New Short Film By Trevor Zhou on Flight.

Have you guys ever wished you could fly? I have, and still do—and I’m not alone! Trevor Zhou’s short film, “The Problem of Gravity”, explores the common childhood dream to fly in its story of a young boy and his numerous attempts to defy gravity. The boy, an Asian American kid named Tim, is first inspired to fly when he spots an airplane flying above his yard. From there, his dreams of flying take off (yes, pun intended). In his backyard, he builds cardboard wings and dresses up as Superman to fly, all to no avail. In the end, he gets his wish in a more conventional way.

The Problem of Gravity from Trevor Zhou on Vimeo.

What I love about the film is the way it exemplifies childhood—the curiosity, the perseverance, the naivete, and the excitement—without making it seem too fantastic. As a matter of fact, Mr. Zhou modeled it partially after his own childhood dream of growing up to be Superman. And the film doesn’t just appeal to kids; the story is very down-to-earth and something many of us—kids and adults alike—can really relate to. Isn’t the idea of being able to fly high over the rest of the world a main theme of all Hayao Miyazaki's work as well? It’d be convenient, too; as Mr. Zhou says, “imagine the places you could go and the money you would save on airfare and transportation! No more waiting for trains”!


Trevor Zhou is a Chinese American filmmaker from New York. He is an artist, but also worked in the entertainment industry as an actor, appearing in commercials and TV dramas. He eventually became interested in writing—which his how he came up with and got around to directing and producing“The Problem of Gravity”, a film that has been accepted into the Brooklyn Film Festival and the Korean American Film Festival in New York.

v

Director/Producer Trevor Zhou

(and no, it's not a bad perm. His hair is naturally curly!)

 Some of the films Zhou likes are Survive Style 5+ and the short film “Shift” by Jonathan Yi, and our favorite as well, Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow.

Fan Girls and Fan Boys Unite!

There is a funny and ridiculous ritual that we fan boys and fan girls do when we really really really like a movie, a book, manga, anime, or a cartoon show: We draw pictures of our favorite characters. We come up with scenario's that we would like our favorite characters to be in, and we then draw or write our own stories of those scenarios. People even dress up for cosplays of their favorite characters and attend Anime Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center (June 29-July 2, 2012), or Comicon in San Diego (July 12-14, 2012). I've visited both in the past. Of course, there's the Star Trek Conventions too for the older nostalgic set. The goings on with fans in those places are just crazy fun.

Fans at the Anime Expo dressed up as
Wobbuffet and Jigglypuff from Pokemon

There are websites out there that allow us to indulge in creating those fantasy story lines or situations and then publish them online for other fan boys and girls to see, comment on, and admire. For drawings of my favorite characters, I use Deviant Art.

Korra characters in School uniform.
By freestarisis on Deviantart.

To develop new stories about our favorite characters, some kids use Fanfiction. Some of the stuff out there are so hilarious, nerdy, and outrageous that only other fans can appreciate.

Some Fanfiction titles based on Harry Potter

Sadly, I am one of these people. I don't do crazy stuff like some other fanatics, but I do look up different pictures or draw stuff relating to shows I like. But after a while I have to back away from the computer screen because I just can't deal with too much of that completely alternate universe stuff for too long. But, I still go on Deviantart just to look up Legend of Korra drawings.. . most of which are pretty amazing, and encourage me to draw more. Same with other shows such as Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, Adventure Time, Percy Jackson and many many MANY more.

"Wait up, guys. I can't keep up." One of my fan
drawings of CoolAsian Kid in Tintin style.

I guess it's just human nature for someone to want their favorite stories' storyline to go perfectly and exactly how they imagine it to be. If it doesn't happen in the actual shows, fan boys and fan girls make it happen on line. I guess that's just how it works.

