Unconventional Thanksgiving

Just a disclaimer: please be patient with how long it takes me to post blogs right now. I have fewer than 2 weeks left to get in all the traveling I can while having finals and final papers. Unfortunately, my blog cannot be a priority right now, but I will update it as much as I can!

While all my classmates from the Gonzaga-in-Florence program went to Bosnia and Croatia for Thanksgiving, I thought it would be the perfect time for Dad to visit! Usually my brothers and I spend Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family since all but 3 people live within an hour of each other. I actually can walk to two of my cousins' houses in about twenty minutes. We are literally a very "close knit" group. I'd never spent a major holiday away from my family, especially one that emphasized family. So anyway, my dad came to Italy to visit me for a week.

Unfortunately for both him and me, I got this HORRIBLE cold at the beginning of Thanksgiving week. I had zero energy and was repulsive to be around, but it's my dad. He didn't care. He and I got to talk about some things that really needed to be talked about, which was great. I cannot remember the order well, so, Dad, if I mix some things up, let it go. 

Dad arrived the day before Thanksgiving and I dragged him to a huge lunch and then to the Accademia to see the statue of David since we ate next door to it. After that we napped and eventually went to grab some wine before dinner. We sat in the Piazza della Signoria and shared a bottle of Chianti. We then went to dinner at Yellow Bar and got awesome pizzas and more wine. 

On Thanksgiving, I don't remember what we did during the day, but the night ended with us walking around the town, running into some Native Americans dancing in front of the Duomo and then we went to my favorite pub, Finnegans. This pub is an Irish pub that's co-owner is a Scottsman named Simon. When I walk in, He says "MacLeod!!" For those who don't know, that is the name of my Scottish clan. The other bartender that night was Toby, a Dane. They both are great guys who are very nice to me and joke around with me. Dad was VERY friendly that night, making friends with all these people at the pub. Some were Americans, one was a British man who lived in Rome as a tour guide. He and I got into a ferociously competitive game of flipping the coasters and catching them in the air. I made sure to try most of the Thanksgiving drink specials they offered, including Turkey Ball, Cranberry Fizz and some

 others. They usually only have peanuts at Finnegans for customers to eat, but they have little turkey and tomato finger sandwiches. I ate probably an entire tray of them myself since I was starving. It was nice to at least have turkey on Thanksgiving since it was otherwise a completely different holiday than usual. 

On Friday dad and I went to Lucca, a small city outside of Florence that is supposed to be a beautiful place to ride bikes. As we rode the train to Lucca, it started to pour! We got there and I was in my down coat, which it turns out is NOT waterproof. I was already sick and soaking wet and we didn't want me to get any sicker, so we walked to a pizzeria and then took the train back to Florence. For the rest of the afternoon, I dried off and tried to stay warm in my room. We went to a great restaurant that night: Club Paradiso. You may remember this restaurant from a previous blog post. The man bought me the rose there and we danced. Well, the owner remembered me and the meal was amazing. 

Saturday, Dad and I went on this all day tour of Tuscany that Mom recommended. It went to Siena, lunch at a wine estate, San Gimignano, and Pisa. It rained, again, for most of the day. I made Dad buy his own umbrella instead of sharing mine since my non-waterproof jacket was getting me wet again. He bought this great blue plaid umbrella that caved in at the top, which collected water. He had to dump the water out occasionally. In San Gimignano our guide told us that some British man saw us and said hello! It turns out it was my buddy from the bar two night before!!!! Such a small world! The day ended in Pisa, where we took the traditional pictures.

I am exhausted from having finals and traveling and such, so I cannot even remember the rest of the weekend. It was a fun week!!!

Another disclaimer: the internet at the hostel I live in is super slow. I will add more pictures to this entry later!!

Denmark and beyond!

