rome-sick

it's no surprise that after having lived in roma for half a quarter, me (and all my study abroad mates) are utterly rome-sick. not to be confused with someone who's sick of rome or contracted some sort of illness from being in rome, no. i'm talking could've-stayed-a-92834982374-days-longer sick. now i don't know the right amount of time that's required to fully experience rome, but i'm willing to guess one would need infinity. there are so many things i did, yet so many things i didn't do, things wish i did, and things i don't even know wanted to do yet.
lately i've been loading up on a lot of anthony bourdain's no reservations since it's up on netflix. and slowly but surely, i've been torturing myself with selectively watching all the ones that take place in, you guessed it, italy. seeing all those places, spaces, and piazze that i've already been to definitely conjure up pangs of romesickness, and at the same time i'm completely determined to return - i did flip a coin or two into la fontana di trevi afterall... one thing that i miss the most about italy is its food culture that's lacking here in the states. no one takes food for granted in italy. no one overlooks the importance of superb ingredients in italy. they live to eat, whereas we eat to live. and to me, the act of sharing a meal and taking time to enjoy it, that's the sort of life worth living. alla vita!


pictures above (mine): a white page is a hidden poem; me in front of l'arco di Tito al foro romano.

burano, venezia

a part of our field trip to venice included a ferry ride to nearby venetian island, burano. famous for its colorful houses and lace, burano was a breath of fresh air. it was small enough for us to navigate a entirely new place, and the small town feel made it feel more  like a warm lazy day of exploration than an agenda-packed day of tourism. it's such a picturesque place, i remember taking a lot of pictures of and with everyone with the various colorful houses as backdrops. 

and for some reason i took quite a few feet pictures that day, haha. well, the top one i love because out of all the beautiful and bright houses there, i was reminded of the beauty in the ugly things concept and this shot expressed that perfectly to me. as for the bottom picture, my shadow was being particular cool so i had to snap a shot of that. 

if you ever go to venice, i strongly suggest you make to visit the surrounding islands (there are 117 of them!). murano is obviously a popular one for its beautiful glass art/wares. but if you want to take a step back from all the tourist atrractions that venice offers, take a day trip to the surround areas; it will be completely worth it (or as in italian: vale la pena).

kitchen | cucina

this kitchen totally reminds me of being in italy, and being in italy reminds me of pure joy. ha. i spent many evenings whipping up our apartment something tasty to eat before we out, or something tasty when we decided we were staying in. our quaint apartment in rome didn't exactly have marble walls in the kitchen that i distinctly remember, but marble surfaces were still everywhere and just so reminiscent of italian homes. 
the cans of tomato sauce were obviously a staple while we were in italy - a good brand makes all the difference for a great sauce base! and then there was the fear-inducing gas stove. some days i had luck, other days i lacked the skill and/or the patience to light the gas stove. in italy, usually you have to light gas stoves by hand via matches or lighters; and it was just so different from what all of us were used to that we tended to be skittish when it came to, oh you know, not burning ourselves...

in other kitchen musings... i am on the hunt for a great tea kettle. i'm a tad on the particular side because i don't want just any tea kettle not even for interim use, but one that's stylish and durable/practical. also, how adorable are those ceramic mugs?

pictures from my favorite design blog, Design*Sponge.

reminiscing: venezia

for our first field trip as a study abroad group, we left roma behind for a few days and said ciao to northern italian life in venice (or a venezia). at the time, most of us were less than impressed by venice. the trip definitely had its moments, but for some reason we became underwhelmed for the most part. i'm not really sure why either. perhaps it was the fact that most narrow streets looked eerily identical and led to dead ends or walking in complete circles (but i actually love getting lost in new places, shh). or it could be the fact that venice is one of the most visited cities in italy and tourists were just teeming the streets and restaurants and piazze (or campiello as they're called in venice)... actually, you may know that venice is barely populated by actual venetians today because it became too expensive to live there and it was smarter to rent out your home to tourists.

looking back now, i'm really fond of venice and i think we made really great memories there. i had the best sangria of my life thanks to this smoothie stand by day/bar by night place conveniently located next to our hotel. relaxing night walks on the rialto bridge. hunting for the best mask store in venice (there are so many!). drooling everytime we found ourselves in the great shopping areas (oh, the glorious, glorious shoes...). eating cuttlefish ink spaghetti for the first (and second!) time in my life! the weird, yet invigorating feeling i remember having knowing that we could explore venice without truly getting lost because we were on this island no matter what. i loved seeing our group (of thirty!)  crammed into tiny venetian restaurants. hilarious. and i think what i loved most was how much it felt like a vacation. i know, i know studying abroad itself is a vacation! but we studied a lot in rome, and for four days in venice it was all just relaxing, drinking, and eating sans studies - a true vacation in my eyes.

well, that was venice in a tiny, tiny hazelnut shell. maybe i'll post the crazy awesome graffiti art i saw in venice - just so many surprising gems of art (:

pictures above: (left) me in one of the many narrow corridors in venice; (right) a photo snapped by a friend while walking through one of the busier streets.