Wang Yani and Other Gifted Child Artists

A while ago my dad's friend gave us a book called Yani: The Brush of Innocence.  It features a collection of artwork by this little girl's named Wang Yani. She created really lively Chinese brush paintings. The one thing that makes her stand out though, is that she was really little. I mean two and a half years old, little. Yani painted monkeys, lots and lots of expressive monkeys, fish, chicken, or birds that appeared as if they are in motion. The book showcased brush paintings that she did between four years old and twelve. Her skill was so advanced that normally, people several times her age would not have those skills. Most of the kids my age cannot draw as well as she did.

Here are a few of her drawings:

I never actually read the book of how Yani started to paint until now. I used to just stare at her beautiful brush paintings. Going through the book is really interesting. This one part in the book compares Yani to a girl named Nadia Chomyn and they show a few of her pictures in the book as well. However, unlike Yani, Nadia was diagnosed as a mentally retarded child with autism and "severely delayed language development". She also suffered from "severe emotional disturbances and cognitive deficits". yet she draws with ease, "all within the span of a minute". How do we categorize a kid who is so talented artistically, yet considered to be mentally retarded.

Roosters by Nadia at age  6
 based on memory

A horse and a rider
by Nadia
at age five

I considered myself a good artist, but....I'm going to have to say that some people are just born with artistic skill. I can practice and practice, but by the time I would have been able to draw like Yani or Nadia, I would have been much older and I would definitely not be able to draw it with as much ease and as quickly as Nadia and Yani could. Yani and Nadia a true prodigies.

Now, Yani is not a kid anymore.  I think she has lived in Germany for over ten years now,  she is married and has kids. Her style has changed. She draws abstract drawings, but to me, they are definitely not as moving as those she did as a kid. Somehow, the "brush of innocence" is replaced by something else. I wonder what it says about how child prodigies develop. I wonder what happened to Nadia.

Yani's paintings now

Yani's paintings now

Video of child Yani narrated by Sir Richard Attenborough.

The Solar Eclipse and the Adventures of Tintin

Yesterday, May 20, 2012, we witnessed a solar eclipse. As seen from the Earth, a Solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun.  (Def. by Wikipedia.) Even though it is a natural phenomenon, people in olden days regard it as a bad omen.

Solar Eclipse as seen in Los Angeles outside our house

Witnessing this rare event allows us to smoothly (or maybe not so smoothly) segway into a mention of "Prisoners of the Sun" in the Adventures of Tintin, (one of our favorite comic book series). In this comic book, our hero Tintin uses his knowledge of the timing of a solar eclipse to foil some modern day Incas' plan to sacrifice him and his friends. By timing his sacrificial hour to coincide with the solar eclipse, Tintin made the Incas believe that he can command Pachacamac, their Sun God.  The Inca prince implores Tintin to make the Sun show his light again. At Tintin's command, the Sun obeys, and the fearful Incas quickly set their prisoners free.

Prisoners of the Son-Tintin in South America

The Adventures of Tintin is a comic book series by artist Remi Georges (aka Herge) that debuted almost a century ago in 1929.  The stories feature Tintin, a young newspaper reporter who travels the globe and solves nefarious plots and crimes. His adventures take him to Africa, China, Turkey, America, the moon, South America, the Himalayas, under the sea, and many other exotic locales.  The comic books were translated into dozens of different languages. There are 24 of the Tintin comic books and we've read every one of them.

A panel from The Blue Lotus: Tintin in China

Our parents are such fans of Tintin since their childhood that they took us to Belgian to visit Musee Herge when it first opened back in 2009. That museum, designed by Christian de Portzamparc has all the original Tintin artwork and an awesome gift shop well worth visiting.

Outside the Herge Museum (We were a bit small then)

Tintin comics are amazing. We highly recommend it for their thoughtful stories, fantastic art, and endearing characters. It's a comic book series for both adults and kids alike.

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Previously, we compiled a list of Asian-American films suitable for kids that we recommend. Today, we've got some new ones for you guys to check out and support if you have the chance. These movies tend to be for an older crowd, so they may not be suitable fore really young kids.