So about a week ago, I went to Denmark for the weekend to visit Rachel, a fellow Sigma from my school. She lives in Copenhagen. I woke up on Thursday morning and took a bus to the train station. From there I took a train from Florence to Rome and then another from the Rome train station to the Rome airport (it's far -- ask my mom). Then I hopped on a 2.5 hour flight to Copenhagen! Rachel had classes and couldn't pick me up immediately, so I willingly agreed to wait in STARBUCKS!!!!! I had not seen a Starbucks in months! Italy doesn't have them.  They have espresso so they don't need Grande non-fat sugar-free vanilla steamers with no whip! As a non-coffee-drinker, I'm having a hard time in the cold weather without having a hot beverage to sip. My grande nonfat chai latte sure hit the spot!

Rachel warned me it was cold in Denmark. I believed her, but I'm from Alabama. The cold weather clothes I own are limited and were too bulky to pack for my European adventure! I brought my down jacket (which I learned yesterday is, in fact, NOT waterproof) and some long sleeve shirts. I figured I'd layer and I'd be fine. Little did I know that I was going further north than I'd ever been in my life (geography was never an interest of mine) and when Rachel said "cold" she meant "bone chilling!!!" I luckily remembered my little knit hats and leather gloves (again, learned they were not waterproof or very warm). So needless to say, though I've said it in excruciating detail, I was FREEZING!!! Not only was it cold, but it was windy! And there was not a snow flake in sight!

Friday, I went to class with Rachel and wandered the city while she was in class. Later, tiny hail started to fall. I am a Southerner who instinctively wondered if classes were cancelled. Then, I realized where I was and that I was surrounded by people who had actually seen snow in the past 5 years. After classes, we went to dinner and then Tivoli, which is this Danish theme park that locals go to. It is decorated to represent the season. Apparently for Halloween, there were dancing children singing and dressed as pumpkins, which I'm bummed I missed. It is Christmas time everywhere except America, who still had Thanksgiving to look forward to. Tivoli was lit up with gorgeous lights and entertaining booths and exhibits. One of my favorite discoveries was hot chocolate with Baileys!! It was so good and warmed me from the inside! 

While at Tivoli.... IT BEGAN TO SNOW!!!! I'm talking really really snow! We watched a laser light show in the river and enjoyed the snowfall. I took more pictures of snow than anything else on this trip, but I was excited! I'll probably do another post of just pictures so y'all can see them all! Or a few of them.

The next day, we went to Lund, Sweden for the day. The snow still covered the ground. I thought Denmark was cold until I got to Sweden, which is apparently further north. The sun came out for about 3 hours while we were there. When it went down at 4 PM we decided it was waaaay too cold to stay. We had amazing potato soup for lunch, by the way. We split a chocolate chip cookie and got on the train. One we got back to Copenhagen, we headed to this bar/pub that a bunch of people from her program frequent: the Dubliner. Denmark has this amazing thing known as the Christmas beer. The night it first went on sale for the season, people jumped out of trucks in blue santa costumes and ran into the bars, etc. to distribute the beer. It's in a can, a bottle or on tap. I got two bottles of it and it was amazing! Then we went back and got warm and I prepared for my early journey home.

The next morning I woke up at 5 and was driven to the train station near the house of the family with whom I was staying. The train ride took about 45 minutes and took me directly into the airport. Once I got to the airport painfully early, I took advantage of my favorite part of international travel: duty free shopping!!!! It was so nice getting back, but I was exhausted! Luckily this week we only had school 2 days rather than 4. Then my dad came for Thanksgiving. That is another entry in and of itself! 

The first photo is from the king's gardens surrounding the palace in Copenhagen. The 2nd picture is of the Lund Cathedral in Sweden. Next, the Christmas beer! Then that is the back of my head with my snow-covered hair. The next picture is of Rachel and me at Tivoli in a North Pole area. The next picture is of the harbor in Copenhagen. Most postcards have that picture of them. The final picture is from the Copenhagen airport.

The Life of a Florentine

Buongiorno!

