(please ignore my posture in the clip)

it was too much storage for me to attach it as a video, just click the link

context: this is an exchange that happened during recess right at the front doors of bell.

amy (as a joke): points “aura! you have chocolate on your pants!”

aura (also as a joke): “good.” squats and spreads her legs

and of course, at this exact moment, mr. sclafani walks out... he has the nerve to look at us like we’re weird. as if!

p.s. today’s jeff’s birthday, so the adults are hanging out. i’m at my grandparents’ house right now.

my stylist’s name was elie, pronounced like ellie, and he was french, so that’s cool

so it was my heat to run and i thought you had to go all the way to the yellow pole not the lines on the floor bc someone told me that

so when i was running, i was focusing on my feet bc i needed to go faster and i thought i was getting close to the end so i started slowing down, but when i looked up i was like 30m away from the finish

so (apparently bc i dont remember this but) i threw my hand up and screamed WAIT! and i was rly embarassed bc leila told me once i finished and ppl in the blleachers prob saw that too 😭😭😭

context: whenever i need help or something i always say "wait so like" or "wait Mrs. McMillan i need help" or "wait what" u get it but basically i always start a sentece with wait and its like my default setting ig so thats why i screamed it to the other runners in my heat bc i though i was closer to the finish but i wasnt so i said wait as in "wait what why is it so far away helP"

the multiple choice was a lot harder than i thought it was gonna be. but hey now i know there's a parasite in bird dookie that makes frogs grow extra legs (the drawing of the frog was so cute)

today is the. party.

i hope my mans gna be there but prob no bc he goes to fox lane 😭 im so excited tho like i cant wait

we're getting ready today around 4 and tmr i have my piano recital but im freaking out bc I DONT HAVE MY MAN OR A MASCARA THAT WORKS ig ill js buy one at walgreens tdy

the shirts are lemy’s design

so we got to greeley at 7:00 after julia, bella, and i got ready at julia’s. anna got her hair done, so she couldn’t come get ready.

the hghs gym is massive, like the bell gym if we knocked down the center wall. from the entrance, there were tables with snacks, drinks, pizza, and auntie anne’s lining the top right corner. there was a bracelet making station right near the entrance, which we didn’t go to. then, to the left, there were ping pong tables, spikeball nets, and father back, cornhole. all the way to the left, there was a dance floor. the lights were turned off and there was a dj, emcee, and dancer. the photo attached is from the photo booth.

not in the photo is hailey and leila, bella’s 7b friends. we also hung out with sam and karsten for a little while.

i was sweating profusely by the end, especially cause i was wearing all black. overall, it was awesome, but also super hot.

(sry for all of these things btw)

today we went to vatican city, where we saw the sistine chapel and michelangelo’s paintings. we also went into st. peter’s basilica, which is closing for the next 25 years. we were allowed to enter through the holy gate. there are some really cool optical illusions built into the basilica, like it looks like the statues are all the same size, but the ones closer to the ceiling are a lot bigger.

we’re heading to florence now, and will probably get there around 9:00.

my mom let me try some of her spritz. it tasted like windex. it tasted like somebody mixed cleaning solution and lemon juice. it tasted like i cursed and my mom washed my mouth out with soap. i can still taste it after chugging seven cups of water and rubbing my tongue with sandpaper. do adults actually like this stuff?? (the last part is an exaggeration ofc but it’s still terrible)

i’m still jet-lagged. pray for me 😭

i tried basil gelato which is the most italian thing i’ve ever eaten. it’s really good in a super weird way. i also had pesto e pomodoro bruschetta which was delicious.

i’ve learned that you can literally beat up adults in italy and they’ll apologize to you 😭 they really love kids here and keep calling us “the babies.” it’s so cute.

i ordered pasta fagioli the other day and they gave me pretty much a bowl of pinto beans??? there were no noodles. it was so weird. it was good but it wasn’t pasta fagioli. i got fettuccine bolognese instead and gave the beans to izzy.

the pigeons here are so cute. we saw multiple birds missing toes and one missing a whole foot 😭

i tried one of abby’s rice balls (“they’re frying my balls! i’m so excited!” -abby) and nobody told me there was cheese in them. i think im traumatized.

