Time With Mom and Dad in Europe

So to finally update this blog that I have neglected my days with mom and dad at the end of break were pretty great. First we were in Florence were I got to introduce them to Florence from the perspective of someone who lives there. In Piazza Michelangelo we got to see a special display of Carrara Marble which brought our trip full circle after having been to Carrara only a few days earlier. We also got to see Santa Croce and San Lorenzo and the leather market in Florence. To much time has passed now to remember if did anything else. Then we headed to Rome and it was wonderful. Because they had already been there they were pretty great city guides. Our hotel was in a great location. We were in between the Vatican and the roman ruins. We were able to get to the Vatican museum on the first afternoon in Rome. It is large. Do not try to stop and see everything unless you are a PHD student in Renaissance art or have 2 weeks to go through. We had 3 hours and still we were flying through some of the rooms. Dad got the audio guide which proved to be almost useless until we got to the Sistine Chapel. It was then able to explain the placement and meaning of many of the frescos. Dad was also able to give some of the history of Michelangelo’s Ceiling and Last Judgment. The Vatican museum was incredible and an exhausting afternoon.  That night we saw lots of Rome. We went all over the city trying to find a place to eat dinner. On our wandering we saw many things we weren’t sure we would get to. We saw the Pantheon at night and Piazza Navona. In Piazza Navona we heard a fantastic opera singer and got to enjoy his concert for a while. The main attraction of the night was the Trevi Fountain. I threw my coin in over my shoulder to ensure that I would be back but I knew already I would. I will just have to do it again on the 9th of December. The fountain was beautiful and majestic. We then went and enjoyed dinner at a restaurant we had seen earlier that night.  That next morning we went to mass with the Pope. It was amazing to see the leader of our faith in the person. It was also amazing to take communion in Saint Petersburg Cathedral. After mass we went to the square and got a blessing from the Pope when he came to his apartment window.  From there I needed to head back to Florence because I had school the next morning and they were heading back to the states. Through the day we were able to stumble upon some pretty amazing things. We went to the ruins of Rome. We saw Monumento Vittorio Emanuele due. We walked from there to the Colosseo and we also got to see the Pantheon during the day and we got to go in for free for some reason. We then were on a path toward the train station and got to see Saint Peter in Chains and Saint Maria Maggiore. Inside Saint Peter in Chains we got to see Michelangelo’s statue that was meant to be the tomb of Pope Julius. It was impressive in size and done with great skill. It is hard to imagine what Michelangelo could have done had he actually wanted to do the statue. After a veggie pizza diner I headed back to Florence on a train and mom and dad went back to their hotel for their last night in Europe.

Mom and dad might have to correct me if I got anything wrong and they have all the pictures because my camera died.  Post about Paris and Austria to come this week before I head off for London and then Rome again and back home. 

FALL BREAK

Finally Fall break for me here, which is a week long. My mom and dad got here on Wednesday the 13. They stayed with friends who happened to be between Rome and Florence on their first night. Then they came to Florence and by some miracle they found my apartment. (the miracle was called a GPS) but nonetheless I am still impressed that they were able to figure it out. I had to watch out my window for them to arrive and when I finally saw them down on the street I got down the three flights of stairs in record time. It was so good to see them. I was so excitedI was talking even faster than usual and practically ran back up with the stairs with their suitcase to show them my apartment. They were hungry so I made them some scarmbled eggs with peppers before we headed off for the day. Mom delivered the arms length checklist of items i need from her without missing anything. She even thought of some stuff I forgot to put on there. So impressed. We went to the gracoery store to buy snacks and then we were off. For the afternoon we drove to Carrara which is were the best marble in world is from. We drove through out the city and I dazzeled my parents with my ability to speak Italian, they also amazed me with how much they learned through Rosetta Stone. I have to say their vocab is probably better than mine - sad since I live here. Well Carrara was beautiful. The marble mountains were stunning. The rodes around the mountains got pretty crazy and since it was my first time in a car in 6 weeks I felt like I was going to be sick. (And Dad was driving so anyone who has been in a car with him will understand.) Side-note if you think he is bad in Indiana, wait til he gets behind the wheel in a stickshift car half the size of the camry in a foreign country where he wants to drive like he is in the Formula One race because "hes a real italian." Truthfully though his driving did look pretty authentically Italian. Sadly for him the baby Nissan car with 4 cylinders maxed out in 5th gear at 120 kms/hr which is like 80 mph. BMWs were flying by us. I know he wished he had his Infiniti on that highway. In carrara we stopped to take pictures and steal tiny pieces of marble and then headed to Pisa.
In Pisa I had to catch a plane to Spain to meet Ben while Mom and Dad went to Cinque Terre, Pompeii and Naples.
The three of us stopped at a restaurant to have dinner before I had to check in for my flight and I think it was 7 pm and they were not open yet for dinner. Oh Italians.
I then departed from mom and dad and headed off to Girona to meet Ben.It was so great to see him after 7 weeks of being apart. After meeting at the airport there we took a bus to Barcelona and checked in at our hostel. It was almost 1 am by the time we checked in so we went straight to bed. In the morning we headed to see the sights of Barcelona. So we went to the Arc de Triumf. It was huge and awesome. I was stunned by how different Barcelona was from Florence. I thought that it would seem older like Florence does but it was actually very modern. In Barcelona there seemed to be more space in the streets and buildings and restaurants than in Florence. After the Arc we went to a church Eglésia de Santa Maria del Mar It was full of gold, and had monuments to the ships of Christopher Columbus, which Ben explained to me was very typical of Spanish churches, since they took all of the Gold from the Incan people after conquering them. It was so different from the churches I had been in in Europe so far. After that church we went to the Cathedral of the city which is Catedral de Tarragona. It was even bigger and had even more Gold.We did not get to stay in it for long though as they we closing it for mass. We then went to lunch and I had my first spanish meal. They have a sweet thing for lunch which is the menu of the day and it is a first course a second course a drink bread and dessert for like 7 or 8 euro. It is all over Spain and it is such an awesome idea. I think America should probably start that right up. Food was good but we both got a cup of red wine with lunch and it tasted so much like vinegar we couldn´t drink it. So gross. We then went and took a much needed siesta at teh hostel before going back out to see the Mont Juc at night. It was absolutely beautiful. It had lights and fountains and all sorts of things going on and after you either climbed the stairs to the top or rode escalators you could look over all of Barcelona at night. This was my favorite of all the things we saw in Barcelona. After sitting on top for a while we went loofing for a nice tapas place to eat dinner We eventually food one after walking 2 miles probably. We had good food, except for the octopus in vinegar we tried, it was pretty terrible, and enjoyed the bar then went back to the hostel.
On the next day we wanted to go to the museum of ships and Christopher Columbus but it was closed which broke Bens heart. So we went and sat on the dock in the bay for a while and watched ships. We sat on the wrong part of the dock though and got kicked off when a boat wanted to leave the harbor because the whole dock moves. It was actually really cool to watch. Then it happened again at another part of the dock and this time an even bigger part moved.
After we got bored of the ships we walked to Sagrada Familia which is a very unique church in Spain. It was honsetly the craziest looking building that I have seen in all my life. And it was a Catholic Church which is even more confusing. I cant even really saw it was beautiful it was just bizarre. Then we bought these really cool cheeses and bread from the market and ate them for lunch. outside. We went back to the hostel and hung out for a while before we went out to dinner where we had Paella. My first in Spain and it was delicous. Then we watched a movie at the hostel before we headed off in hte middle of the night to check into our flight at 3 am. I slept like a baby at the airport before the flight, during the flight, and at the airport in Sevilla waiting for the bus. Ben didnt sleep at all, oops.
A post about Sevilla, Pictures for this post, and a post about my 5 days with mom and dad will follow once I get back into the swing of things here. 

Siena and San Gimignano

Sorry for the delay in posts – it is time for midterms here and it’s been pretty hectic. Our school did take a trip to Siena and San Gimignano though. They are both small towns in the Tuscan region. They are surrounded by grape vineyards and hills.

We started the morning in Siena where we met a tour guide. Siena has the coolest city structure as far as neighborhoods go. There are 17 family neighborhoods and each one is represented by an animal. For example there is a Dragon, turtle, rhino, caterpillar, and many other neighborhoods. 

The neighborhoods compete in horse races in the city which apparently are pretty intense. The woman guiding us was from the Dragon neighborhood and seemed fairly upset that the turtles won the last horse race. The cit y was very old and has a lot of history especially Saint Catherine of Siena and her influence over all of Italy. In the church where her relics are there is the skull and mummified finger of her body on display. It was sort of creepy but I tried to remind myself of the religious implications of having the relic of a saint and then it seemed pretty awesome. 

The cathedral of Siena was the most beautiful church I have ever seen in all my life. It is a different church from the Church of St. Catherine but it was influenced by her. When they originally planned to make it they wanted it to be the biggest church in all of Europe. But the plague happened and construction was halted half way through. Then after the plague bigger churches had already been completed so they changed their goal to having it be the most beautiful church. I have not seen a lot of churches here but I cannot imagine a prettier one. The floor is covered with mosaic depictions of the stories of the Old Testament. The ambo is then covered with statues by Michelangelo with the stories of the life of Christ. There is not an inch of the church that doesn’t have some amazing piece of art especially the library of the church which is right off of the nave. Words cannot describe the beauty of it and photos don’t really do it justice.

After the tour of the church a group of us from school went to a restaurant recommended by the tour guide. We were never given a menu, they simply served what they wanted pretty much and in traditional Italian style which is antipasto, primo, contorni, secondi, and dolci (appetizers, a pasta dish, a side dish, a meat dish, a dessert). The things are never on the table at the same time but are served like courses. So I had bread with olive oil as antipasto, for primo I had ravioli with a wild boar sausage (Siena is famous for wild boar), for contorni a basil potato dish, for secondi I had duck, and dessert was tiramisu.

After the lunch we headed to San Gimignano. This is called the city of towers. It is a fortress city that is on top of hill. The has high walls and could have been defended like a fort. This small town is home of the best gelato in the world as voted on by the World Gelato Association. I had some and I think I would have to say that they got it right. I haven’t had gelato since because I think I would just be disappointed. For the rest of the afternoon we just wandered around the little shops looking at the strange things they had to offer.

The day was fantastic and if you are in Tuscany – I highly recommend both of these places. 

Exiled to Elba

 

                On the strong recommendation of the staff at our school, my 3 roommates and our friend Stacie headed off to Elba Island for a relaxing beach weekend. This was at the end of the 2^nd week and we felt fairly exhausted from traveling to Europe and the initial shock of the how amazing Florence is. We had also started all of our classes and were just trying to get into the swing of things with time change and grocery shopping and what to do and not to do in a country where we are completely foreign. Aside from Stacie none of us speak Italian which is fine when we are in the tourist bubble around the Duomo. Everyone in those shops speaks English willingly because they are catering to tourists, but in the edge of town where we live that is not necessarily true which makes for an interesting experience at the grocery store.

                Anyway, we felt the need to relax from our giant Euro Adventure. Elba is a small island off the coast of Italy. It is where Napolean Bonaparte was exiled (hence my clever blog title.) It is not very far from Pisa but the town that you actually leave the mainland on the ferry to get there is Piombino. From there the ferry goes to Portoferaio, which means ferry port in Italian. We then headed from there to Scaglieri which is a small town and stayed at a campsite like place that had little cottages on the beach. In order to get to Elba we took a taxi from our house to the train station at 4:30 am. Then we took a train to Piombino traveling through Pisa and Livorno. After that we took Toremar Ferry to Portoferaio and a cab to the cottage.

                It is off season for Elba because soon it will be fall and people will stop going to the beaches so the place we stayed was fairly dead. The staff, which consisted of a lot of Italian men from Naples, were very “attentive.” They pretended to need to clean outside of our cabin in order to try to see the “Spice Girls,” as they called us, simply because we were 5 young English speaking girls. It got to be a bit awkward but we none of them were ever inappropriate. Naples is known here as the corrupt south of Italy and is thought of by Northern Italians as being run by the Mafia so when I say that they were men from Naples I mean for you to conjure up your most stereotypical Italian Mafiosi that you can, and then you will have a fairly accurate view of the staff.

                We had a good time in Elba. The island is absolutely gorgeous with beaches and luscious green areas and mountains it is the perfect semi-tropical place to go. The weather proved to be great and we got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea which is fun to say we did, minus my roommate Mitali who is opposed to being wet unless it is to shower. She is fairly glamorous though.  Charlotte and Amalia led the way into the water and Stacie and I ran in after we saw that they weren’t swallowed by a whale. The water was so crystal clear that even when I was up to my shoulders in it I could perfectly see my feet and all the little fish that swam around them. One night we went walking on the beach at midnight, all five of us and we saw a gorgeous wedding that seemed to span two of the hotels on the beach and had innumerable guests. At one point everyone at the party came to the window and began chanting Pietro, which is simply Peter in Italian. We then saw a guy who I would guess was in his twenties come running from the party in a speedo and dove into the sea to the enjoyment of the bride who we could see. It seemed like a pretty awesome party. We would have loved to crash it but not speaking the language makes blending in seem impossible.

At the end of the trip I had the greatest Skype call in the history of Skype where I believe I talked to almost every single member of my dad’s side and of the family and all but one of my own siblings, who I got to talk to later that same day.

Then it was back to normal classes in Tuscany – oh what a drag.

Side note for the carbonnara  experts in the family, in Elba they have a carbonnara of the sea which replaces the ham with octopus. I had it – and it was amazing!

Under the Tuscan Sun

This has been my first full weekend in Florence where my roommates and I are finally starting to feel like we know our way around so we took some little trips to the outer edge of the city. On Friday in the afternoon we went up to the Piazza Michelangelo. This is a large terrace just on the south side of the town. It is on a pretty good size hill and it overlooks Florence. It gives and absolutely gorgeous view of the city center of Florence. From our apartment it was a nice walk across the Arno River and up the hillside. The stairs/path, up to the Plaza, wind back and forth up the hill with fountains and great views along the way. Once you reach the Plaza you can see the Bronze copy of the David by Michelangelo. The panoramic view of Florence surrounded by the rolling hills of Tuscany is absolutely amazing. This relatively small city is completely surrounded by these hills and their green lawns and grape vines. These hills by the way would be called mountains in Indiana but with the Alps not too far to the north these certainly seem like mere hills here. After taking in the view for a while we continued further up the hill to the Chiesa San Miniato. This is an extremely old church where monks do Gregorian chants. From this church you have an even higher view down at Florence and you can see the Arno River snaking through the hills and into the city. You can see the Duomo, Bell Tower, and Baptistry reaching high above any other building in the city; and they immediately catch your eye because, unlike the browns and tans and pale yellows of the other buildings, they are green and white marble (at least the restored parts). You can see that Santa Croce is only marble on the very front side of the building and that the rest is simply brown stone because of the short period of time when Florence was the capitol of Italy and the Romans changed how some of the churches looked. It is a must for anyone spending time in Firenze.

On Saturday we took another trip out of the city center to a small town called Fiesole on the north side of Florence. It is a 25 minute bus ride out of town. After living in the always crowded and very noisy city of Florence for a week, we certainly wanted to escape to the serenity of the hills again. Fiesole offers the same panoramic views of the Florence city center. It is a little more removed than Piazza Michelangelo and offers some walking paths through the countryside. We packed our lunch for this trip, salads, cheese, bread, and wine and set out on a walking trail to find a picnic spot. The path we took was called Via San Francesco and immediately it was headed at a steep incline. We were not just walking at this point but rather hiking up this hill. All five of us were struggling a little to climb it but were soon embarrassed when a little old lady, who could not have been a day younger than 85, comes walking easily up the hill past us. We stopped complaining and picked up the pace from that point. All along the way up the hill we saw terraces where we could stop and take in the scenery around us. (We stayed and caught our breath really.) After walking up to the top of the hill and part of the way back down the other side we found a perfect picnic spot looking out away from the city and further into rural Tuscany. It was quiet and had an amazing view. After lunch we walked back into the center of Fiesole and had amazing gelato. The place was called il Tucano, which means The Toucan. It was most certainly the best I have had since I have been here and to what I will compare all future gelato. After a beautiful day in the hills we sat in the sun and waited for the bus back into town.

I came home and made a dinner of eggplant, yellow peppers, and carrots steamed with table wine and chicken. (The only meat I buy at the grocery store is chicken because it is the only one that I recognize and feel comfortable preparing.)

It was a beautiful Tuscan weekend I had!

The Meal of a Lifetime -- Tutti Bene!

