachment to the window for several minutes. It was quite awesome.
Some unknown event that night spurred me to look into Milk World Records. I'll include some of my favorites here so you too can be blessed with these enjoyable little tidbits:
Farthest distance to add milk to a cup of tea using a .22 - caliber rifle (50 yards)
Fastest time chugging a gallon of milk before sky jumping (54.25 seconds)
Longest time blowing milk bubbles with one breath (2 minutes and 20.13 seconds)
Most snakes milked (I forgot to write down how many... I guess we will never know)
Most milk consumed while walking on a slackline (1 gallon)
Longest time balancing an egg on top of a milk bottle while blindfolded (24 minutes and 39 seconds)
Fastest time to extinguish 5 candles with milk squirting from the eye (I forgot this one too. sorry)
Largest cow art exhibition (and this one)
Largest gathering of people dressed as cows (cow muster Australia)
If you woke up this morning wondering where the largest gathering of people dressed as cows has been, now you know. You are welcome.
Friday, March 22nd
Absolutely nothing happened today (which was practically paradise) besides the extremely tragic event of a mosquito biting my stinkin eyelid. Yes. You read that right. My eyelid.
Saturday, March 23rd
I looked in the mirror this morning to find the Hunchback of Notre Dame staring back at me. My eye had swollen to great magnitudes from that one mosquito bite, and no offence to the Hunchback or anything, but that wasn't really the look I was going for to start off my spring break.
The first hour of the day was jam packed with a series of unfortunate events. The mosquito-bite-hunchback look being the first, and then, in my haste to catch my train, I knocked over the facial moisturizer I had precariously placed on the edge of the sink which splattered all over my most favorite t-shirt and pajama pants. Now I was going to be late AND covered in moisturizer.
"...Hannah?", came Morgan's concerned voice from the other side of the bathroom door. That probably had something to do with the sudden clattering, loud yelp, and sounds of soft sobbing that were emerging through the crack under the door.
My lovely roommate helped me clean up the spilled moisturizer (thanks Morgan, you are amazing) as I scrambled to pack the rest of my stuff and balance my almost-dead plants (which I was bringing down to the front desk in an attempt to salvage what was left of them while I was away), my ice cube wrapped in a towel (in an attempt to solve the hunchback look, of course), and my 17 million bags.
I somehow arrived a little early for my train, so I just stood there icing my eye while I waited for the train to come. To the bewildered bystanders nearby, I probably looked like I had just gotten beaten up by a rabid squirrel. Let them believe that; it's much more fun than what actually happened.
Once on the train, this man decided to sit right next to me (directly on top of my bag I might add), when there were 2 open seats in front of me! That has got to be a violation of like 20 rules in the Public Transportation 101 handbook: you never sit directly next to someone unless you absolutely have to. He must've been a billionaire who has never had to use public transportation before or something.
I staggered my way to the hostel with my giant duffel bag which weighed 1 million pounds to wait while Morgan and her mom took their fancy high speed train here. Once we had collected ourselves and made introductions to the nice girl sleeping in our room with us who kindly told us of some pickpocket horror stories to frighten us just for good measure, we headed out to cram as much of Rome as we could into a span of 5 hours. Yes, that does seem like not the best planning, but we were only in Rome due to our early flight to Madrid the next morning, so really, we were just making the most of the situation.
In our search for some sustenance on the way to the famed Spanish Steps, we happened upon Palazzo Barberini, and I picked up quite a little delicious pizza slice thing which was very thick and saucy but in a good way.
The famed Spanish Steps! Like everywhere in Rome, the steps were teeming with over-excited tourists who had an apparent affinity foreign-inspired steps (that part's just the Spanish Steps, of course). The view was gorgeous though, and I thoroughly enjoyed the big puffy clouds covering the sky, which let beams of sunlight shine through their cracks, in turn creating a wonderfully fantastical atmosphere.
One thing to know about carrying any kind of camera with you besides an iPhone camera: everyone asks you to take their picture because they assume you must know what you are doing if you decided to spend at least a few hundred dollars on a nice camera. Bold of you to assume I'm actually good at my hobbies. But I don't really mind taking people's pictures, besides the added pressure that they have to turn out really good because I'm a photographer. It's kind of a self-defeated process though, because they expect me to take this amazing photo with whatever strange blackberry brick thing they have. I can only do so much; at a certain point it comes down to the quality of the camera. Also, the main parts that constitute the skill of photography come from the subject choice, the framing of the subject, the conditions of the environment, and the knowledge of camera settings to adjust (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and all that), most of which are stripped away from me when someone asks me to take their picture. So just keep that in mind whenever you hand your phone to a photographer expecting gorgeous photos from their magic hands.
I chuckled at an overheard comment made by a tour guide to his group as he was explaining how he thought that the Spanish Steps were pretty overrated. "It's just a bunch of steps". Yes, that is quite true, and a brilliant thing to tell the group of people paying you to show them those steps.
On to the next tourist hub: the Trevi Fountain again. Since I had already been here, I figured I'd probably end up taking the same photos as I did last time, so I instead began people watching and did a little street photography. I found that it was a nice change of pace, and I actually quite like street photography despite the fact that I hadn't brought a suitable lens for it (I love my 50mm f/1.8 lens, but it takes ages to focus which makes capturing fast moving people on the street quite difficult). I'll have to do some street photography again soon when I have a more suitable lens with me.
Even with my lens that's not quite suitable for street photography, I managed to capture some nice photos of an adorable little girl eating an apple perched on the edge of the fountain. I love the idea of street photography: capturing the beauty of people, and their emotions and stories, but it does come with a few complications. I haven't done too much research on it, but what I've found is that while it is perfectly legal (depending on the country, but typically you only need consent if you are going to use the photos for profit), not everyone likes having their picture taken, so it can sometimes garner unexpected hostility. It especially complicates things when the subject is a child, so while I love the photos I took, I decided not to post the photos here (while it's mostly just my family and friends, it's still the internet) because I want to be courteous to the child and her parents. You always want to respect people and their privacy, so just be careful if someday you become inspired and decide to embark on a street photography adventure.
Anddd we are going back to the Spanish Steps again, but garden edition this time.
It was a beautiful garden but couple central. Couples really do like their gardens and parks, don't they? This will soon become even more apparent in the weeks to come.
On our way out, we spotted a crowd gathering over by the ledge. At first it seemed as though everyone just really liked the view, but after making our way over there, our ears were christened with the not-so-melodic sounds of a likely drunk man in his twenties belting out lyrics without a care for his tone or tune. Karaoke. Hide your children. It is coming for us all.
While on the hunt once again for some food and a break for sore feet, we took a pause in Piazza del Popolo to get our bearings and decide on a restaurant.
And what a restaurant it was. I'm not even kidding; it was quite possibly the best meal I have had so far, this entire semester. My ravioli was absolutely delectable, and Morgan offered me a taste of her carbonara, which I liked a lot more than I was expecting. Our bruschetta appetizer was perfect, and the tiramisu we ordered for dessert was the BEST EVER. To top it all off, from my seat I had a beautiful view of the sun setting down the way.
I wasn't originally super hyped by the whole Colosseum #2 event, but it was night edition this time and SO worth it. I got some really cool shots amongst the fancy photographers that were drawn out by the full moon.
Now for the dump of random photos that didn't fit into a specific categorical section of the trip.
Aren't you so proud of me? Only 16 minutes! That's gotta be a record. You're welcome. Keep your eyes peeled, fingers crossed, and toes intertwined for my rendition of the next 85% of spring break.
And with that, I bid you all adieu.