I know it's been a while since an actual update, but it's going to be a little longer. Right now I'm in Copenhagen, Denmark visiting my friend Rachel from my sorority! I will do an entire entry on this trip, but for now I am just going to talk about Florence. (I was when I typed this. Now I'm back in Italy and am finishing the entry)

I was supposed to go to Spain to visit Lindsay Martin, but it got complicated with my school and I had to cancel, which SUCKED! But, my friend Marisa came to visit that weekend and otherwise I wouldn't have seen her all semester! It was a blast. My roommate, Laura, had a friend visiting then too, so we had some joint-hosting sessions. I ate at this incredible restaurant called Club Paradiso. It's 15€ for an appetizer, a pasta course, a meat course and a side vegetable dish. Plus wine was 5€ a bottle! We had a blast! This Italian man, around my father's age, bought all 4 of us roses. He kept yelling "Cin! Cin!" from across the restaurant. It means "cheers!" Then he insisted that I dance with him. After him buying me a rose and me splitting 3 bottles of red wine, it sounded fun! So that meal was long, fun, and LOUD! Our table was loud, our new-found Italian best friends were loud. It was so fun!

We left and wandered towards the Duomo, which is the center of town. On the way I decided it was a great idea to call Ann, my Alabama buddy in Florence also, and see what she was doing! She just so happened to be a couple bridges over from where I was, so we met up and took her and her friend along with us to the bar. From that bar we went to another bar where i finally met up with Marisa! It was such a fun night! Marisa and I spent the next day together and spent money and quality time catching up. It was so nice to have someone from back home who understands what I'm going through. I think the people who have never studied abroad don't realize how lonely it can get. I sent out pathetic emails to my sorority begging for more mail and have received maybe 2 letters since. It just can get lonely and lead to more homesickness. So, anyway, Marisa and I were on the same page about that and various other topics.

I took her to get my favorite gelato (it's technical name is La Carraia, but I call it One Euro Gelato because that's how much it costs!) and as we were enjoying it on the bridge, we looked into the Arno River and saw a guy floating on an overturned kayak. All his friends were laughing and paddling off. One even came back and paddled near him and then left. Marisa and I dubbed him the "Beached Whale." It has nothing to do with size. It was because of his helplessness. We just stared. You all know my laugh (LOUD!!!!), well, I laughed really hard and full volume and the water made it echo. He heard it, obviously, and looked up at me. I felt so bad, but at the same time, that is totally something that would happen to me. Finally, after about 10 minutes of side-splitting entertainment, a guy in a motor boat can to get him and flip over the kayak. To give the guy (who was a kid, by the way. yes, I'm horrible) some credit, the oars were attached to the kayak, creating a cross-like formation that is understandably difficult to flip back over.
the first picture is my friend Marisa and me! The second is me, with rose in mouth, trying to navigate our way to the bar where we were supposed to meet friends. The last is with me and my biggest fan, dancing.

Photo Journalism

This post is going to be untraditional. I'm going to just put a bunch of pictures and caption them, rather than typing a whole entry. This way, I can tell more with saying less!

This is from Krakow, Poland. The architecture is very distinctive in Poland.

This is part of the Berlin wall. They tore down the actual Berlin wall, but then tourism decreased, so they built another one and hired professional artists to decorate it.

Last night, Laura and I intended to go to an 80s night at this club called 21, but we never made it to the club. We just had some drinks with friends then came home and slept. At least we were rocking the 80s outfits!

The Ponte Vecchio is the most famous bridge in Florence. I'm sitting on the next bridge over from it with it as my backdrop.

San Lorenzo market is probably one of my favorite places in Florence! You can haggle with the vendors to get things for very little money! This is where I've gotten my rainbow assortment of pashminas. It's a great place to pick up souvenirs and gifts.

Another weekend in Roma!

