Construction

Venice, Italy

Always making new friends in foreign countries. nbd.

With Carolyn in front of St. Mark's!

Connor, Mike, Carolyn, and I in front of St. Mark's!

Oh my god. Our first scoop of gelato in Italy!

Basically my favorite picture of the day. Couldn't stop making fun of Brendan for awkwardly putting his hands on my shoulder for the group picture so we decided to do a solo prom shot. SO perfect.

Riding on the Grand Canal!

Carolyn and I on a gondola!

Group picture!

Venice at sunset :)

Venice at night... beautiful!

I thought this man had bicep and peck implants...so of course attempted to take a picture of him...

Kens, Connor and I at dinner!

My two favorites in Murano!

Glass sculpting demonstration in Murano!

Kensie and I always wearing matching outfits. And no, it's not planned.

Lauren and I on the boat taxi!

Murano!

Exploring Venice

Pat with the thetas :)

Absolutely no cars in Venice. Taxis? Ambulance? Police? Oh yea, all on boats. So sweet.

The night of our wine tasting... uh oh...

Please do not let me mix wine and gin&tonic.

Because then I'll end up in a construction site, running away from three middle aged Italian men in a suburb of Venice by myself. Slow clap for me because I'm a dumbass. I run into things, trip over myself, but I usually make decent life decisions.

NOPE, not Saturday night. The classical music course that I am taking this semester went on a mini study tour to Venice (the heart of the music during the Baroque Period, as my professor would say) and I had a marvelous time riding gondolas, eating gelato every second of the day, people watching, shopping, etc. So the entire trip was smooth sailing until Saturday night. Our group went to a restaurant for wine tasting and I was pretty sure it was going to be an educational experience with a tiny sampler of wine... I WAS WRONG. Bottomless wine the entire night because our professor knows us too well.

I'm not going to lie, it was a blast. People were getting tipsy as the night progressed and I thought, as I sipped on my third glass of wine, 'oh this night is going to be pretty chill... no big'. That's when the waiter brought a little specialty jug with sparkling wine. I got a little too excited, chugged my third glass of white wine to get a refill of the bubbly which was when I knew the night was going to take a turn for the worst. Dinner was phenomenal--mushroom pasta, veal with tomato sauce, and tiramisu with endless jugs of wine... so my life was absolutely perfect at that moment in time. Then our class dispersed. Kensie and I ended up sneaking away to another bar with our friends Conor, Andrew, Rudy, and Kirsty where Kens had another glass of white wine (always classy, my girl) and I ordered a gin and tonic. I turned around to see this 65ish old man curiously looking at me and creepily smiling so I smiled girlishly because I thought--oh! nice old man. Then he gave me the one-finger-bend 'come over here' which was when I grabbed Kensie's arm and whispered in her ear about this cradle robber...'is there something wrong with my eyes or is he really giving me the pedosmile?' Oh and he was. He gave Kensie a nice look up and down and did the half smile. Thank you Italy for breeding such fine wine and aged douches. Always appreciated.

Anyway, we walked away. Conflict avoided. As we were walking away to find ourselves some more wine, this woman in a black coat in front of a bar grabbed my arm and asked me where I was from. So I smiled and told her, Los Angeles!!! Which was when I proceeded to yank Kensie's arm and introduce her to the pair of couples that were casually sipping on their wine. We spoke to them for a bit when they insisted on buying us a drink, one of the men (who seemed to be around 45) asked me what I wanted and my automatic response was gin&tonic. He gave me a disapproving look and said 'no no no, small glass of wine'. I guess he knew I shouldn't be drinking anymore of that gin. whoops!

I wish I could be more detailed but it just gets a little blurry after that bar. Hm. But Kens and I got to our hotel room safely, which was all that mattered. She felt a little sick so I waited until she fell asleep to go on round two of my night in Venice. Bad idea.

I heard Kirsty talking to Rudy and Andrew outside of my room so I opened my door to see what the game plan was but when I heard Kens hacking up a lung, I rushed back to make sure she was alive. After she had fallen asleep, I thought it was time to go out again. I mean, it couldn't have been that long since the threesome had left, right? Time passes by so quickly when you're not thinking clearly. So I put on my sandals, coat, and ran outside of my hotel. I saw three figures walking down the street and I started to jog after them.

You do not understand. Andrew is the tallest, most distinct human being on this Earth. He is about... 11 feet tall and towers over all Europeans... so when I saw a decently tall man walking with two other people, I immediately thought 'oh Andrew!!! wait!!!'

The three musketeers went through little alleyways and opened the door to their apartment.

Not Andrew. Not Rudy. And not Kirsty. Shit. I immediately thought... it'll be fine, just find a hotel and they can help me find my way back! I found a small hotel a couple blocks away and went to the nearest bar to grab myself a diet coke which was when a darling couple waved me over. I thought, well I'm lost ...might as well make the best of this situation. So I sat down and I chatted for a while to this Italian couple in their mid 30's. After I found out their life story, they offered to buy me a drink. Diet Coke. That's what a logical person would have ordered if they were parched, lost, and among a group of strangers. No no no, I ordered a gin and tonic.

They didn't speak English, Spanish, French, or Korean so I honestly do not know how I communicated with them ...but I guess it worked. By this time, I remembered my original plan and I left the bar with directions back to my hotel.

Again, I got lost. I begin to get scared because now I cannot see things clearly and all I can identify around me are long, dark alleys. Great. So I stumble upon a construction site. I stay in the garage and attempt to call all of the two people in my phone book from the Venice group trip. Brendan picks up his phone after being asleep and tells me to call Connor. I give Connor a ring and he picks up but I am too disoriented and emotional so he gives the phone to my other friend Carolyn who tells me to go to a hotel and call a taxi back to the hotel. Brilliant! So I walk out of the construction site to the nearby hotel where three Italian men in their late 30's start to harass me--'where do you live? Bella, we can walk you home. Where are you from? How old are you? You lost? Come in with us...'

All I could do was run away. So I run. Run away crying because I am scared shitless. I am lost, inebriated, and in a foreign country. COOL. I find the construction site where I call Connor again and ask him to find me. I don't remember how he found me but I do remember walking back into my room, seeing Kensie's brilliantly red hair sticking out from under the bedsheets and sighing with relief.

Apparently, I was only a couple blocks away from the hotel I was staying in and the next day when our class was safely cruising back to the airport, I passed the construction site where I hid. Now my friends poke fun at me and ask me if I need help on my way to class or if I'll get on the way. Hah. Thank you Venice for all these memorable moments.