On Saturday, our parents took us to check out the Visual Communications Asian Pacific Film Festival -- something we've known about for a while but hadn't had the chance to visit until now.  After all, it's a two-week event that only happens once a year.  You guessed it, folks: the Asian Pacific Film Festival features films with Asians in the cast and crew.  Not only is it a pretty rare opportunity to catch Asian-Americans in the film industry, these movies (or the ones we've seen thus far) are good.

We first watched a screening of the new movie, Shanghai Calling, a feature film directed by Daniel Hsia and starring starring half-Korean actor Daniel Henney and Chinese actress/TV hostess Zhu Zhu. Henney plays Sam, a white-washed Chinese-American lawyer who is relocated to Shanghai for his job.  While he's reluctant to assimilate into Chinese culture at first, he warms up to the city...and to his American relocation specialist, Amanda.
 

I'm not going to give away any more, but it's a fun movie that really delves into the whole American-meets-Chinese culture shock, with a twist about who is American, and who is Asian.  Not sure when you'll have the chance to see it, but look for it . It's got great cross cultural appeal.

Later on Saturday, my mom and I (Eileen) went back to the film festival to watch a very different movie called Sunset Stories, directed by Ernesto Foronda and Silas Howard. It's a "dark comedy" that follows a nurse, May, as she travels to Los Angeles to retrieve bone marrow needed for a transplant back at her hospital in Boston -- with a twist, of course.  All is well until May winds up running into the last person she wants to see: her ex-boyfriend, JP whom she left many years ago.  The film documents the wacky ordeals of May and JP as they run around Los Angeles in search of a cooler containing the lost bone marrow.  Sung Kang plays JP!  (He's in Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Better Luck Tomorrow, and other Justin Lin movies). Night time Los Angeles stars itself with its diverse supporting cast of lost souls and hopeless outcasts. The movie does not have a tidy ending, leaving the audience wanting more, which is the best kind of ending, in my opinion.

Monique Curnen and Sung Kang

The tag line on the poster says the movie is about "Losing Baggage". I guess it's about losing the burden you carry with you by facing and confronting your past.  For some reason, this movie speaks to me quite a bit even though I'm only a teenager.  Ladies, if you're looking for a really squeal-worthy and heartwarming movie to watch with your friends, here it is.  It's even got a hopelessly romantic Asian-American main character. Score!

The festival goes on for a few more days with movies from all over the Pacific rim. Because of school, I don't think I get the chance to go back this week. Not all the movies at the festival are kid friendly, but all are personal stories made with a lot purpose. There is an underlying sentiment at the festival that it is difficult to get mainstream support for Asian American indie films, so kudos to all the film makers who actually got their films made.  Check out the festival and support Asian American films.

Art Imperial: Surf Music From Toronto

We know that folks in Los Angeles are enjoying the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival right now. There's been some great movies showcased at the Festival and we got to attend some of them.  (More about that later). However, looking ahead towards summer fun and summer time music, we are going to blog about music today.

Living on the West Side of Southern California means that you must have tried to surf at least once in your life. In elementary school, kids would have birthday parties where we would learn to surf on the beach. During the summer holidays, after running out of good academic enrichment experiences to send us to, my parents would sign us up for surf camp. While terrifying, after a couple of summers, I am at least able to paddle out into the ocean, climb onto the surf board, and surf a short distance back before falling off. 


Beach Boys music are a perennial favorite when you think about surfing.  But when have you heard any good new surf music . . . until now? 

Well, we've got a bit of a treat for you!  We all know how hard it is to find Asian-Americans/Canadian in the media -- be it film, music, or modeling -- so it's always very special to come across a fresh new Asian-American face (or voice). This week, we'd like to introduce Art Imperial, a "one-man band project". 

So far, it's released two albums, Surf Suburban EP (2011) and Cult of Love (2012)   Both albums feature lazy, upbeat, beachy tunes and Art's own voice and self-produced/written/performed tunes.  He wasn't kidding when he said he was a one-man band!


