The End of October

10/23/08
I took three tests today and they were all very simple and straight forward I was not stressed about any one of them. I studied and hour before the test and that was enough for me. I felt really good because I made it a focus to really pay attention to what is going on in class and remembering that. For my international Business class I got an A without reading a single page in the book. My logic is: if its important it will be mentioned in class and I only take bullet point notes because I want to trust my brain in remembering what was talked about. If I write too much down in my mind I am basically saying "I don't trust my brain to recall this so I'll write it down". So far it's worked and we'll see how I do.
Afterwards I went to visit a friend and just hung out with her. It was the day before I went to pick up my mom and brother and I was sad for some reason. I don't know why. So much was going on in my head and I needed to sort it out. I don't know what is in the future and sometimes that frustrates me but I need to remind myself about my own philosophy and just go with what comes my way and trust that things will unfold the way they are suppose to.
I came home and as soon as I got home I was getting ready to go out again because my neighbors were meeting up with some travelers that they had met when they were in France. So we meet up with them and went to an aperitivo and had some awesome wine...but the secret was that it was a Syrah from Argentina. We thought it was a Chianti. We then walked around to the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo. I connected with their friend on an intellectual level and it was interesting to hear his stories about his travels and I shared mind. He told me that he was going through Europe visiting his friends that he had made when he was studying abroad. He was working for one year after college and decided he was tired of that so he came to Europe. He said that his passion was in traveling and meeting new people. I agreed with him and I feel like mine is a little bit different but along the same lines. Their friends were from Minnesota and it was really cool to hear their accent that I had only heard in movies before. They were the nicest gals and they too were working when the decided to leave and come to Europe for a month. It was so cool to hear their story. We then called it a night and I went home and I got ready for Rome the next day.


10/22/08
I went to La Cite and took a tango class I had a blast!! It was so much fun, thank goodness...something different for a change. I met an Iranian professor lady and a really cool swedish girl who where working here in Florence. The Professor was
special, my past self would have not liked her but now I wanted to see past the exterior and dig a deeper into her personality. At first glance her attitude was very unpleasing she had a negative aurora, but as we talked a bit more with her cool swedish friend she said she was very tired. So I figured that's why she had such a negative energy.
Then I danced some salsa with some random girl that I was introduced to and I was reinvigorated!! I love salsa, it just makes me want to dance. I then left and got a gelato on my way home and enjoyed it by my self on the bridge as I looked towards the Ponte Vecchio. Then I just went home.


10/19/08 through 10/21/08 Sunday through Tuesday
I didn't do much other than go to school, go out here and there, and cook some really good meals. It was actually quite uneventful. I went to the market didn't study or read for my midterms, so I had a lot of free time. So on Monday I had a presentation and I didn't know what I was going to do until the night before! I decided on something and then I went home. I was invited to have dinner upstairs so I went and put off my project. We talked and just hung out. I then went home typed up some slides and then went to sleep. I was going to give a presentation on an Italian poet. It turns out that I chose the most famous poet and recited his two most famous poems!! All by chance really. The funny thing was that my professor was so impressed and happy that I chose that because it was different and unique. I remember telling one of my classmates that asked me what I was going to do and I said that I didn't know what I was going to do but it was going to be great. The next day I gave a great presentation and I was very proud of myself for being able to do all this and not feeling an ounce of stress!! I just knew that it was going to come to me and it did.
On Tuesday my neighbors from upstairs came down and we had some dinner and then sipped on some wine playing card games we had a lot of fun. Some random people came in the house saying that they were following some Americans and they had heard us so they came up. We were friendly and all drank and learned to play some games. We discovered that some people from different parts of the country play the same game but with slightly different rules which was really cool to learn and it made it much more fun. The random girls were from london and we then went to a club where there was a Beatles cover band and it was sooo much fun. I understood at that little concert why they were loved so much...their music was so catchy and fun to listen to. We sung and danced and had a jolly ol time. It was my roommates birthday so there were a lot of the people from our house at the club. I remember being one of the few who were dancing and having fun with my neighbors. On our way home we played with someone's dog that was so cute and then we went home.

I did a lot of self reflection throughout these days aswell.