i went to see one of michelangelo’s sculptures, the david. it’s amazingly detailed, especially his right hand. it’s based on a story in the bible where david, who’s around 12 years old, defeats goliath, who’s 9 feet tall, with just a slingshot. michelangelo made david super muscular, since he was obsessed with the human body and anatomy. the statue is 17 feet tall. it’s awesome.

in the same museum, there was a really weird instrument called the herdy-gerdy. i’m 100% serious. it had a bunch of piano-like keys, six strings, a sculpture of a head at the top, a crank (??), and was too thick to hold like a violin. my mom and i stared at it for a good 5 minutes and couldn’t figure out how it worked.

we visited the duomo today and saw the remains of the original church, which is underneath the new one. they only uncovered it about 50 years ago. there are a ton of tombstones and possibly corpses and we saw a skull that i think was real. the remaining flooring was a mosaic. then we went back upstairs to the church that’s there now and looked at the ceiling for a while. it’s a painting of the last judgement.

after that, we went shopping for a little while, and i got new sandals. we also saw a store entirely dedicated to rubber ducks 😭

in the picture is his sculpture of bacchus, the god of wine, parties, etc. bacchus is pictured as kinda drunk, which pissed off the person who commissioned it.

biago da cesena critiqued the amount of nudity in michelangelo’s “last judgement” fresco. so, michelangelo painted cesena as minos, judge of the underworld. i’m pretty sure he has donkey ears and he has a snake biting his private parts lmao

somebody commissioned a painting of mary, jesus, and st. john. michelangelo really liked drawing the human body and anatomy and stuff like that, so he drew a bunch of naked people in the background. the person who commissioned it got angry and said he didn’t ask for the nude figures and it was too inappropriate and he didn’t want it. michelangelo was like “oh well, somebody else will pay for it if you won’t” and took it away. the person who commissioned it gave in and decided to buy it anyway. michelangelo was like “no you’re right, i added stuff you didn’t ask for. you should pay double.”

he also had boots he really liked that he never took off, even to sleep lol

the water was so clear and you could go so many feet in and still see the bottom. it was si beautiful and i loved swimming in it

the water was also cook but only a couple of degrees below so it cooled you from the inside out w/out shocking you and making you cold it was sooo pretty and i got a tannn (on my whatssap story pls join)

after that we went to a restaurant that was very good and i got this plate of pasta that was like pistachio w/ buratta (my fav cheese its soooo good) and it was kinda like carbonara pasta bc the sauce was very thick and creamy

after, we walked around and theres like a piazza in the center and we went and got gelato but now my stomach is all messed up and now im exploding a random br and my sister is abt to pee herself lol

then, yesterday, we took a train to venice. it’s 25 degrees cooler here, so i’m not boiling to death, which is good. we haven’t done much yet except walked around.

i’m having a sudden urge to dye my hair glow in the dark bright green. i probably will before school starts again.

i’ve eaten so much pasta bolognese, bruschetta, gelato, and tiramisu. we’ve also been watching bluey a ton.

i’ve had exactly 7 black olives since i got to italy. i think im having withdrawal.

then, we went on a gondola, which was awesome. we went around the city for about 30 minutes.

we went to eat lunch after. the first place we went to was gross. the dishes were dirty, so we just got an appetizer and left. the second place we went to was good, though.

i couldn’t sleep last night until like midnight because the hotel had a show near the pool and they were blasting music and singing badly for HOURS. plus the bathroom doors are see-through 😭 on the bright side, the hotel itself is pretty. the floors are color-coded so our entire floor has yellow parts, like curtains, accent walls, chairs, etc.

• anna moved to buffalo, sadly, but she did come back for halloween, which was fun

• bella and i are both in debate this year and just had our first tournament on saturday

• there's been a bunch of drama so far this year that i can't remember lol

there's definitely so much more but i'll be more consistent from now on, since bella anna and julia have probably forgotten about this lmao

unfortunately, anna couldn't visit for new year's, so eva went to buffalo to visit her. we did facetime them for a little while then watched the ball drop (albeit a few minutes late since we accidentally disconnected)

Mostly, we’ve just been chilling and going to town a couple times. I haven’t done much, but I think Bella’s been doing track stuff.

We watched Bella EAT at the 400m then had dinner at her place :) we miss u anna!