Art is a Filipino-Canadian inspired by the beauty of the ocean and the beach life in writing his music -- even though he's from Toronto and has "never actually surfed before".  We think it's awesome that he's been able to create beautiful music inspired by his own imagination and "fantasizing about the open seas".  Listening to his music, you can picture a lazy beach day under the sun, sipping pina coladas (no alcohol, of course).


Art Imperial released its second album, Cult of Love, here this month, which you can (and should) check out. We really like the song Good Times, but rest of the songs from the album are all great to listen to this summer while you're at the beach, or BBQing in the back yard.

 
A video featuring Hong Kong movie stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung dancing was dubbed with Art Imperial's single "Cult of Love" It is really cool.

   Make sure you check out Art Imperial. You can thank us later (; 

The Legend of Korra and Comic Books by Gene Yang

Everyone must have heard of, or watched Avatar: The Last Airbender that aired on Nickelodeon from  2005 to 2008 right? It was an anime inspired cartoon series set in an Asian martial arts influenced mystical world somewhere in the far east. The main characters can manipulate earth, air, water and fire and are known as "benders". There was an epic struggle where good triumphed over evil. It was a really good show and we watched it every week on TV. When it was canceled in 2008, kids like us were sad.  Many people wrote to Nick to complain . . . and apparently, the complaints worked! We almost wrote to Nick ourselves.(Personally I hate all these new stupid teenage live action shows. The best are cartoons.....ESPECIALLY STUFF LIKE THIS. I liked how the creators of Avatar totally mixed up the story completely. BUT IT'S SO AWESOME.) I would be so happy if I lived in a world like this.

Now Nick brought the Avatar back in a new series called Avatar: The Legend of Korra. The series just came out on April 14, 2012, and is set seventy years later. The story is about the new Avatar, Korra, a strong, funny, powerful, and amazing girl, (a little defiant too.. :D) who is still learning to use her bending powers.  She meets her friends, Mako (handsome, and more serious firebender) and his brother Bolin, (funny and cute earthbender).  Together, they face an anti-bender revolution by a group known as the Equalists led by the evil Amon who has the power to take bender's powers away.

The show is on Nick TV every Saturday at 11:00. Each episode is 30 minutes. But each episode really packs a punch. Sadly, this series is going to be much shorter than the last one... that's why there has been SO much drama in only the first 5 episodes. It's amazing. IT. IS. AMAZING. WATCH IT!!!! REALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Gene Yang

To top it off, one of my favorite comic book artists, Gene Luen Yang, (who drew the funniest version of the Monkey King story called "American Born Chinese"), is given the awesome task of writing Avatar: The Promise, a comic book series that bridge the 70 years gap between the original Avatar and the new Legend of Korra.

Eisner Award winner American Born Chinese

 Gene's writing and drawings are great, so you are really in for a treat if you pick up a copy of either Avatar: The Promise, or "American Born Chinese" or both. My copy, (along with copies of Lucky Luke and Asterix comic books) just arrived in the mail through Amazon today.  I will spend my weekend reading it, and watching Legend of Korra. CAN'T WAIT


EDIT: I SAW THE LEGEND OF KORRA EPISODE 5 AND I'M DYING HERE. POOR BOLIN. BUT NO I'M NOT SAYING ANYTHING BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT!

Fighting Disease

I like science okay, but sometimes it's hard to understand the information. That's why I think visual aids can help. For my science homework, I had to draw pictures of how the body reacts when a pathogen infects the body, I got kind of carried away, and decided to learn on my own how to use Flash.  After a few hours, I got the hang of it and created this flash animation about pathogens, antigens and antibodies.

Hope you all learn some science today!

Asian/Asian American Feature Movies that Kids will Enjoy

The LA Asian Pacific Film Festival is starting in a couple of weeks. We hope to see some of the movies showcased there. Like any American kid, we like the many of the mainstream American movies for kids. You all know how I am obsessing over the Hunger Games right now.

But beyond mainstream American movies, we get exposed to some Asian/Asian American movies because our parents like to watch them. While thinking about some of those movies, we thought it might be useful to start to compile a list of Asian/ Asian American movies that kids would like to watch. But sadly, it seems that there aren't that many such movies that are truly fun for kids, or about kids. But here are a few, and we hope that kids don't miss them because they are really good and give people a window into the lively Asian Pacific/Asian American communities.

We start with the movies that actually have kids featured in them, moving on to more general movies.

Feature Films: 


Together
My mom watched this movie one night, and liked it so much that she had me watch it with her the next.  It's about Xiaochun, a young violin prodigy whose supportive and loving single dad takes him to Beijing in hopes of finding a violin teacher and a better life for him.  I cried so many times during this movie, but it isn't really sad; I just have a problem with crying during films that make me happy (Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., etc.).  If you're looking for a heartwarming film, watch it.  If you're not, watch it anyways.  You can thank us later. Directed by Kaige Chen





Ping Pong Playa.
This is about a trash talking Chinese American NBA star wannabe who can't do anything right compared to his older brother. But, when his mom and brother are injured in an accident he caused, he has to take over the family after school ping pong program and compete (with the encouragement from kids he taught ping pong to) for a ping pong championship for his community's and his own pride. The movie is so very funny and has a lot of heart. We watch it repeatedly and would recommend it to everyone. Directed by Jessica Yu, Jimmy Tsai starring Jimmy Tsai, Andrew Vo and Khary Payton(the black dude who speaks Chinese better than the Chinese dude).


 
 Whale Rider: This is stretching it as a movie about Asians, but since the movie is about a native girl from New Zealand, which is on the Pacific Rim, we'll make it count. The film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes as Pai, a 12-year-old Maori girl who wants to become the chief of her tribe. Her grandfather Koro believes that this is a role reserved for males only. After rejecting Pai repeatedly, Pai finally shows Koro why she is the "whale rider" and deserves to be the tribe leader. This is a wonderful and inspiring movie that seeks to destroy many cultures' age old prejudice against girls.

A Great Wall
Middle aged Leo Fang is passed up for promotion. In anger, he quits his job and takes his wife and teenage son played by Kelvin Han Yee. Mainland China to visit his relatives, the Chao's for a vacation. The clash of cultures, between the Asian American and Chinese cultures leads to misunderstanding and confusion.  The movie ends with a ping pong match between the American teen and the Chinese teen. The brashy American boy got schooled. Directed and stars Peter Wang. The Chinese cast was great too, but I can't find out much about them.

Bend it Like Beckham
It's been a while since I've watched this movie, but I've seen it at least a few times at this point.  And okay, maybe it isn't exactly an Asian-American film.  But it is about an Indian British girl whose love of soccer seems to be getting in the way of her orthodox Sikh parents' expectations for her to become a nice, Indian housewife.  It's a great girl-power movie to watch with your friends. Starring Parminder Nagra, and Keira Knightley.

Rumble in the Bronx
This is a Hong Kong martial arts comedy directed by Stanley Tong starring Jackie Chan and Anita Mui. It's about a young man visiting and helping in his uncle's in New York City convenience store finds himself forced to fight a street gang and the mob with his martial art skills. It's a fun romp.  One of the most entertaining scenes features Jackie's new aunt, an African American woman, singing in Cantonese.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to find out who played her. Hilarious. We should mention that other Jackie Chan movies are kid friendly too, such as Karate Kid, Shanghai Noon, Rush Hour, etc.


White on Rice
White on Rice documents 40-year-old Hajime's numerous attempts to find a girlfriend while living with his sister and her husband and son.  Unfortunately, when he falls in love with Ramona, his brother-in-law's niece and co-worker's girlfriend, things only go from bad to worse...Watch this if you're looking for a good laugh and family movie. Directed by Dave Boyle, and starring Hiroshi Watanabe, James Kyson Lee, and Lynn Chen. We love Lynn Chen.

Bride and Prejudice
This is a Bollywood musical version of Jane Austen's awesomely timeless novel. We blogged about in an earlier post and highly recommend it to viewers 10 and above. Directed by Gurinder Chadha who also directed Bend it Like Beckham, and starring Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson who plays handsome and haughty Mr. Darcy really well.

Shall We Dance Shall we ダンス? Sharu wi Dansu? (THIS IS AMAZING!!! One of the funniest movies I've seen.  Much better than the American version). This is a Japanese film with subtitles. Directed by Masayuki Suo, it portrays asuccessful but unhappy Japanese accountant who finds the missing passion in his life when he begins to secretly take ballroom dance lessons. His band of dance class classmates make the movie entertaining and fun.  Starring Kôji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari and Naoto Takenaka.



 The Wedding Banquet
The perfect balance between humor and touchy subject, The Wedding Banquet tells the tale of Wai-Tung, a Chinese man living in Manhattan, whose parents are setting him up with numerous young women in the hopes that he will marry and bear them grandchildren--but it isn't as simple as that: Wai-Tung is gay, and happily in love with his roommate, Simon.  He enlists the help of his female tenant, Wei-Wei, to act as his fiancee when his parents decide to pay an unexpected visit.  To all readers who are under 17, this movie is rated R. It is however, funny, heart warming and touching. Directed by Taiwanese director Ang Lee and stars Winston Chao, May Chin, Ah Lei Gua, Sihung Lung, and Mitchell Lichtenstein.


Flower Drum Song (I think this is the weirdest movie EVER, but as the first Asian American musical about the lives and romances of Chinese Americans in San Francisco, we think it deserves a mention. It's a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical starring Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta and Benson Fong The movie is a milestone in portraying Asian Americans, but it is also dated and difficult to appreciate by modern American kids.

It is surprising to us that so few features films are made for, or about Asian/Asian American kids. So, all you filmmakers and producers out there, think about this growing cool Asian kids market.  We may have missed many good Asian/Asian American movies for kids.  If  you know of any, please let us know by commenting below.  We'd like to check them out.

Now, anime and animation is another story.  They are full of stories with Asian themes and Asian kids in them. We will mention a few of our favorites at a different time.


Also, it seems that many Asian filmmakers have gone on to do indie movies, great documentaries and TV episodes on their own through youtube, etc.  There are some hilarious and good ones out there, but again, more on those later.

Food Faces

So, many people see famous people's faces in their food, ranging from Jesus potato chips, to jellybeans with Kate Middleton's face on it. There's even a potato that supposedly looks like Jay Leno and a rotten grape and grilled cheese sandwich with that looks like the Virgin Mary. The jellybean with Kate Middleton's face on it is selling for over $800! The grilled cheese sandwich that has the image of the Virgin Mary was sold for $28,000!

Kate Middleton Jellybean

Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese

Virgin Mary Rotten Grape

Jesus Potato Chip

Jay Leno Potato

So how much do you think we could get for these Asian celebrity food faces we found while eating and cooking?

The face was actually there when
we peeled the potato. We didn't
do it purposely.

Does the potato look like
Jeremy Lin? 

Red Bean Bao

Does Sammo Hung look
like this bao?

Feel free to email us pictures of food faces you find.

We ran into Jackie Chan!

This picture is from a couple of years ago, but it is still cool. That winter, we took our grandparents to have dinner at Enoteca Drago, an Italian restaurant where my mom won a gift certificate for from a school silent auction event.

I don't remember if the food was any good any more, but when we came out of the restaurant, we ran into a group of people surrounding Jackie Chan asking to take a picture with him. His representative was trying to push everyone away, but when Jackie Chan saw me and my sister, he said to his representative "They are just kids.  Let me take a picture with them".

So, we got to take a picture with Jackie Chan! He seems to be a really nice guy.  We've always liked him in movies such as Rumble in the Bronx, Karate Kid, Shanghai Noon, The Drunken Master, Rush Hour 1,2,3 etc.

