I been one poor correspondent, and I been too, too hard to find

[theladyrose]

Just got back from Firenze (Florence) - I didn't realize how far I am behind on writing about Italy and my various travels lately because I keep writing so many letters describing to different people different aspects of my time here. Seriously, I just wrote my 42nd on the train ride back this evening and have killed at least three pens since I've been here. But if any of you who haven't received one yet would like one, please LJ message me an address by which I can reach you and I'd be more than happy to do so.

So, the short and flippant version of Firenze - my mother may be right about inheriting her genes and my not being able to get drunk. That said, trying Chianti for the first time made me finally understand why people enjoy drinking. Apparently it's not that hard to convince older men to give you two bottles of wine on them if you're with two tall blondes, one of whom is celebrating her 20th birthday. The inside of the Duomo, featuring Brunelleschi's famous dome, may be the most overrated cathedral in the whole city (on the inside, that is), which might be why entrance is free. The other cathedrals make you pay, but the frescoes, statues and the interior architecture are so worth it. San Lorenzo, near the Duomo, and the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine are much more worth your time. Italian mosquitoes find me nowhere nearly as delicious as American or Chinese ones, which suits me just fine. In Verona, the clothes are unaffordable but the food reasonable; in Firenze, the clothes are affordable (at the open air market, especially if you go on a Sunday and if you're willing to haggle) but the food outrageous if you go to most of the sit-down places.

In the meantime, as I try to come up with a coherent entry about Vienna, I'm really not sure what to say about this article claiming that women think about shopping as much as men think about sex. At the very least, the research methodology is probably really inaccurate, but there are so many things that bug me about the implications of this article. Because women have naturally nothing better on their minds than snagging the next so-called bargain...

Comments

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

I'm really not sure what to say about this article claiming that women think about shopping as much as men think about sex.

As one of the commenters pointed out, it's not a random sample, but a survey of readers of a magazine that focuses to a large extent on fashion. People who read car magazines probably think about cars every 52 seconds. People who read fishing magazines probably think about fishing every 52 seconds.

The most frightening thing is that once again the mainstream media demonstrates total ignorance of how proper surveys must be carried out in order to be meaningful, or (if they do understand) total contempt for their readers by printing the story anyway.

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of that joke about how 76% of all statistics are made up on the spot. It's a pity how often the results of surveys have to be discounted due to biased sampling. A lot of the research that's published in psychology journals can't be generalized because 18-22 year old college students make up the subject pool for over half of all studies conducted. And actually conducting survey research is enough to pull out your hair - I found out the hard way as a social psych research assistant for a year. Besides which, self-report measures (which I'm guessing were used, because there's no way you could perform a random beeper recording methodology for such a large group) are notoriously skewed as people always overestimate or underestimate the duration of time and the frequency of events.

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is that I don't think it occurs to some of these people that 18-22 year old college students might not be typical of the population as a whole!

And I suspect that some of them have never met anybody who didn't go to college.

[horosha.livejournal.com]

Firenze was my favorite city out of all of Italy. I had the good fortune of arriving on Festa di San Giovanni and catch the fireworks over the river. I remember sitting on the bank with festival candy in hand, watching the fireworks reflect in the water, thinking, "How can I go home after this?"

Good times.

(did I ever give you my new address, anyway?)

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

That sounds lovely! I was in Verona during the holiday of San Zeno, the city's patron, and it was just a day that workers had off, no celebration at all. The central/southern regions of Italy seem a lot livelier.

I don't seem to have your new address - do you think you could e-mail it to me?

[one-blankpage.livejournal.com]

you are an INCREDIBLE letter writer. I tell myself that I *will* write to people while in college, but... I doubt my own faith. I think I'll dedicate two hours a week to letter writing as I've promised three friends a letter a month already. and I do love receiving snail mail. it's only right that I give it too :)

I'm so glad you're enjoying your summer abroad. I so, so want to go - either freshman or sophomore year summer. gahh, oh the planning that should at some point occur...

and here I am rambling.

