Birthdays and languages

I was just in Belgium for Adeline's Birthday! My family hosted her in Californa for a year of study abroad. It was so great to see her, i couldn't believe it had been 5 years since the last time we saw each other, it felt like 5 days...her family was so amazing and welcoming...they made the most delicious lunch: meatballs and fries and salad, and they made a beautiful and yummy birthday cake for Adeline :)

I was so nervous to speak french....I didn't until the end really...it had been so long since I studied, I had trouble understanding it when Adeline's friends were talking, but when i was speaking 1 on 1 with someone, they were really great about speaking slowly and helping me understand. It was frustrating though because there was a time when I was nearly fluent. I had always been told that if you don't practice a language, you will lose it. Guess what? It's true. =) Adeline's sister and I got along really well...she was nervous to speak english at first, but when she did, she sounded fluent. I am definitely going back to Belgium to see everyone...


Now I'm back in Italy. I have got to study Italian more avidly. I just need to push myself, and memorize all those irregular verbs! And learn nouns and adjectives and all of it! But my problem is that I try to learn everything at once, and end up not learning anything....gotta take it slow. Maybe one vocab list, a page long every few days. We'll see, I'll keep you posted. I'm headed to Bormio soon to see Angelo...check out where we're spending a day:

http://www.bagnidibormio.it/gallery/gallery.htm

By the way, I ALREADY HAVE THE DART SKILL...a bunch of Adeline's friends went to a bar on her birthday and i started playing darts with a few of them...and i was awesome. I don't wanna brag or anything, but i was the first one to close out the numbers, i just really suck at the whole bull's eye business. I've got to work on that, it's all about the follow through :)

Ciao for now.

Florence, Italy.

A day.

Today was a lovely day, slept a ton and woke up late to run to Musee dell'Academia, where the famous David is on display.

My friend Sayam turned to me in the middle of class, I swear he has ants in his pants during class and said,

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift....that's why they call it the PRESENT".

In the new sacristy in San Lorenzo, we saw two tombs, one depicted the deceased as contemplative, and the other was depicted as active. Our teacher said that this represented two different ways to live your life: live an active life or live a pensive life. Got me thinking at how I live mine. It doesn't much matter, I think most people live theirs as a combination of both...these two lives are more of how others perceive someone's life.


.........

I need a skill.

I'm not exactly sure what type of skill, just some sort of talent, that is out of the ordinary of my every day life.

I have decided that i want to learn the cello. I don't know when, but it's something I want to do. And someday I'll play the harp again....

But a real hardcore skill would be nice, like "olympic-luge-ist" (thanks ashley), or a pool shark or a darts champion (thanks kaitlin) that'd be a pretty sweet skill to have at a bar. But I need something a little more epic...like climbing up walls.

Ashley just made plums smell so good.....she's magic.

Heading to Belgium in a few hours.....I'll let you know if I find a skill there.

Band we saw in Dublin: