Monica MC is Watching Cruel Intentions Right Now

It's pretty interesting how paying attention to one thing makes other daily happenings more relevant. My theme continues to be country living, city living, and the ambiguous life in between. Now that I'm focusing more on that theme I am starting to see examples of it in other areas. A horse-and-carriage trotting down the busy main street of Florence suddenly appears as something different, a kind of strange clash of old fashioned and new fashioned. In my Italian class we actually had an essay and conversation comparing the pros and cons of city and country life. In Italian Cinema the class brought up the same conversation by chance. My Italian Cinema teacher even asked to read my book because it related to the discussion. I am really enjoying being more aware of everyday oddities that relate to what I'm researching. 

This week I'm continuing to work on my book series. The first volume (I finished last week) is called Little Lamb in the Big City. I have some pictures of the illustrations here. Every day I spend in Florence actually functions as more research; at times I feel like a fish out of water myself. But each day that goes by I find myself feeling more comfortable bit by bit. Maybe living abroad gives me a little more insight on the disorienting feeling of changing lifestyles.