Last evening, we had dinner as a whole school at a ristorante near the palazzo Santa Croce. It was the festival of the birth of Mary and many Florentines were out in celebration at the palazzos surrounding chiese (churches).
Our dinner began with a vino blanco (white wine) with antipasti (appetizers). We had 6 appetizers that came out in different rounds. The first appetizer was Brucceta which is common in America and was fairly similar to how it is there. The next was a large but thin slice of cantaloupe with thinly sliced ham covering it. I know this one sounds really weird and I was really concerned to try it because I hate cantaloupe and it usually makes me get hives and itch, but I tried it anyway because the chef personally delivered the food and stayed to see how we liked it. He kept asking "Tutto bene?" which means is everything good. Well the cantaloupe and ham was delicious, seriously try it! The next appetizer was a pesto sauce covering some kind of bean or nut and it was also amazing. The fourth dish was a tomato hollowed and filled with a bread crumb and sauce, I did not know any of the details of the dish but it was very good. Dish number five was a past salad dish that had chicken, kalamata olives, shaved almonds and potatos in it, it was just okay. The last antipasto was a dry and crunchy bread with a sausage and cheese sauce on it which was delicious.

At this time our attention was directed outside of the restaurant where a festival for the birth of Mary was happening in the piazzo Santa Croce. Many small children were carrying lamps called, rificocolone, that were any sort of shape made out of paper and decorated that had candles lit in the middle of them and they lined up towards the church in the square. The rest of the children were carrying large straws which you shoot spitball like pieces of play-doh out at the lamps that the other children are holding attempting to hit the lamp and knock it down or blow the light out. The children with the lamps represent good children and the children with the straws are the bad children. It was quite the site and live music was played in the square while this went on.

When we returned to the restaurant that was the end of the antipasto and it was time for the primo dishes or the true first course. This is served with a rossa vino, a pink wine, and is usually all pasta dishes. Out first pasta which was our 7th course of the meal was a meat ravioli with a simple olive oil and spices sauce. The next pasta, Course 8, was a carbonara with spiral noodles, I am sad to say I forget what the Italian name for the type of noodle is. Carbonara is a ham and peas with a white sauce, so delicious. The last dish, course 9!, was a spicy red pasta sauce over penne noodles.

The third part of the meal which was the last course would normally have been a meat and a rosso vino, or a heavy red wine, but everyone was so sickly full that we skipped to the dessert portion of the meal. So course 10 was a pie cut piece of fudge drizzled with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce.

I was so full by the end of the meal I was sick but it was all amazing food. And then we walked 2 miles home to our apartment and slept like babies, full of good wine and amazing food.

Tutti Bene - Everything is good!

CRAZY DRIVERS!!

 So after I arrived in Roma, a man named Guido (yes, that is a first name here not just the description of people off Jersey Shore) greeted the CAPA students and took us to our bus to go to Florence. Luka was the bus driver and though he did not speak much English he was extremely nice. We got to meet a lot of the people from the program on the bus ride which was a little over three hours.

The first thing Luka tells us is that we should not travel to Roma because it is not a nice place to be. When we asked why he told us that it is a dirty city because it is full of Romans and Luka was a Florentine. In Italy people from different cities do not like each other. Guido is a native of Geneva but he sounds British when he speaks English because his English teacher in school was from London. The bus that we rode in was a miniature version of a greyhound bus in the States. The highway that we rode of between Roma and Firenze was a very narrow two lane highway. I was gripping the seat in front of me hoping not to die most of the ride though. Luke felt it necessary to drive exactly in the middle of the two lanes. Other cars did not even seem phased by this driving and we were often three wide with the other two cars half in their own lane and half on the shoulder or almost scratching the wall of the highway.

Guido was making fun of us Americans because we were all fairly concerned about Luka's driving. He explained that in Italy the rules of the road such as lanes and speeds and turn signals, are more like suggestions and that no one pulls a car over on the highway. And as we watched we quickly learned that he was right. All of the other cars drove wherever they wanted on the road and swerved in and out of other cars and Vespas without ever thinking about using a turn signal.

Little did I know though that this was the smooth and safe part of the bus ride. When we got off the highway and had arrived in Firenze Luka only got worse. Most of the streets that are two lanes would only fit one lane in the US and the ones that are only one way are really only meant for Vespa scooters and really tiny cars. However, Luka took are giant bus down these little streets with no worries. We seriously almost hit 100 pedestrians and probably turned on only two wheels more than once. I was so happy when we got to get off the bus and into a Taxi but I learned that you have to be careful what you wish for because our cab driver was way worse than Luka and drove extremely fast the wrong way down one ways and in order to pass oncoming cars he drove on the sidewalk. IT WAS INSANE!!!