This past weekend my Art History professor took all of us to Rome, which seems appropriate since it's a Roman Art and Architecture class. It was such an incredible trip, but VERY long. I woke up at 5 AM on Friday and walked to the train station to meet my class at 6:15. When we got to Rome we began our tour at the Colosseum and the Forum. Each student was assigned a few monuments or statues along the way to present to the rest of the class. This actually helped me pay attention more because it wasn't one person's voice the whole time. I'm exhausted right now, so I'll just list the places we went to:

Colosseum and the Forum

Spanish Steps

Piazza Navona

The Vatican and St. Peter's

Capitoline Museum

Market's of Trajan and his column

the Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Ostia Antica (A little Pompeii-like city outside of Rome)

We saw SO MUCH that I probably left off some important sites.

While in Rome I was able to meet up with Adrienne, a fellow Sigma, and we ate dinner together. It was so much fun seeing someone from school! I feel left out having missed out on rush stuff, but I'm here having the time of my life so it's all good! This is seriously a once in a lifetime opportunity. I've been able to travel to some amazing places and 

meet great people and try new things. I'm a HUGE vegetable fan now! I know, everyone in my family probably doubts that, but I LOVE them and eat them as often as possible. I even have cravings for vegetables! It's better for my health than having cravings for gelato!

The first picture is me next to the foot from the colossal statue of Constantine. Note that his toes are larger than my big head, hair included!!! The second picture is of my whole class with our professor in front of Augustus of Prima Porta in the Vatican museum. Hiding behind her is Federica from the Student Life staff. She comes on most of the trips and helps plan them. I love her! She's so cool, sweet and fun! 

The picture right above is of a Tibetan monk tying a bracelet of protection on my wrist. My friends Courtney, Brittany and I were walking through a mall and saw these monks doing various crafts. One monk was painting a very intricate painting and the other was doing these bracelets. He blew on the knot and blessed it (or something) before tying it on me. I have such tiny wrists that he tied it three times and even had enough string to do a fourth time! Everyone else wrapped it twice. The first picture below is from Piazza Navona, which was a former gladiatorial stadium for chariot races. Today there are tons of vendors there. While I was having a necklace made out of wire of my name we saw these in the sky. Every black dot you see is a bird. This isn't even the half of it! It was CRAZY!!!! I don't know what they were doing -- probably some kind of migration, but they were in incredible formations. SO BIZARRE!

This picture is from Ostia Antica, where we went on Sunday before returning to Florence. I told the group it would be an incredible photo opp and then we all climbed on the statue to pose with it! It was a  much taller statue than I thought, which is why I had to hold on with my hands, ruining the illusion. Oh well! Overall, a fabulous trip! I recommend going to Rome with an Art Historian if possible! Your experience will be remarkable. 

Ciao regazzi!!!

A Tuscan Cooking Experience

Ok, I know I promised no more long blog posts, but hopefully they aren't too painful to get through! My mom just left yesterday morning, which is so sad! They lost her luggage too! I miss her already, but I planned this well-- from here until I leave Florence I am traveling every single weekend except one when my dad is here over Thanksgiving. This way, I won't give myself the opportunity to feel homesick!

On Saturday my mom and I woke up (she smuggled me into her hotel room) and caught a cab to the meeting point where a van from our cooking class would pick us up. We had no idea how many people to expect in our cooking class, but we knew it was not just my mom and me, since they had to reschedule us. It turned out to be the two of us and this cute British couple, Simon and Peta. We drove for about 30 minutes to get to this old Tuscan villa where we would have our 5 hour class. The kitchen in this villa was INCREDIBLE. The stove had 8 or 10 eyes and there was a plethora of counter space, which any chef knows is essential for meal preparation. We met the couple who would teach the cooking class and they were sweet as could be! They served us coffee (tea for me!) and then we washed up and put on our aprons. From there we began preparing the meal. 

I won't walk you through the entire thing since not everyone reading this actually cares about cooking, but I'd love to elaborate with anyone who is interested. The menu was as follows:

• Brusccheta (toasted bread with olive oil, tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic, salt, etc.)
  