I hope you are well! ;)

♥

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was a pleasure to write, although I'm afraid it was clumsy in parts as it was the first that I sent. I just received the letter that you and Tiffany sent today. It really brightened my day after so much traveling in the sweltering heat yesterday.

It's hard to keep up in college - your sister's really good at keeping in touch, but I'm afraid I got really lax. But once you actually start writing it can be hard to stop; I find it really peaceful. I'd be willing to be pen pals if you are!

Yes, you should study abroad! You have plenty of time to contemplate your options :) There's no rush, though I do think that summer's better as you don't miss what's happening on campus that way.

Hope summer's been going well for you, too!

[myfavouriteplum.livejournal.com]

I thought Italian mosquitoes were a bit overrated, too. They left me alone. However, I did travel with a friend who's deemed by mosquitoes of all nationalities as human Belgian chocolate...

I miss Florence. There were so many cathedrals and museums that I didn't have enough money or time to visit at the time.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Because women have naturally nothing better on their minds than snagging the next so-called bargain...

I think the writers of the article American women think about shopping all the time (leaving aside the question of which American women actually do that - it's like that really annoying shibboleth that women are obsessed with shoes. Um, no. But it's definitely a compenent of American culture that femininity is performed by obsessing about shoes). You have to live in a consumption-based economy for thinking about shopping to be an interesting activity. If you live in the Third World, or if you lived in the Soviet Bloc, there wasn't much point in thinking about shopping (at least not in the sense that that article uses the word "shopping").

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

The main problem seems to be that the sample is so limited. I'm also curious as to what exactly was defined as shopping - there's consumer goods, and there are necessities. Basically, the operational definition was really unclear here. The article seemed to imply that consumer goods, particularly fashion, were the focus of the sampled women's thoughts. But there are so many factors that are ignored here - what about poorer women who spend ages clipping out all the coupons and carefully planning all of their household purchases to maximize their savings? That could take a considerable amount of time, too, but would skew the rather flippant implications of the findings.

If you live in the Third World, or if you lived in the Soviet Bloc, there wasn't much point in thinking about shopping

This reminds me of Goodbye, Lenin! or the early Cold War comedy One Two Three (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One%2C_Two%2C_Three) starring a young Horst Buchholz stealing the scenes from James Cagney. There's this assumption that everyone growing up and living in a communist society naturally wants rampant consumer choice. Not that having choice is a bad thing by any means, but implies that consumer capitalism is inevitable and desired, that there aren't valid ideological reasons for not wanting to consume. Only societies that actually have sufficient economic development and resources could even consider making that political choice; if you're living in the middle of a jungle that's self-sustaining, then of course shopping isn't exactly going to be on your mind.

On a related note, Though the areas of the brain that are involved in rewarding novel-seeking behavior seem to also be activated when shopping (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11580690). This seems to particularly be the case for those who are more naturally impulsive. I think the article's trying to imply that the shopping-reward neural connection is as strong in women as it stereotypically is in men in regards to sex.

Oh, re: Vienna - I'm sorry that we'll be missing each other this weekend, but I hope you and your family have a lovely time on holiday! I'm afraid I'm leaving Italy on the 13th and basically have finals, then a final few days in Rome before I head back to the US. I do hope that we'll have a chance in the future to meet again, and if you should ever find yourself in California I hope I'll have the opportunity to show you around!

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Now if scientists could only figure out some way of detecting different species of mosquitoes' preferences and actually come up with an effective repellent to ward them all off! Older adults are less likely to be bitten in general, and I've read that the "sweetness" of different people's blood seems to be correlated with the likelihood of being bitten. But apparently mosquitoes across continents generally have different preferences as to what they like for dessert!

Yes, there's far too much to see in Florence - I wish I could've seen Michelangelo's David or more rooms in the Uffizzi as my professor spent 40 minutes per painting after we gave presentations on works we had already discussed in class. Hopefully we can both go back to see the rest sometime in the future.

