remember that time i had a blog?

weird. me neither. thinking about coming back to this whole blogosphere thing....

bar-th-lona

Just got back from the most amazing trip to Barcelona! I was there for longer than I've ever visited any place in my life that doesn't involve family and I would happily go back and do twice the time. So many pictures and stories and sangria-fueled memories that I can't wait to share!

weather or not

If I have ever complained about Italy being too hot, I take it all back right now. The past few days have been lower sixties and rainy and it's absolutely killing me! It's literally gone from 80s and sunny to that basically overnight and I'm dying over here. I've totally forgotten how to dress warmly and have retreated to my winter wardrobe of men's flannels that I find at thrift stores and leggings or skinny jeans. Save me please! The only bright spot in my unbearably cold future is my trip to Barcelona next week which I absolutely cannot WAIT for! My roommate from last year and I are meeting for a week of adventure in Spain and I could not be more pumped for it. I've been reading just about every travel guide I can find for Barca and have been making a list (and checking it twice) of all of the museums and restaurants I want to try while I'm there. Does anybody have suggestions? I've never been to Spain before and I'm driving myself crazy trying to come up with a packing list.

desktop woes

Am I the only ones who hates using other people's computers? Your fingers can never find the right letters on the keyboard, all the icons are in different places and none of my passwords are saved. My laptop had been acting up for the past week and I have no idea what's wrong with it. It keeps going to a blue screen where it tells me that it's doing an  "information dump" and making a terrible grinding noise...like no computer should make a noise like that. Until I can figure out how to fix it, I'm posted up on the family desktop and it is not nearllly as comfortable as lying in bed watching the new "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." It is, however, mucch more conducive to actually getting my schoolwork done so, like, ya win some, ya lose some, right? It is the beginning of my midterms after all and I have two ten page papers due by Tuesday that I just got the prompts for today...wish me luck!


I'll just leave you with this throwback. Is it too late for NSYNC to get back together?

i'm ragin'

...but not in a fun way.

Driving in Italy makes me so angry. I feel like all the stereotypes you hear about Italian drivers are actually 100 percent true. They drive fast, they can park anywhere, they use the horn too much, ALL of it. I'll be honest...I'm actually pretty new to this whole "driving" thing. I only got my license the summer before last and didn't have a car at school so my driving was limited to time I spent at home during vacations. All in all, that's maybe about 4 and half months of actual solo driving experience. Now take that and throw it into the craziness that is Italian driving and it's no wonder that this ish makes me shout at everybody who darts into space in front of me at the roundabout or at people who make two lanes out of a one lane road.  Okay fine...I'm being slightly melodramatic (jk I'm not) but there's something fairly nerve wracking about cars getting frustrated with you and passing you on a itty bitty tiny country road when you're already going 25 kilometers over the speed limit just to try and fit in. But you what what? If I can drive here, I can drive anywhere and you better believe that I'll be that girl honking her horn and driving too fast when I get back to the states.

plus it sounds way more badass to say "I'm driving 120 kilometers an hour" than to say "oh yeah...65 miles an hour. i'm craaazy."

turn up the bass

I have been loving Italian radio lately! I drive to and from post at least twice a day so that's a good hour a half in the car everyday and I go crazy if I don't have music playing constantly. I have like three favorite radio stations here and I go between them constantly. They all play a good amount of songs that I would hear back in the states, along with more Italian songs. My favorite part is that radio here has a bit more of a club-y, electronic sound than the stations I listened to in Maryland. Here are a few songs that I've been hearing everyday on my way to pick up the bro-seph from school. I feel like I'm going to get back to the States and have no clue what all the cool hip new songs are!

Cinema | Ben Benassi
Stereo | Stereo Touch
Still My Baby | Wolfgang Gartner ft. Omarion
The Golden Age | The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Get Back | Alexandra Stan

FLAG!

Soooo I've taken to reffing flag football in an attempt to bolster my (nonexistent) cash flow and it's actually really fun. I've spent a significant amount of my life scheduling my life around tackle football games due to being in marching band in high school and a cheerleader on top of that so it wasn't too hard to learn the rules and when to throw flags and all that jazz. And, not going to lie, it helps that I worked in the Intramural Sports department in college although reffing flag football then was more about bringing popcorn and beer to the football field behind my house and watching the SAEs and Kappa Sigs run around with no purpose while I got paid. Reffing now is some serious shit. I even have one of those official referee jerseys! And a hat! And a whistle! It's like I'm a professional or something! I do games twice a week in the evenings which hasn't been a problem...until now. If I have ever complained about how hot Italy is I take it all back now. It's finally dipped into Arctic levels over here (okay...below 70) and I was sooo super cold out of the gridiron today (see! I know football lingo! I MUST be an expert!). Not even the little running I did up and down the sidelines could warm me up and all I wanted to do was to change into leggings and a flannel. Luckily though the flag football finals are next weekend so I only have a few more games to go although I am seriously considering doing this again when I move back to the States. It may not be glamorous but it's easy, it's fun and I get paid twenty dollars a game. Oh and the best part? Instant referee costume! You plan the party and just tell me when to be there...

see how legit i look with my flag?

just tryna get an action shot