Alive and in Florence

For once, my travel plans went off without a hitch. Now unexpected overnight stays in Atlanta no last minute running to a different terminal to catch the last flight to my destination. It was almost too easy.

Anyway, I was being very frugal and bought the cheapest ticket to Florence I could find. I thought, I can just sleep and relax as the great steel marvel that is the steam-engine driven train propels me to my destination. I knew I had booked a regional train and new that meant no air conditioning. I thought I could handle it. But the ride was five hours long, and sleeping was not so easy. This is because everytime we would stop, which was every 5-15 minutes the beautiful, beloved breeze would stop blowing in my face and I just sat in the blaring sunlight. I was also to afraid to fall deeply asleep because I was paranoid about things being stolen. But anyway, I made it and though my winks of sleep were few and far between they did manage to rejuvenate me and allow me to make it to my final destination.

My apartment is quite awesome. I have taken pictures and will post them as soon as our internet is up. I am currently at an internet cafe.

Mi sono laureata!

Yep, I did it! I have a bachelor of arts degree. I wonder if that means it would be appropriate to sign my name Veronica Scheidler, B.A.

I have actually been done with classes since mid-June, but something about donning that cap and gown and listening to speakers talk about all of your accomplishments while admonishing you to be humble that makes you realize--this is kind of a big deal!

However, there was one point in the ceremony where I offered to hand back my diploma. Turns out I can't follow simple directions and messed up the processional. My mom can tell that story. She gets quite a kick out of it.

So, yep, I did it! Thanks to everyone who has supported and encouraged me! I couldn't do it without you! I owe an especially large amount of gratitude to my parents! I hope the copious amount of exclamation marks sufficiently illustrate the depth of my appreciation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, it's off to Italy...

I have a place to live!

So, finding an inexpensive lodging from the comfort of one's computer is not so easy. Especially, if you are looking for a lodging in a foreign country. All the appartments on craiglist for Florence were mainly geared toward tourists planning a short-term romp in the land gelato, pizza, and the Renaissance. So, I just started doing general searches in Italian and stumbled across this Italian site that was akin to craigslist and found loads of offerings.

I set my heart on this one shared room that had cheap rent, high speed internet, and a washing machine. I first expressed my interest via email, probably a month ago, and was sent additional information and then was told they were still deciding for about a month. Foolishly, I had invested all of my hopes in this room and hadn't worked out a back-up plan.

Sunday I received an email that said the roommates would decide who their next cohabitator would be and was asked "Sei ancora interessata?" Are you still interested? Nonchalantly, I replied, "Si, sono ancora interessata." Then several hours later, I thought, "Playing it cool will not work; I'm down to the wire!" So, I wrote an email that said, "Actualmente, voglio la camera con tutto il mio cuore!" Actually, I want the room with all of my heart.

Monday, no word.


With Italy being 8 hours ahead of Mountain Standard Time, I had expected an email to be in my inbox when I woke up. I checked my email nearly every hour until I realized it was 2 am in Florence. I had resigned myself to believing that my correspondent had found a better potential roommate. I frantically sent out emails to every other room that I was potentially interested in Monday night.

Then, Tuesday morning, my email inbox was full. Several of those I had emailed in my desperation provided information about their rooms, but I glanced over those to read the one from Angela, the landlady I'd been writing to.

La camera e' la tua.

i think this will be my room

Now, with such wonderful news I should end this post. But, I want to treat myself to a miniature rant. The Honorary Vice Consulate, a lawyer in Salt Lake City, will be gone until Monday! So I can't send my papers to the official San Francisco consulate until he gets back and I can apply before him, in person.



However, while they say there can be crazy hold-ups on visas, I was told to expect that I should have it back in 2-3 weeks--once it is sent out.

NYU in Florence

So, I am a graduate of Brigham Young University with a Bachelor's of Arts in Humanities with a history emphasis.

Thus, a new adventure begins...

I applied to the Italian Studies M.A. program at NYU, hardly expecting to be accepted; however, around mid-may a large envelope bearing NYU insignia arrived in the mailbox. I thought to myself, "They don't send rejection letters in such sizable envelopes. Maybe I've been wait listed." But no, glory be, I'd been accepted. I immediately began to peruse craigslist for housing in Manhattan.

Then...twist!

Turns out NYU has a center in Florence where they offer graduate classes in a setting where that Master's degree can be earned in a year or less. Turns out that they will also give you $3000 and a 30% tuition discount to study there. Turns out it is set on an 65-acre estate donated to the university in 1994 with grounds and an art collection worth $500 million. Turns out, housing can be a lot cheaper in Florence.this is a picture of the Villa La Pietra

So, I have a one-way ticket purchased to leave the ol' US of A for Italy on August 25.

Now I just have to hope my housing and visa go through!

Family Get-Together

On July 13th, I will pass from under the dark cloud of teenagerdom and enter my twentieth year. (I'm being a little melodramatic with the ''dark cloud'' stuff, but I always like a little literary flair). Anyway, in honor of this occassion and the fact that I will have survived Europe (6 days to go, so lets hope I'm not speaking to soon :)), we we're going to have a little get-together at the Scheidler household on Sunday, July 13. I'll cook some of the delicious Italian dishes I've learned to make, and we can regale you all with tales of our journey and you can gush over how dull your lives have been in our absence.

And of course, this is not limited to family, anybody who loves me can come!

For now we'll say the par-tay starts at 4:00.

See you in two weeks then!

UPDATE! Senza foto, mi dispiace!

So, I'm on a public computer, and that means no pictures! But I will try to upload some soon!

So far we've sojourned from Paris to Milan to Venice to Florence to Pisa and then back to Florence and tomorrow we're going back to Siena (my Italian hometown!).

Some interesting things we've seen:
A woman peeing near a bus stop. Seth and Camille saw this one.
Our lives flash before our eyes in an Italian taxi.
A minor riot in Paris (something at the Summer Solstice party went awry around 2 AM our first night and from our balcony we had a front row seat).

Oh, and we can'g forget that we've seen:
The Mona Lisa
Venus De Milo
Various other art pieces by Leonardo da Vinci
Notre Dame Cathedral
Sacre Coeur
The Duomo of Milano
The Duomo of Florence
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
The ''streets'' of Venice from a water-bus
Paintings by such masters as Botticelli, Giotto, and Michelangelo
and a Great Market in Florence
and Many subways and train stations!

We have Pictures!

Courtesy of Grandma Patsy's photography we have documentation of our journey to the Louvre. We were particularly fascinated by the Egyptian section (of course the Italian art was astounding! We saw the Mona Lisa, although here they call it La Jaconde, and a million other AMAZING, it doesn't seem there's a word in the English (or French or Italian, for that matter) vocabulary to explain how awesome, magnifique, or meraviglioso the museum was). So, here's what we have:
Note: Seth didn't really want to go to the Museum (we say one day he'll regret it) and Camille was sleeping off a headache