• Hand-made ravioli filled with potatoes, prosciutto (Italian version of bacon), and Ricotta cheese covered in a duck ragu (I am a "selective" eater, but I LOVED it!)
  
• Safron and Zucchini Risotto
• Beef stew with palenta (corn flour and water put together to create this spongey concoction) 
• Tiramisu

All of the cooking occurred with a glass of wine in hand -- for me at least. We enjoyed local Tuscan white wine first and then switched to red. The cooking part was so much fun! My mom and I were total goofballs the whole time, which was fun! She cut an onion when she wasn't supposed to and Franco said "No Cut!" I set an oven mitt on fire. Don't worry, it only burned for a few seconds before the British woman alerted me and I extinguished the flame. The best part was eating our delectable creations! I was full after the 2nd fish, but forced myself to eat the rest. It was so amazing that I haven't really even been hungry since! We got to keep our aprons and a big book of Tuscan recipes! Overall, I would highly recommend this to ANYBODY.

Afterwards, my mom and I stumbled through the city in what I call a "food coma."

 All the blood had gone from our brains to our stomachs in order to digest all of that amazing food. Then we wandered around looking for a few final gifts, but decided we were too exhausted to continue. After resting for a while, I said goodbye to my mom and went home. I ended up getting one of the worst migraines I've ever had that night. I was miserable and lonely (because I had just said goodbye to my mom) and just wanted to be home. Once I got to sleep I was fine again.

I have art class in a little while, so I should go. I'll do one entry featuring my art class assignments sometime!

Ciao!

P.S. The top picture is me cooking the duck ragu and having the duck (liver and heart included) splatter all over my face. That is why I am making that face. The next picture is the menu of things we cooked that day. Finally, the Duomo in the most incredible lighting I have ever seen.

An Afternoon in Firenze!

Today I had my Italian midterm. It was cumulative, so it was a lot of info to know for the test, but I actually think I did well on it! It is such a relief to finally have that one along with Sociology out of the way!

After that, I went to lunch with my mom and we had great food, which included cheese from sheep's milk, or pecorino. Then we went to the open air markets where my roommate Laura met up with us. We got great gifts for people, sorry I can't list them!!!! Then we went to this little store that had the most gorgeous handmade pastas. Some were striped and these incredible shapes. Then there were the more.....inappropriate kind. There are over 300 different types of pasta!!! Laura and i both got these purple Firenze shirts on them with the fleur de leil (spelling???) on them.

We ended up just wandering around and had a blast! Then Laura and I walked back. We stopped at McDonald's to see if she had left her jacket there the other night and then decided to go ahead and get fries and cokes. Now I'm watching Mean Girls in my room!

I'm going to talk about my favorite trip so far! We went to Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri and Pompeii one weekend. In Sorrento we stayed on a campsite in these cabins. My bed was in the kitchen! Then we went to Amalfi for the day, which was beautiful! I went on a hike through some lemon groves. Did you know that most of the world's lemon supply comes from this region? They have tons of limoncello there, which I ended up not liking very much. Too syrupy for me. But the hike consisted of a section call the Trail of a Thousand Steps. Someone counted and apparently it was more than one thousand steps. We were going down hill at that point, but after hours of going up hill and up steps, I was exhausted! It was so nice though! We do tons of walking in Florence and in Europe in general, but I enjoyed the change of pace. 

