It's been too long...

Where to begin!? I have been MIA for a while because I have been so busy! We just entered our 4th week of school and I had a presentation today in Product Development and I have a project due Monday (the corset) Things have been going well in school, my Italian class is extremely difficult because he doesn't really speak much English and I sit in the front because I want to come across as a good student and he always picks on me!! He will ask me a question in Italian, and I will sit there like a deer in the headlights and say "I don't know" repeatedly, then he'll teach the lesson! So I get to look like an idiot in front of the entire class while he makes aguinea pig of me. Its embarrassing and very annoying. Also, we have a test on Thursday and it is over 5 chapters in the book ( and there is A LOT in those 5 chapters), so I am pretty sure I may fail my first test ever. I guess its a good thing that it is only a 2 credit hour class and its Pass/Fail.
My other classes are going well. In Product Development, our ( my group) project is to develop a line of souvenirs for KSU Florence students and the steps to getting to the final line. Today's presentation was for our market research. Basically, our market is fashion majors in Florence, ages 19-24 (I had to include myself...haha). Our price range is 5-30Euro and our products are: a slim-fit, long, deep v tee with a graphic placed somewhere on it, a printed silk scarf, an embroidered pashmina scarf and a tote bag made of recycled plastic bottles for books, supplies or groceries (as the supermarkets here make you pay for bags). We feel that we have a pretty strong product line, as these are all things we would buy ourselves. We also thought of these things because they are a little classier than your typical souvenir and the customer could actually use it, rather than letting it sit on a shelf collecting dust. The next part of this project is product positioning where we will decide where to sell, etc and then we have to have sketches, mock-ups and then finally a complete line. Of course this is a semester-long project so we have a while to work on it.
For my design class, I have a corset due Monday, which instead of creating a pattern for, we draped it on the form. It is a good exercise for draping technique and definitely was a good warm-up for our following projects, which include: a draped jacket (blazer-ish style..) and a boned-bodice dress (which I have not decided on what I am going to do) and a couple other mini-projects in between. Today we went to a fabric stockhouse in the middle of nowhere to look at fabric. I thought we were being taken to slave traders until we walked into the creepy warehouse that housed millions of bolts of beautiful fabric. It was a fabric wonderland! I found so much that I wanted to buy, but I held back and stuck to what I needed for my projects. I bought a beautiful printed silk that is a white background with navy, brown and tan flowers scattered throughout. I am planning on using it to line my jacket, which will hopefully be a charcoal grey wool. The design has yet to be decided, but I will definitely post my sketches for everyone's opinion! The other fabric I bought is a navy taffeta-like fabric that is beautiful. You know when you get bleach on your favorite navy blue piece of clothing and it turns the pinkish-brownish color? Well, my fabric looks like that, and the "bleach" is in a strip pattern, it is truly unique and I really like it. That will be used for my final project (the boned bodice dress) I, again am not sure what to do, but I will begin sketching soon. The best part of all of this fabric, is that it wasn't very expensive!! They are mill-ends and other types of run-offs, so there may be irregularities, but as a whole the fabrics are great! I plan on going back there to gather some fabrics to bring back to the States. (Good thing Ben is bringing an empty suitcase!! :) )
Let's see, what else have I been up to? A lot actually!!! I have been pretty good about updating my pictures, but not so much this, so I will fill in about my pictures!
A couple of weeks ago, we decided that since we are in Italy, we should probably see the sights in Italy, so we hopped a train to Pisa. Well, you know how Pisa is so famous because of its leaning tower? Well, that's because that's all there is. Period. When we got off the train, we expected it to be this bustling city...it was not. It was actually kinda a craphole and I would never want to go there again. Where the tower is, is enclosed by a wall, like a fortress. And of course when you get off the train, the Tower is at the OPPOSITE end of the city, so once you walk to the sketchy town of Pisa, you see why the beautiful part is protected by huge stone walls. Now, it is Italy, so even the bad parts are still a little charming, but coming from Florence, which is beautiful and is referred to as "Historical Disneyland", its a bit of a shock. Anyway, so we finally get to where the tower is, and its definitely leaning, which is strange to see in person. I took a million pictures of it, but none of them seemed to express the degree to which it was leaning, so I guess you just have to use your imagination. Then we decided to do like the tourists do and take those stupid pictures as if we were leaning on the tower. 40 minutes later, we figured out how to do, and looking ridiculous trying to figure it out. That got old pretty fast, so we decided to stroll the markets (and they went on forever...it is tourist central after all...) I bought some cute things and then we all decided that our feet were killing us. We had originally planned to stay and have dinner and take the 9pm train, however we overestimated what there was to do in Pisa, so we cut it short at 3. It was a nice little day trip, and I am glad I went, but it definitely wasn't full of excitement and probably wouldn't go back. I would highly reccomend that if you are in Italy however, that you go. It's what the tourists do.