I survived though, but beware of cars in Italy - they are dangerous!

Pictures!

I had dinner at a restaurant with my roommates my first night here and this was my veiw from the table.

This is the Duomo. I walk past it everyday. Life here is so surreal.

Another picture of the Duomo where they are restoring it.

This is a famous statue in the Palazzo Vecchio. I dont know who it is but I am pretty sure Michaelangelo made it.

Address

Hey there have been some confusions about my mailing address

I have to recieve stuff here at the school
so it is

Jordan Berty
c/o CAPA
Via Pandolfini 20
50122 Firenze Italia

be careful sending packages because i can be charged customs fees

Grazie!

Made it!

So for an update on the airport situation- I did have to rearrange everything at the luggage counter in the international gate of the airport but surprisingly it was not because my checked bag was to heavy it was because my carry on bag was overweight. (Don't worry though my underwear was securely packed in a zipper shut compartment) The lady at the counter, who was extremely nice, took one look at my overstuffed carry on bag and said no. She did however allow my checked bag to end up being 7 lbs. overweight with out charging me at all, but she warned me that the luggage attendants in Italy would not be as understanding and if it is this heavy on the way back I will most certainly be charged a lot of Euros.

After the baggage issue was settled I headed off to wait in the security line and say goodbye to Mom, Dad, and Ben, which sucked. I only had like ten minutes to say goodbye before I need to wait in line where they could not go. Then the line for security was terribly long but I made it through fine and got on my plane easily. The flight was fine, although I did not have a screen in the seat in front of me. I sat next to a really nice couple from Chicago and talked to them some and tried to sleep but that did not go great. After getting off the plane I met the other people that were on the flight from my program and we all got our luggage, except one girl. I went with her to the lost luggage and declared it while the rest of the group went through customs and met our guide that was taking us to Florence. In customs I did not get a stamp in my passport which I did not like.

The bus ride to Florence was not bad, actually it was really pretty through Tuscany. Then when we got to Florence we rode in a taxi to our apartment. The apartment is amazing. It is so European and so beautiful and really not that small.

Had dinner in the apartment and went out to a Tapas Bar on the river at night. So beautiful!!!
Buongiorno

Ciao Bella!

So I am under 13 hours and freaking out. The bags are packed, double checked, unpacked, repacked, rechecked and weighed probably 40 times. I made 100 different check lists and checked them all off and double checked that I actually had them packed. Poor Ben had to deal with my intense anxiety and my complaining. He also helped with all the shopping and checklists and is even making the drive to Chicago. I had to make a trip to Costco and three trips to WalMart and I still need to get glue sticks, NyQuil, and Dramamine at a store in the morning. The final weight of the bag is 50.9 ... so I am hoping that by some miracle the person that takes my bag is in a really good mood or that the bag magically weighs one pound less when I put it on the scale at Chicago O'Hare.

My flight is with Delta but it is operated by New alitalia. So I could pick my seat and say I had a bag on Delta.com but I could not actually check in, seemed a little weird. Anyway it just adds to my stress because now I do not know if I should check in at Delta at the airport or find the weird airline that is operating the flight, just what I need right now - more stress!

On another note, I am writing this post at almost 2 in the morning. I am so pumped/scared about going that I literally cannot sleep. I have not really tried very hard. I am watching TV and have all my lights on and I am being attacked by a cat constantly. She seems to be nocturnal.

Well I will keep you updated on whether the attendant at the check in smiles and takes my bag or embarrassingly  makes me open my giant suitcase and show O'Hare my underwear while I try to rearrange to make it 0.9 lbs lighter... I am thinking I will take out a towel and move it to my carry on (they are kind of heavy).

Ciao Bella! (Hopefully I learn something that doesn't sound so lame while I am there and can use it as my new sign off, until then Ciao Bella!)

I can't Pack!!

I have made a packing list but how can I possibly get everything for an entire semester together into a suitcase that weighs no more than 50lbs? Needless to say the bag is going to be stuffed and I am only as far in as the clothes. I haven't packed any electronics or school supplies or toiletries. Here are some pictures so that you can appreciate the disaster of the situation.

Feeling better - here is a picture of a practice run of making it all fit into the suitcase. Of course the cat is not going, but here everything that was on the ground surrounding the empty suitcase is inside the suitcase so its a temporary victory.