effortlessness

i don't really have any particular reason to post this or really even have to say about this picture, i just think she's beautiful. big knit sweater, maybe a little bit of tint on her lips, hair nonchalantly gathered on her head... just effortless. plus, i love how the sartorialist captured her.

here's to beautiful captured moments at your valentine's day festivities.  

mario schifano | satsuma from campo dei fiori | graffiti in venezia | one of the many cool street signs found in italy, this one's from roma

just a few of my favorite shots from my italy trip. next month marks the one year anniversary. let the reminiscing begin...

out of all the many museums we visited, i loved the MACRO in rome. it has over 2,000 mario schifano photographs. love his stuff; the photo above is one of his more tame and endearing shots.

there will be blood oranges

although this is actually just a sweet picture of clementines, it's still the blood orange's citrus cousin. one of the things my friends and i complain about/yearn for since leaving italy is the lack of blood oranges in our lives. in italy you could order a tall glass of fresh blood orange juice with your cappuccino in the morning no problem. its definitely the most delicious juice you could have in the morning. i wish that we could even buy the juice from concentrate let alone the actual oranges themselves. sadly, they are rare in these parts. but i will find them; QFC, Whole Foods i'm lookin' at you... and once i do i will bust out my jack la lanne, invite friends over, and there will be blood orange juice.

picture: oncewed.com 

tomatoes and bikinis

just another blog post about italy... not quite. i just love this shot of tomatoes, so roasted, so olive oiled and delicious. but then suddenly i realized that since my 'travel blog' miei viaggi failed i decided i post some pics, and if you're lucky they'll be accompanied by some anecdotal moments.

lido beach, rome.
the water was freezing and it wasn't a particularly hot day, even by a washingtonian's standards. but we wanted to get this shot regardless, ha ha. modeling in water on beaches isn't so nice it turns out. in the end, the triple train/metro 45 min chaotic ride to get there was worth being near open water again!

picture: oncewed.com

reminiscing: italia

when you spend a quarter of the year in italy, you can't help but look back and reminisce. it's a bittersweet pang of nostalgia. those vintage-y cars you see every where, honking along the streets of roma. the way the people, city scene, and zara stores make you want to be an italian supermodel. at a girls dinner this past week we all started talking about italy, as we often do, and we came to (obvious) conclusion that a city like Seattle is just so meh compared to those of italy. in firenze or roma or wherever, the city is yours for the taking and every turn brings something new. maybe you're thinking, rosin, you fool, that's only because you didn't know where the f you were going. true. but, i still feel like no moment was had twice even though i often wished there were. three months wasn't enough. i don't know what it is, but it would be a dream to find out...

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Pratica, pratica, pratica!

My friends, Sophie and Damaris, asked me to help them write a letter in Italian to their soon-to-be host family in Italy. It is my pleasure to be able to use my Italian, it's a weird feeling because I've never used my Italian before (other than for schoolwork/studying abroad/speaking with native Italian speakers). I've studied for three years, plus a quarter abroad, and now I get to use it! It's cool, I feel cool.

Here's a sample just to get my Italian flowing better again, it's been a month ugh!:

Cara familia ________,

I nostri nomi sono Damaris e Sophia e vogliamo spedire una lettera siccome abiteremo con voi in agosto. Non vediamo l'ora di arrivare in Italia e la casa vostra.  

Culture Shock

Culture shock. It didn't hit me in Italy, but it's definitely making life harder here in the Americas. Who would've thought life would flow out of me in a country I've never been in? I grew there. Here, back home, I kind of just go with the motions of my former life, which wasn't all that bad, but compared to Italy it grays in comparison... I don't mean to be a downer, but how do I balance these two worlds, these two me's, these two lives that I want, no, I need to live. I need to learn to adjust. I'm not doing so bad, it isn't as if I'm melting back in the same old same old as I left it back in March. I'm still new, and I'm still awesome... only struggling to bring my beautiful outlook on life to this Washington world of greens and grays, from the Italian life of reds and tanned skins. I returned home with this amazing I-can-do-anything attitude which I still have, although I feel like it's being a bit postponed or blocked by this uh-oh-everything-is-the-fucking-same-here realization... How do I keep my independence and "self-empoweredness" without giving everyone I left behind the finger? Okay, that's a tad dramatic, but it's almost how it is. This or that. Am I giving myself an ultimatum? That's bullshit. It's frustrating because I have to create this environment so that I can thrive in it. Italy was that environment for me, so I have to carry all that it had taught me as well as as everything all my friends and family (yes, my host family is like true family to me) had taught me: how to love, and how to be loved. I learned how to love myself there because others were able to show me so much love. I almost forgot what it was like to open up and let people in; not only that but let relationships in my life really mean something. I learned how to ask someone how they were (in 2 languages mind you) and actually WANT to know the truth. What's more they asked me back and I knew it was sincere and that they genuinely cared about me. I let well over 30 new people into my heart and I am undoubtedly a better person for it. Period.