Cheesecake and Cavalli

Hilliary's 21st:

Surprise dinner: success!

-Teo and Alonso brought pasta with homemade sauce! Incredible. We were very impressed

-Maria attempted to make her Porcini Risotto...with only half of the ingredients. Although it didn't make it to the table, it was a good attempt!

-Tom brought cheese and crackers. Apparently he milked the cow and baked the crackers

-Katie, Al, and Cam got mini cheesecakes from Nary for dessert. I made a makeshift candle by drawing one on a stick of gum and sticking it in her heart-shaped cheesecake

Shots Cafe: success!

-Met up with Sarah.

-Bought Hil a "SHOTS CAFE" martini shaker

-Sarah left to skype her brother

Cavalli Club: success!

-owned by creative fashion genius/designer Roberto Cavalli

-leopard-print EVERTHING

-Roberto Cavalli Vodka (the only vodka available. Best I've ever had)

But all of the above was nothing to MEETING ROBERTO CAVALLI!

YES, it just so happened that Roberto Cavalli happened to be having dinner with his daughter in the VIP section of his club last night! Happy Birthday Hil!!!

Incredible night, minus the two cameras and 1 martini shaker that went missing. :(

(We've decided that there is bad karma associated with birthdays here, seeing as Alison got ripped off and lost $358 on 1 bottle of Grey Goose for my birthday)

And while we morn for the loss of the things we once had, it goes without saying that Hilliary definitely went into 21 with a bang!

CIAO,

Jenna

Classy Trumps Class

What is a girl to do when the photography lab is "closed" for the rest of the semester?

What is she to do when her mid-term portfolio is due but she has no way of editing and printing?

She would have a free afternoon. Her appointment for photo editing has been cancelled and her agenda CLEARED.

So what is a girl to do? Why see Inglorious Basterds in a converted opera theater of course!

Mi piace Firenze!

CIAO,

Jenna

recap

Well I feel like an update is very overdue

Let's do a quick recap on recent events

1) Cinque Terre: incredible. The most beautiful place I've been in Italy, complete with accompaniment of my mother and Susie.

2)Rome: Went their with preconceived notions Rome being loud, busy, and crowded. FALSE!

Rome is in fact my new favorite city. I hope to tackle the whole language barrier and move there immediately.

3)Ryan came into town!! Went to Venice: rode a gondola, toured San Marco Basilica, got lost (no surprise there. We perfect the art of adventure solely for our ability to lose our way), saw an opera, saw the Fortuny Palace. Came back to Florence, climbed the Duomo, saw the David (well actually Ryan and Alison saw the David. I forgot my Ufitzi pass and waited patiently outside) ate gelato, and introduced Ryan to his first cannoli.

NOW

Mid-terms. No comment.

Dear fall break, please hurry!

CIAO,

Jenna

In the moment

I promised myself I would not write a post until I had enough time to write about Cinque Terre.

But John Keats has taken over my afternoon. And I feel like writing about it.

Due to my mother's distaste in my communication skills, the last couple days have been dedicated to rigorous hourly inbox checks. Since I tend to only have 1 or 2 emails per check, (compared to 56) I find myself actually reading my emails, rather than giving them a quick glance. So thank you mom. It is for this reason I have found my latest obsession: John Keats.

Obviously Keats is nothing new to the world. He definitely is not new to me. But I must say, a trailer makes all the difference. And now I can't get enough.

While reading through a WhoWhatWear Daily email (Yes, I am a recipient for such a newsletter. Yes, it was the first one I actually read. Yes, I then proceeded to take myself off the mailing list) I clicked on a link for "fashion TV". Before opening the page, a quick trailer of Bloomingdale's "B-flix" came on. Obeying my goldfish-like attention span, I forgot about my original prerogative and clicked on the link.

B-Flix is a short indie film contest, put on by Bloomingdales and is comprised of 5 different entries. If you are down and looking for comedic relief, please visit:

http://social.bloomingdales.com/bflix/#

While I truly loved "Tall Enough", the other 4 films were actually uncomfortable to watch. They were that bad.

After watching all 5, I saw a link for fall movie trailers. (For those who do not know, I love love LOVE trailers. They are my past time) So naturally I clicked on that next. And what was the first film to pop up? BRIGHT STAR.

I watched it 6 times in a row.

I then proceeded to read 3 different biographies, as well as a handful of his poems and letters.

He is my new favorite writer. He was never a romantic, nor did he ever desire to find love. So when he met and fell in love with Fanny Brawne, the poetry he wrote was never sappy, never pretentious. It was real.

And now I'm a sap for writing about it. Judge me as you will, but at least watch the trailer:

http://social.bloomingdales.com/bflix/#/trailers/VIDEO0005

As for me, I'm off to the opera!

CIAO,

Jenna