If you who are my faithful followers were concerned that I have not posted in three and half weeks, you should have come to rescue me. I was captured by a traveling circus, made to live in the stalls with the dirty horses and dangerous lions, forced to clean up after the elephants, and isolated by myself in an animal stall where I had to sleep alone in the cold and was miserable all day and all night. But alas! I have escaped and returned to tell you about my travels with the circus all over Italy. So fear not, I am warm and in good company these days, though still recovering from the emotional stress that my experience caused me. I will return to normal one day (maybe), but for now, just listen to me, please, as I tell my tale.
(Before I begin, I will just quickly let you know that the week after I last wrote, before the circus took me, was pretty uneventful. I went to class, wrote an essay, learned some Italian, drank some wine, and ate some delicious food. Nothing out of the norm or worth mentioning.)
It all started during what was supposed to be my fall break. I was supposed to go to Lucca on Tuesday and Milan on Thursday for two days with my good friend Valerie, but the thieves of the circus stole me away on Sunday night. Somehow, however, I still ended up in both Lucca and Milan at the same times Valerie was there. I was able to sneak away from the ever-watchful eye of the evil ring master long enough to explore both places with Val.
Lucca was unbelievably beautiful and quaint. It had a town wall that went all the way around the perimeter that had a sidewalk with trees on either side along the top of it. We explored the city for a while (always making sure to stay far away from where the circus was set up), had a little photo shoot/photography tutorial in some beautiful public garden (see photo #1), and I got my haircut on a whim! Don't worry, it's nothing drastic. Just getting my bangs back and adding some long subtle layers. It was certainly interesting (and a little nerve-wracking) to try to explain to the hairdresser what I wanted in Italian. Good thing I had the basically fluent Valerie there to help me. My hero! :) After my haircut, we headed up the top of the wall and walked around for a while (photo #2). It was the perfect fall day: there was a slight breeze and a beautiful, clear blue sky, the leaves were changing, and people were out for walks with their children and their dogs. We saw lots of cute couples and lots of old men playing cards and enjoying the beautiful day. In the evening, I had to head back to the circus before they realized that I was gone and started a manhunt for me. So I departed from Val and headed back to my cold, dirty, lonely stall. But I was warmed and encourage by the memory of the beautiful day that I had.
Wednesday went slow in my stall, but I did bond with some of the lions, so that was good. Thursday was the day I was supposed to go to Milan with Valerie and I was very sad to not be going. However, during our early morning meeting, the ring master announced that we would be taking an unexpected detour to Milan! Hooray! I immediately started planning my escape. Fortunately, I was able to get away due to some help from the Chinese acrobats and the monkeys.I met up with Valerie at the train station and we started our exploration of Milan. I have to say, after Lucca, Milan was kind of a letdown. I felt like I was in Chicago or Boston or something. It just wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for. But Val and I had a great day. We walked to a park and sat and had a good, long, deep talk. We talked about our dogs, our families, life in the circus, you know, the usual. Then we headed to what was supposed to be a fabulous aquarium. We stopped for lunch on the way (red wine and pizza...yumm-o!) and then made our way across the street to the aquarium. Talk about a letdown. It was one floor, one room. I don't even want to talk about it because it was so depressing. Just don't ever go to the Milan aquarium. It sucks. Anyways, as we were leaving the aquarium and exploring some more, we stumbled upon a beautiful old castle. We went inside and hung out in the courtyard in the glorious fall sunshine. (It was so nice to not be stuck in the tents with the elephants and horses all day.) As we were leaving the castle however, the fun stopped when we found a flyer for the circus and I realized what time it was. I needed to get back before anyone realized that I was gone. I hurried back and luckily no one had really noticed. To my great surprise, Valerie showed up at the circus that night. Since everyone is so busy during the show, the ring master in particular, I was able to sit in the audience and watch the show with Val. It was quite enjoyable, actually. The non enjoyable part was going back to sleep with the animal performers after the show. But again, I was kept warm by the promise of another fabulous day with Valerie the next day.