Asian Italian

When we were in Italy, we tried to look for signs of Asian culture in the local scene. There were tons of of Asian tourists who came in tour groups or who were traveling on their own. It was nice to hear Chinese, Korean, and Japanese spoken.

The Asian tourists are funny though. They seem to want to avoid the sun at all costs.  They have their umbrellas, and other cover . . . so they can stay out of the sun.

Asian lady at the Roman Forum.

Unlike Los Angeles though, aside from the tourists, you can hardly see anything that shows Asian culture has arrived in Italy. . . . But wait, we found a Korean church in Rome.

And, there were some Chinese restaurants.  When we took a look at their menus though, we were fearful about actually trying the food. They have prociutto with melon on their menus.  Wonder if they have Moo Goo Gai Pan in pesto sauce too. Maybe that's the future of new fusion cuisine.

Wish we had soy sauce though!

To Italy and Back

You might be wondering why we haven't blogged for a while.  Well, it was spring break for us. We just transferred to a new school this year, so this was the first time our spring break lasted two weeks instead of one.  Our dad decided that he wanted to take advantage of this break to do something on his bucket list: He wanted to see Rome and Florence.  As a former architect, he's been dying to see all the architectural wonders Italy has to offer.  We all went to see the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum, the Pantheon, and of all things, dad wanted to see Brunelleschi's Dome in Florence.

Inside the Colosseum

I almost didn't make the trip.  I got into a fight with my parents the day before the trip, and it escalated to the point that they actually threatened to leave me in Los Angeles with my grandparents.  I eventually managed to get my act together enough for them to be willing to take me with them.  Close call.

We spent the first few days wandering around Rome and being tourists: armed with Rick Steves' Rome 2012, toting around a large camera, multiple maps, and backpacks and trying gelato everywhere we went.  We took pictures of the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Colosseum, and admired the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, and the amazing collection at the Vatican museum.  We also got to see the Vatican documents, many of which I actually learned about in my AP European History class this year (YES, so it IS worth something!).

Eating Gelati at Grom's in Florence

Setting aside the awesomeness of the monuments, though, Rome is basically one huge tourist trap.  The food really wasn't that impressive and some of the streets smell like sewer.  Still, it ain't got nothing on Florence: if Rome is a tourist trap, Florence is a tourist zoo.  It's got some amazing sights to see, of course.  The Duomo (Brunelleschi's dome), the Medici Palace, the Ufizzi, and the Ponte Vecchio were definitely impressive.  I even got to see some of the paintings and sculptures in my history textbooks!

School of Athens by Raphael

I think it'd be a better idea to visit Rome and Florence when it isn't tourist season though--and remember, it isn't even summer yet!  My favorite part of the trip was visiting lesser-known towns.  While in Florence, we took a bus up to the small town of Fiesole.  It's nestled in the Tuscan hills, way above all of the tourist attractions and museums in Florence.  We hiked up a hill overlooking Tuscany and ate at a very good restaurant with a nice view.  That was the best meal I had the entire trip.

We also spent a couple of days in Manarola, Cinque Terre.  Cinque Terre is a collection of 5 small towns about a two hour's train ride north of Florence.  The towns are all very walkable and within a short distance of each other.  Manarola is the second town, and, in my opinion, the best.  It was so nice to be able to take a break from being tourists and relax by the sea. Because we had a kitchen in Cinque Terre, we got to eat some Shin Ramen that we hauled all the way from Los Angeles! It's still pasta, but not Italian pasta.

Manarola

All in all, Italy was great and we had a lot of fun visiting the historical landmarks and eating gelato (oh boy, I gained like 5 lbs).  Still, I'm very relieved to be back home.  You'd think that internet should be freely available everywhere, but in Italy, it was very expensive to get wi-fi, and so we didn't use it much beyond checking our email.  I was also warned to not text because texting and calling gets pricey there. We definitely didn't get to blog, or go on Facebook.  Now that we're back, yay! We have internet! and cell phone! :D