Venezia

So on Saturday morning I woke up and took my small (as in tiny) suitcase and my bag in hand(s) and I was off to Venice (I prefer to say Venezia so from now on I'm going to write it that way)! I soon boarded the plane where I then stared out the window for two hours and I landed in Rome. I had less than an hour to find the gate in order to catch the plane to Venezia. The tram we had to take after the plane seemed to take forever...but I found the panel with all the gate numbers listed right away and found my gate number: B13
Awesome. Then I just followed the signs and walked quickly down hallways and up and down stairs and around corners. And I was so nervous and flustered that during all this sign-following for some reason I somehow got in my head my gate number was actually B14...so then I turned around a corner and down some stairs...and then at the end of a long hallway I find B14. Then I realize it's actually B13 and I turn around and go all the way back down the long hallway, up the stairs and down 3 more VERY long hallways and I finally reach gate B13. By the time I got there, there wasn't even time to go to the bathroom. I waited about two minutes and it was boarding time. So at least I made it. I was basically crapping my pants (not literally). Then we were in the air headed for Venezia. Near the end of our flight I began to see things down below us, and we started passing over what looked like huge swamps and mazes of water and canals....and we were nearing landing and I was expecting to see Venezia...but I never saw it and I thought "Oh my God the city finally frickin' sank. What the nut am I supposed to do now?!" Of course it would've been just my luck mind you.

As soon as I landed I ran to the bathroom like a racehorse. I was really nervous about meeting this new family. And when I came out a tall man with grey hair and a well-dressed woman followed him. Beside her was her daughter, both with red hair, and the girl was carrying one of those lap dogs. I remember thinking "Oh no..." But the initial awkward moment passed and we were soon in the car headed back to the house. Turns out the father could speak english as well...which was nice, but it's not like I really need it now. I learned that the girl's name was Ilaria, and I was surprised to find that we were very similar.

The first thing I said when I walked into their "apartment" was "Wow."
It was the first Italian home I'd seen with wonderful wooden floors that I have missed so dearly, instantly warming your feet, and it was wide and spacious, not fancy, but nice. And they had a nice WOODEN DECK, not a stone balcony. Not a single cold place in that house, and at night I was actually dying because I was so hot. But the room I stayed in was the study, with all the computers and everything...and it was very small and stuffy. I shared a room with the pet turtle that was kept near my bed. Me and him soon became buds.
As for the dog....well...depended. The dog at first hated me..for the first day. Then the rest of the time it was humping leg basically whenever it saw me. And one time I left the door to the study open and it went into my bag and ate all my kleenex -.- But it was surprisingly cute. From a distance. It definitely had character I'll give it that much. Speaking of character, let's move on to Ilaria's younger brother of 10 years. What a handful. A little on the heavy side. Blond hair with blue eyes. He was hilarious.
Although I'm quite used to having a younger brother around always getting me to play the strangest made-up games in the world with him so it wasn't a bad thing. We played all kinds of strange games with a squishy foam soccer-ball, as well as making faces at each other when we were watching TV. Good stuff.

Anyways, we stayed at the house for about an hour and a half, and I was already tired from all the airport business, and then we went to Venezia (the family lives in a city just outside Venezia called Mestre and I loved it) for a good 2 hours at least. Probably more. And we walked all over the place and I had already taken way too many pictures of the place. Everything seemed like a painting. And there were thousands of shops filled with masks and blown-glass figurines. And then there was also Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Ferrari, Louis Vuitton, etc. It is one of the most amazing places I've ever seen.

One of the first things you see

Grand Canal

Ilaria and I

One of the many shops filled with hand-made
puppets and masks

A "street"

A nice quiet place

A building

I quite liked these

A door..I dunno I like it's character

A terrace

An extremely old church
There's pics of the inside later

Gondola :)

Another "street"

People actually live down here

Some jazz musicians in the street

Some cool jewelry 

Markets are everywhere

Nearing the piazza

Another gondolier

Grand Canal

The church in the piazza di San Marco

So that was the first day after I'd barely arrived. And then that night we met up with all the other kids from Intercultura with their host siblings and we ate some pizza and walked around and goofed off for a bit....and by the time we got back to the house I was dead. And unfortunately I didn't have a very good sleep. I was too full of exciting thoughts and plans and I was hot and my mind was everywhere. And then Monday morning I had to wake up at 7:30 to meet up with the others at 8:30. And I was already a zombie and we hadn't even gotten started.

That day we spent I don't know how many hours visiting the gargantuan residence of Doge, who was the governor of Venezia when it was still an independent republic. I t was gorgeous...what a "residence."

A little bar on the water..and boats

A "street"

Looking back from the boat (which would
normally be a bus in a regular place)

An arts museum that I had wanted to go see

Un palazzo 

Gondolas covered from rain

Wine anyone>

I've been on this bridge a few times

Ani from India

Me and Minglu from China

.......heheh

The Basilica

San Marco...obviously

Joaquin from Bolivia

Left to Right: Diego (Bolivia), Karina (Russia),
Me, Minglu (China), Ani (India), Joaquin (Bolivia)

Back row Left to Right: Ani, Joaco (nickname),
Thomas (Belgium), Diego, Laura (Paraguay)
Front Left to Right: Minglu, Karina

A column

La residenza del Doge
(I know right?)

The Grand Staircase
(I'm pretty sure that's what is was called)

Golden Ceiling

Me and Diego at the window

The map room.

;)

The church in the piazza di San Marco

A shop

 

Dhali

So that was the first day! It was pretty exhausting. And my shoes were soaking wet and squishy and I kinda felt like poop so that night I went to bed early...but I still couldn't sleep!

Third Day Coming Soon..