The second day in Milan was a little rough. We did see the National Science and Technology Museum which was great. There were lots of Leonardo's sketches which had been realized with little models. They also had examples of tons of old phones, radios, music players, globes, maps, telescopes, TVs, anything you can think of. It was phenomenal. There was also a photography exhibit of a man who did work for Time, Newsweek, and many other prestigious publications. All of his photos were breathtaking. They were innovative and striking and the subjects were so provocative. I'm so glad I saw that. After the Science and Technology Museum, things kind of went downhill. We got lost a lot, things that were supposed to exist seemed to have disappeared, we both got irritated...it wasn't great. So I headed back to the circus early, a little disappointed, but glad that I got to spend so much time with Valerie. All in all, it was a fabulous two days.
The next two weeks were pretty uneventful. I mean, as uneventful as life in the circus can be. There's always drama in the circus. If you want a good illustration of the drama, politics, and danger involved in a circus, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a good reference. It will help you to understand what my life was like during the last three weeks.
It happened on a Friday night. After two boring, but awful weeks, I ran away for good. I spent while planning my final escape. It was dangerous. I was very scared. But I did it. I owe my life to an elephant named Eileen and a clown named Roger. I am eternally grateful to them.
I made it home by Saturday morning, just in time to head to Padua for a night with my host momma, Anna, and my nonna (grandma). We stayed at Nonna's house, which is about a half an hour outside of Padua, for the night. She had a huge, beautiful garden in her backyard. There were tomatoes and peppers and lettuce and olives and oranges and lemons and kiwis and grapes and raddishes and everything you could imagine. It was wonderful. It was so good to be out in the open, free air after all that time cooped up in my stall in the circus. The little town we were in reminded me a lot of Charlevoix. It was very small and everyone seemed to know each other. It was out in the country and there was lots of green and it had the cutest little downtown area. I was obsessed. Anna has already promised me that we can go back for another weekend before I leave.
I got home from Padua Sunday evening, glad to be back in my own bed rather than on a bed of hay. Class on Monday was the same as always, except everyone was glad to see that I had arrived home safely and they were all eager to hear my tales. Yesterday was midterm day. I only had one, and it went very well (I think/hope).
Forgive me if this post is not up to par. My terrible circus adventures left me exhausted and I am still in need of time to recover. Time to recover, however, is not in my near future. I have a crazy three weeks ahead of me. Tomorrow at seven o'clock in the morning, I leave for Rome. I will be there for four days with my program. We will see catacombs, the Vatican, San Clemente, the Colosseum, the ancient Roman baths, everything there is to see in Rome. And all in four days. How lovely. I get home to Florence Sunday night, and then Tuesday, my wonderful friend from Hope, Katie Anderson, is coming to stay in Florence until the following Sunday. It is going to be a glorious week. I will be very glad to see a familiar face. After she leaves, I will have another week of classes, and then...(drumroll, please)...I AM GOING TO LONDON FOR THE HARRY POTTER PREMIERE!!!!!!!! (This is the part where you all turn green with envy.) It is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I absolutely cannot wait. I will be in London for three days (which is cool enough in itself) and the night I get there, I will see HARRY POTTER at midnight (the Jupiter-sized cherry on top of the best sundae ever)!!! So for all of you who remember one of my first blogs back in August when I was worried about missing the movie altogether, you can now celebrate with me the strange way life has of working things out. Basically, my life is the most fabulous life ever. I am so lucky :)
So, I am going to sleep now, because, as I previously mentioned, I am leaving for Rome at 7 AM tomorrow, which means a 5:45 wake-up call. That's going to hurt. But, I promise a blog sometime next week describing all that happened in Rome (or at least most of what happened in Rome), provided that no more circuses kidnap me. Or packs of wolves. Or cute Italian boys on mopeds. Or anything else. Who knew Italy was such a dangerous place? :)
Until then, I will do as the Romans do :)
Ciao miei amori. Buon serata.
No comments:
Post a Comment