Giardini Margherita

It's spring in Bologna, and I have nothing to do! I decided not to take classes fourth quarter in order to leave myself more time for traveling, reading, yoga, all the things that I wish I could do but don't when I spend all day in class.

This week, for example, I spent every single day at the park. It's only about a 5 minute walk from my house and when it's sunny outside, it just seems like it would be silly not to go. I take my guitar, a book, a blanket and some snacks, and meet anyone who feels like joining me.

The park (called Giardini Margherita) is really an amazing place. On the weekends it's completely packed with people, all doing something. In Berkeley there are always a few people doing yoga, a few others playing music of some kinda, but in Italy they really go crazy. The park is always crowded with jugglers, tight-rope walkers, drum circles, acrobats, capoeira, tai chi, people playing football of the American or European variety, volleyball, frisbee, unicycles, bicycles, tricycles and training wheels, dog walking, accordians, guitars, trombones, saxophones. Then there are the quiet ones, the studiers and readers and nappers. I usually fall into the category of people-watcher, daisy chain-maker or 1/2 of Kat and Kalen's street-singing duo.

On one particularly sunny day, Leslie came to the park armed with henna dye and proceeded to decorate all of us while we munched on fruit and cookies and played music. Beautiful!

Sometimes, when the sun is just too beautiful and the grass is just too cool, it's actually impossible to stay standing.


This leads to creative uses of the guitar, as demonstrated by James :)

Kat and I almost always bring our guitars to practice for our future street-singing adventures. I think we're pretty close to ready but we're still perfecting our harmonies on a few songs. Also, my guitar never seems to want to stay in tune... but I got it for free so I can't really complain!


Some days the hippie vibe really takes over, and there's just nothing that can be done except give over to it completely. No use resisting the peace and love!

The best part of being at the park on a sunny day is that I get to see all my friends, completely recovered from the Bologna winter slump that had us all feeling pretty dreary for the past few months. Everyone is smiling again, relaxed and happy. Of course I always love my friends, they're always amazing and beautiful, but the sun brings out the best in all of us!




And, finally, finally, FINALLY. I can juggle!

It only took me several months of practicing, but I can now "successfully" juggle - that is, for about 10 seconds until I get too excited that I'm actually juggling, and lose control. A little boy saw me the other day, though, and said to his friends "look at the juggler!" So at the very least, I'm a juggler by a 6-year-old's standards... which is good enough for me!