[myfavouriteplum.livejournal.com]

Older adults are less likely to be bitten in general

It seems they appreciate the delicateness of skin...

I wish I could've seen Michelangelo's David or more rooms in the Uffizzi

I haven't seen Michelangelo's David, either. *hugs*

[romanticizing.livejournal.com]

A real, old-fashioned letter? I'd love one! I will send you my address :)

That's so exciting that you went Florence! I learned about the city in a history class last year so now I really want to go. And I hope Vienna was amazing -- I definitely have to go there when I'm abroad. I hope the rest of your travels are going well :)

Apparently it's not that hard to convince older men to give you two bottles of wine on them if you're with two tall blondes, one of whom is celebrating her 20th birthday.

Truth.

Re: that article, I have to say, personally I feel like I think about sex more than shopping. But I think of, say, old movie stars and other random things a lot more than either of those topics.

By the way, I finally got to see Vertigo in a movie theater (an old one, too, from the 30s). I thought of you :)

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Lovely! I'm sending it out tomorrow morning :)

It's been a real treat to see all of these places I've read about in textbooks. I hope you'll have a chance to travel around when you're in London next semester; there are a lot of cheap airfares to the continent out of London. I'm going back to Vienna this weekend because I loved it so much (I blame it on the Third Man for my initial infatuation in the first place). I took a lot of photos; a number are up on Facebook at the moment, but I have a lot more to upload from Florence. I was thinking about posting some here, too, when I have the time.

But I think of, say, old movie stars and other random things a lot more than either of those topics.

Hee, I have to agree with you here!

Oh, Vertigo! I'm just the teeniest bit jealous, but it must've been incredible to see it on the big screen. When I was at the Third Man museum in Vienna, they actually play a clip of the film on one of the original projectors from the 40s.

[romanticizing.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll have to look for your Facebook pictures. Definitely post some here if you have time :) Sometime I'll have to get some travel advice from you. I'd love to travel lots while I'm in London, and after -- all those London-but-not-really-London airports the cheap airlines fly out of are kind of confusing me. But Vienna is definitely high on my list of places to visit! I have way too many places from movies to visit, haha.

There's a Third Man museum!?!?! Oh, wow. Was it really amazing?

Man, I'm trying to remember now.. Oh, I know what it was. Have you seen this BBC show 'Cambridge Spies'? It's really good and part of it takes place in Vienna, and this woman is talking about how she went up on the big Ferris wheel, and she looked at all the people, little dots, and was thinking that she cared about every little dot. It was a very exciting moment.

And I'll look for your letter in the mail :)

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Some of the girls at the hostel I'm staying at are from London, and they told me that they tend to fly out of Gatwick. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any others, but I do look forward to hearing about your travels :) Any other particular places in mind?

Pictures are on their way. I'm just sad that I forgot to bring my camera along this weekend for revisiting Vienna. I just went to Prater Park this afternoon, and I'm afraid I could hardly see any people when riding the Ferris Wheel; tourism's been down ~20% this summer, according to the people I've randomly talked to. It was more like seeing a miniature mechanical panorama come to life. The inside of the cars are pretty graffitti'd - there are plenty of reminders of those who were there before you, seeing what you saw.

You have to see the Third Man Museum! The couple that runs the museum and Sophie, their assistant (I haven't met Michela), might be the warmest people I met in all of Vienna, and I've pretty much liked everyone I've met here. It's so small that you pretty much get a private tour, and they really enjoy getting to know each person who passes through. It's only open on Saturdays, but it is so worth it. Seriously, they have a copy of every single version of the theme out there, among other things. There's a whole section dedicated to Vienna before, during and after the war with a lot of rare photographs and documents.

There's also a 3rd Man walking tour of various locations featured in the movie as well as a separate tour of the sewers. Unfortunately I didn't have my act together to book those in advance (the online booking forms don't work; I think you need to e-mail those in charge). You can check out the site here (http://www.3mpc.net/englnews.htm).