The day after Pisa we went to a little slice of heaven called "Cinque Terra," which in Italian means "5 Lands" Its 5 little towns that are connected by some serious hiking trails ( about 5.6miles up and down stairs and hills...). They are all old fishing villages and they are great. The houses are all painted bright colors so that the fishermen could see their house from the sea. They are known for their pesto, fresh anchovies,Troffie pasta, and various other types of produce. It was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on, it was definitely hard at points in the trip, such as the 365 stairs we had to climb. I posted a picture of them, but it hardly does it justice, talk about "feel the burn"!!!! I am definitely going to have to make the StairMaster my new machine at the gym after that. It was totally worth it, as after climbing the stairs we had an amazing lunch. The hike ended at the beach, which was full of topless women, an odd thing for a bunch of American girls. No, we did not partake in the tradition, we are much too modest for that. Cinque Terra was probably one of my favorites so far because, not only was it beautiful but it was an amazing workout and it felt good to get outside and really work hard.
Last week at school was great because we were only there Monday and Tuesday and it was arrivederci Florence and 'ello London!!!! The second I stepped off the plane I was in love. Although it was cold and windy and not very sunny, something about it just felt right. As soon as we got to London we went to our hotel which was located in South Kensington (a great location: across from Kensington Park) The hotel was great, and it was a nice change from our hot apartment in Italy. After we checked in, we went to The Kensington Gardens Orangery to have afternoon tea!!!! I was excited to actually try real British tea, as I don't really like hot tea normally, but it was delicious! I am hooked. We had little cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserves and then the "Orangery cake" which was cake that had a definite orange flavor. It was all so great (there are pictures of all of these things on my shutterfly website...) We then got to take a tour of Kensington Palace and see the Princess Diana memorials outside on the gates. It was actually pretty moving to see and also very beautiful. After the palace we were on our own for the night, so we decided to explore around town. We went to Selfridge's ( a fabulous department store) and a couple of other boutiques. We were hungry again, so we decided to go to China Town for dinner. We went to a sushi place (which sucked for me, because I am not that big of a sushi fan...) and it was ok, but we definitely received culture shock number one: the pound equals about two dollars. So, after I finished my $6 water and my $20 lo-mein we decided to make our way back to our hotel. I had a really bad headache but everyone wanted to go out, so I went. It sucked. Pretty much all of London closes between 9-11 and the pubs aren't open much later. so by the time we got ready and found a place to go, they were closing. Good thing, because I did not feel like spending $14 more on another martini.
After the most expensive night ever, Thursday morning we took full advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel (which was actually really good) and departed for a guided bus tour of London. It was great! Our tour guide's name was Nigel and he was hilarious, gotta love that British humor (I actually do...) He showed us where the all the cool stuff was: Harrod's (the greatest store in the world...) the Prime Minister's house, Big Ben, London Eye and most importantly, the changing of the guards!!! It was really cool, there is a band that marches behind the guards and was really neat to see. We then took some pictures of Buckingham Palace and then went back to the hotel. We had to change in time to go see "Wicked" at the Apollo!!!!! If you are not familiar with the show, it is basically the "Wizard of Oz' but from the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view. It was such a good show and if it ever comes to town, go see it!! After that we were exhausted, so we went home and went to bed.
Friday morning we had a guided tour through Liberty's, which is yet another department store but it is very cool and I am glad we went. It is very cozy, plush carpeting, wooden staircases and shelving, just very interesting and of course, beautiful. After that, Tracy (my roommate) and I decided to hit up TopShop, which has a cult like following among young fashionistas because of its super up to date (and forward) clothing, accessories and shoes. They have a great vintage section, their shoes are AMAZING and I wanted to buy everything. Instead I bought one dress, which was adorable and I can't wait to wear. The best part of Friday was that evening we got to meet with Zandra Rhodes and her head designer, Ben. Zandra Rhodes is a textile designer from the 70’s who creates these amazing prints on chiffon, then designs dresses around the print. Her prints are inspired by her life and the experiences she has had. They are very bright and colorful prints and the dresses are very unique. She is also an interesting individual with neon pink hair and crazy outfits, but so nice and down to earth. It was very informative to meet with them and an internship with her could be an interesting experience. Friday night was also cool, as we decided to go out and enjoy London nightlife in our fancy new dresses. As always we had a great time and got to sleep in on Saturday morning and recover from the previous night’s festivities.

Saturday, as I said, we slept in and it was awesome. We got up around noon and made our way to Harrod’s. We spent about 5.5 hours strolling through…there is so much amazing stuff there. Anything you could ever imagine, dogs, cats, food from every country, equestrian gear, boats, furniture, fabric and the list goes on forever. We tried on a lot of pretty dresses that cost around what my car cost and had a great day!

Sunday we went to Windsor Castle. We took a tour and had some tea and scones to cap off our amazing trip to London. Even though it was rainy and grey while we were there, I still loved it and am currently looking for internships there!! So, maybe I will be in foggy London next summer!? We shall see...

Ciao for now…