Posts Tagged ‘friends’

Saying Goodbye Part 2: Farewell Dinner

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

For the official end of the program we all had a big dinner together that was so fun but also so sad because we had to say goodbye to everyone. Luckily I will be able to see some of the people I have become friends with back in the United States but it was sad to have to say goodbye to a period in my life that was so full of adventure and new things.

We had so much fun together at the farewell dinner, we all took funny pictures and ate great Italian food in an underground restaurant.

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We took a couple of pictures of our Advanced/Intermediate Italian class minus Alanna. This group of people stuck out the whole semester together in Rita’s class learning Italian together and becoming really good friends.

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So many new friends, so many smiles.

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One last night of wine and fun with all of these wonderful people.

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I will probably miss Gabriele the most who was one of the Italian Interns from La Sapienza, the main Roman university. He helped us through many an Italian conversation class, took us out to Aperitivos and laughed with us (or at us) throughout the whole semester. He honestly made it such a special semester and I will miss him dearly. 10293668_10152326903682891_8050487323436207639_o 10295277_10152326893372891_603603694900085051_o

We even had little tiny tiramisu in cups 🙂

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And our last couple of nights as Romies (Rome Roomies)

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And then just some good old fun goofing off together and being strange. IMG_1508 10272511_10152326896942891_6119580309194827332_o 10015118_10152326895842891_872058088323024539_o 1941618_10152326894242891_4569875708876084071_o 887149_10152326897257891_6962843838114961902_o

The whole program all together for one last time.

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After the dinner ended, anyone who wanted to come went out for a night tour of Rome where we wandered the streets until 4am drinking, laughing, reminiscing, and exploring together one last time.

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We stopped by the Colosseum.

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The Trevi Fountain for one last wish.

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The Pantheon.

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And we all said goodbye at Piazza Navona and at 4am parted ways one last time to return to wherever we were going next. It was pretty heartbreaking, especially waking up the next morning and realizing a majority of the people in our program where gone and headed back to America.

I on the other hand am headed off to travel around Europe for a month, going to Germany, England and the Netherlands before returning back to Rome to fly back to the United States of America.

Ciao a Tutti!

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Holi: Festival of Color

Sunday, April 14th, 2013

The holiday  Holi was a couple of weeks ago but this weekend at University of California, Berkeley the Indian Student Association put on a festival for Holi. Many people have heard of these festivals of color where people by colored powder and in a giant mosh pit of people everyone throws color at each other.

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A giant throng of people gathers and takes part in this festival each year; this is my second year taking part and it really is an amazing thing to experience. You can find last year’s story of Holi here

At times there are so many people crammed into one space it is hard to breathe, impossible to see if you are as short as me, and in the mist of color filling the air there are shouts of joy and surprise as color explodes across people’s hair, face and bodies in a huge spray of vibrant color.

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A big group of my friends all came to the festival and we all stuck together in the massive crowd, dancing, screaming and throwing color at each other. It really is an experience everyone should have at some point in their life at least once.

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Our faces were covered in a huge array of colors, it felt like every part of me had been dyed a different color.

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After the war of color is over, everyone looks so different with a mask of colors changing the features of faces that are so familiar yet entirely altered.

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I can’t wait for the years to come where we can celebrate again and again the vibrancy of our lives and the world.

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Shout Out: Chef Mackenzie

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

I just got back from a brief but wonderful visit with one of my oldest and best friends who now resides in Napa, California. Yes, that does mean I have an awesome excuse to visit the beautiful wine country just a short car ride away from Berkeley. She attends the Culinary Institute of America in Napa training to be a chef and baker! Yes, she is that cool.

She showed me the place where she gets to learn how to cook and make pastries at the CIA and I was a little jealous. It is so different from the life I am living at college here at UC Berkeley that it was refreshing and new.

It was so great seeing her because she is about to head out on an amazing adventure to Nantucket where she will be doing her externship. Though I will miss her dearly, I know she is going to have so much fun. I know our last little visit sure was fun, including chasing giant rabbits, walks on railroad tracks, long talks, awesome food, lots of laughs, and best of all swimming at night in a pool with all our clothes on! So here is my little ode to Macky. I miss you already and have a spectacular time in Nantucket.

