okupazoine e lucca

Things are definitely slowing down a bit here. I'm not sure if has something to do with my complete lack of motivation to do schoolwork (don't worry mom & dad, i'm doing well) or the lack of big trips, but things feel slower. We're hitting the home strech of study abroad. There's a little over one month left here and like the end to anything, it's bittersweet. I'm clearly having the time of my life in Firenze. It's been an incredible experience, I've made some amazing friends and I've really discovered the depth of where my passion in art lies. This city is filled with art, history and culture and I love it. Of course, studying abroad doesn't come without missing people and things. Soon I'll be back to the beauty of the dollar (singapore or u.s., I don't care which one) and the comfort of my own room, however briefly. But for now, I have one more month to 'do florence' and make the very most out of my time. My roommates and I made a list of what we have left to do and see in Florence. It seems very dooable.
That being said, I didn't do very much this weekend. Friday we had a mandatory 'okupanzione' day. I wish I could explain to you what that meant, but I don't know. Basically what I got from it is that it's a culture day. I signed up to do jewelry making and graffiti. Both fun, neither very italian though. Graffiti was the closest to touching on fundamental part of Italian culture, being as graffiti is EVERYWHERE in Italy. However, we didn't get to touch a spray can, or graffiti a wall. Instead we painted a piece of cloth. I didn't feel nearly as illegal as I was hoping. We painted a giant wine bottle with: pace, amore e vino (peace, love and wine) written in the middle. Quite the graffiti statement. That was about it for Friday, like I said, nothing to exciting.
Saturday my roommates and I decided to go to Lucca for the day. We didn't know what to see or what to do in Lucca but we heard it was a cool place to check out. So we did. Getting a slow start, we arrived around lunch time, got lunch and then wandered. Typical of our luck, none of the churches were open so we ended up walking around this really cute antique fair. It was huge and had the coolest stuff! Unfortunately, everything that wasn't a piece of crap and was worth buying was way to expensive.
Of course, like basically every small Italian town, there was a chocolate festival. It wasn't huge but had some tasty goodies that we had no choice but to try. We headed back to Florence around 4 30 and were back for dinner and bed :)