It sounds like I have a new show to pick up when I return in a week and a half! Thanks for the rec.

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

Your tour of Italy sounds so wonderful. I have promised myself, I will travel there someday. Your letter has arrived, thank you! with its lovely news from Vienna, and I do hope you will write more about it here:)

I enjoy wine, and I hope you had a positive encounter with the Chianti. Don't bother getting drunk, just enjoy it a bit at a time. It's really best that way.

Mosquitoes love me. I attract them, as does my daughter. Husband and son are immune. Not sure why. I'm glad you're being spared by the little Italian buggers.

I'm not much of a shopper, and even then, I'm mostly a window shopper, a browser. Shopping, actually having to purchase something, drains the life force right out of me. I think about sex much more often than I do about shopping!

Thinking of you. Have fun!

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you got the letter! azdak sends her love, by the way. Tales from the Vienna woods are coming, although I'm going back to the city this weekend and will hopefully have more to report, along with posting pictures :)

I'm lucky in that I haven't been drunk; I almost always abstain except for a glass of wine for really nice family dinners. This was actually the first time I've drunk with non-relatives, and I made sure to eat a fair amount first. The most I've had in college was half a shot of vodka because I was curious as to what it tasted like (and also I could more accurately describe the taste!). We had a really nice time talking to the restaurant owner who was so generous about what to see around Florence, and he had this friend from South Africa who was telling us about life there.

When I've gone to China, I'm normally eaten alive by the little buggers. I've read that mosquitoes like people with sweeter blood, although I personally suspect that they prefer women to men.

Window shopping's always fun. I tend to buy in spurts and look for gifts in advance throughout the year because I'm afraid I'll forget birthdays otherwise. My mother gives me a lot of the clothes that don't fit her or that she doesn't want anymore, so it's a nice way of acquiring clothes that I know will look nice :)

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

Oooh, you're going back to Vienna, you mean that city? I am so happy for you that you're able to travel like this. Time of your life, all that. I look forward to pics! Most excellent!

You sound like a cautious and responsible drinker. I was picturing you swilling half a carafe of Chianti! Yikes! *hangs head* I'm sometimes in the "Oops, I think I've had a little too much" club and get a little silly with our oldest and dearest party friends. But only when my husband's driving.

The restaurant owner sounds so nice. Isn't it great to get info from someone who's in the know? I love it when folks will take the time to talk with us and make suggestions when we're out and about in places we've never been.

[gandydancer.livejournal.com]

you are wonderful and i'm glad you're having a lovely time. i wish you could become a secret agent in far off lands and then get in touch with all of us by posting short, peculiar messages in the personal column of the new york times.

i can think of a number of men who actually don't have sex on their minds every second of the day as much as i can women who don't give a fig for shopping. that article bothers me in the extreme.

keep on having lots of fun!

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

It's great to hear from you! We need to form a top secret agency of our own where we send each other messages with super sneaky passcodes given by French chanteuses in raincoats. Headquarters can be in Los Angeles.

It's embarrassing to see how the media can perpetuate these terribly superficial stereotypes about both genders. And there's a lot of issues with how they selected the women to be sampled (all Cosmo readers, go figure) and how they tried measuring this frequency.

I hope you're feeling better!

[laleia.livejournal.com]

You know my opinions on evolutionary psych and essentialism and "research" more about sensationalism than data and science.

Also, I command you to guide me around Italy at some point before we die.

Also, I wish I were diligent like you and could send letters to my friends, but I am terrible about letters because after writing them, I get too lazy to put a stamp on them, and even after the stamp, it will take me at least 3 days to remember to put it in the mailbox ...

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, I'm no expert by any means and really have only seen places around Northern Italy, but I definitely would be up for going with you someday.

I'm generally the same way, too! I've never been very good at keeping up with letters - usually after I receive a reply, I always forget to respond. I've just been writing a lot of different people rather than responding.