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Update

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

Sorry for the lack of posts… again. Life is hectic right now as my senior year brings me closer and closer to IB Exams. I have been working hard to catch up on my schooling after being gone for a week in Yellowstone.

However I got away from the hustle and bustle with some friends and took a road trip down to Cal Poly to see my brother. We went to the zoo and just hung out. More info on that will be coming over the next couple of days. I am hoping I will soon be back on track with posting. So here is a photo to tide you over, a funny look into the (inappropriate) life of Meerkats. (notice the guy just kind of chilling in the back ground watching).

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My Belongings

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

These are the things which belong to me:

A spider suspended in a cobweb
That lies in the corner of my room
Waiting each day to greet me
When I come home with a silent hello.

A fake flower in a waterless vase
With a single counterfeit dew drop
Balancing on the end of a synthetic leaf
Like a tear drop that will never fall.

A painting of a woman half finished
Hanging over my bed at night
My guardian angel watching over my dreams
The dream like visage of who I might be.

A horseshoe above my doorway
That hangs upside down
The luck has all fallen out
Of its open face.

A crumbled up piece of paper
With the semblance of words
Written and re-written
Only to be crossed out.

A picture of myself with friends
Who have gone yet still remain
Faces that have so very changed
Yet I still feel the same.

A piñata’s head from years ago
Emptied of candy and color
Once prized and cherished
Now looked at as trash.

A picture of a woman
Who does not know me
But I feel I know her
From another past life.

These things that I call mine
Don’t belong to me at all
They own me like their coveted doll
Just an object, a thing.

Yet still, these are the things which I call my own.

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Earth Works

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

On a field trip with the other IB art students at my school we went on an adventure to Pebble Beach near Pigeon Point Lighthouse to do some earth work artwork. It was a lot of fun, some people did works inspired by the wonderful Andy Goldsworthy, and others just had a lot of fun being creative by using only things found on the beach.

My favorite piece was my friend Hailey’s earthwork which she made out of snail shells she found on the beach. It reminded me of Andy Goldsworthy a lot and was beautiful.

A couple of friends worked with me to make a zen balancing rock garden in a tide pool on the beach. It was a lot of fun and I worked on making archway rock pilings which were a little difficult but fun to do.

It was only part of the field trip but it was my favorite. There is something so rewarding about creating art and having fun doing it. Working with a group of friends and taking only what the earth provides to make artwork that is creative and fun to do. Most of all, it is just so much fun enjoying nature with some of your best friends.

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Shout Out: Family #2

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Meet my creepy yet lovable “family”. We spent a night running around West Cliff in Santa Cruz having fun, being teenagers, and taking pictures. I just wanted to shout out to my best friends, LOVE YOU GUYS.

I have so much fun when I am with you and you make me forget the things that make life hard. Thats what friends are for right? I am lucky to have friends like you guys. Even if Golnoosh gives me killer tackle hugs and Hailey has creeped me for nearly two years now xD you guys make my life.  I hope you don’t need this post to know that though.

You guys hold up the sun for me, I hope I do the same. So there it is, I love our little family and think you are both beautiful and wonderful people. Thanks for being there.

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Tough Love

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

hahaha What does this look like to you? Me, I think it looks like a drag queen being abused by some strange deranged person. Actually, that is just me being attacked by my friends.

Can you tell how much my friends love me? 🙂 Well I love them no matter what they do to me. Let me give you a brief glimpse of my life through this picture.

I hate it when people touch my hair. Two of my best friends attacked me, dragged me out onto the grassy knoll, ditched me, then tackeled me, dragged me back to our spot, then held me down and put my hair into the most hideous pair of pig tails you will ever see.

Yah, that is my normal day. That and my retailiation of getting them back, that part is yet to come. 😉

People say I am weird, but what they don’t get is that my friends are just as weird as me in their own way. That is why I love them. They attack me, I attack them back, that is my life and I am pretty content with that.

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