The next day we went to my favorite city of the trip: Capri! We took a ferry to get there, since it's an island. The ferry had airplane seats on it, which I thought was strange. We got there and took this tram-like thing up to one town. It was an incredible view, but the day just kept getting better! We then took a bus up to another town where there was a store than made custom sandals! You could chose whichever strap style you wanted and then choose the color of leather you wanted! With mine, there is a strap that goes over my big toe, and he measured exactly where the strap should go, so it is a perfect fit! Then we took a single person chair lift up to the top of the

highest mountain on the island. This was one of the coolest things I've ever done! The view was amazing. After coming back down, we went to the famous Blue Grotto. We squished into this little boat (about the size of a canoe) and then had to duck down so our heads were in the boat in order to go into the small opening that led into the Grotto. Inside, the water was incredible! The sun lit it up so it was this breath-taking blue! I bribed my boat guy to let me swim in the FREEZING water, but I loved it! From there we went and jumped off these large rocks or cliffs or whatever. I don't always do daredevil stuff, but it was a blast! Capri was my favorite city of the entire weekend!

Pompeii was gorgeous, but depressing. It's fascinating how well preserved everything is due to being covered for hundreds of years. The casts of the bodies were disturbing, but interesting. I got to see the Pompeian style of wall paintings, which i study in my art history classes!

OK, again, sorry for the long entry! I'm trying to catch everyone up!!! The first picture is from one of the highest points of our hike in Amalfi. We hiked all the way from that shoreline below up to the point from which the picture is being taken. The second photo is of the inside of the Blue Grotto. GORGEOUS!! The third is of the Capri coastline as seen from my chair lift up the mountain. The last photo is me in front of the Capri coastline once we reached the top of the mountain!

Ciao!!

Trial and Error

I sit here, sipping my Spumante (sparkling wine), having just finished my Sociology midterm. I decided that instead of sending out mass emails to family members (which I have yet to do) and my sorority sisters (I know it clogs their inboxes!) I would try a blog! My roommate in Italy, Laura, writes in her blog almost daily and so I thought I'd give it a go!

My mom is in town right now, which is so muc

h fun! I didn't realize how much I missed home until I saw her big smile as she waited for me in the Rome hotel. I was 2 hours late because I got on the wrong train. We had a blast in Rome for the weekend, but it's such a huge city that we were both exhausted! I'm so happy to be able to use my Italian to show off for my mom! I'm pretty good at Italian because languages are something I've always had a knack for. She and I have been spending a lot of time together, mostly shopping and eating, both of which are accompanied by good conversation. She is really bringing some things to light that I never knew or never realized. We have a very strong relationship, for which I am thankful.

I came to Italy having saved up money for the following 5 things: 1. a p

air of leather boots 2. nice gold jewelry from the Ponte Vecchio 3. a leather biker jacket 4. a leather purse and 5. weekend travel. So far, that money has covered 4 of those 5 and I have been very good about getting my moneys worth and finding a bargain without sacrificing quality. The only thing left is an Italian leather purse, which I can find cheap in the markets of San Lorenzo. 

So far I have travelled to the following places since I left in September: Berlin, Krakow, Prague, Rome, Southern Tuscany, and The Amalfi coast (Amalfi, Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii

). In my last 7.5 weeks abroad I have the following trips planned: Rome (with my art history class), Spain (to visit Lindsay from my sorority!), Denmark (to visit Rachel from my sorority!), Amsterdam (with my history class and most of the program) and maybe some day trips when my dad visits for Thanksgiving. I am so lucky and fortunate to have been given such amazing opportunities. For some people, my roommate included, this is their first time to Europe. This is my fourth time to Europe and I am loving every minute of it!

I do get homesick, especially when I think about missing my usual Thanksgiving routine with my family and missing out of most of Rush with my sorority and missing Barnett, but overall, I made a conscious decision not to waste my time missing home too much because I am only here for a limited amount of time. The rest of my life (more or less) I w

ill be near or in a similar time zone to the people I miss currently. This is a great growing experience for me. I am a very independent women (sometimes too independent) but I have learned a new sense of the word with my travelling alone and coming into a program only knowing one person and not even very well. Some people enjoy being around people most of the time, but anyone who knows me well can tell you that I cherish every ounce of alone time I can manage. I sometimes just leave my pensione (budget hotel where

 I live) for hours just to do whatever. I love it!

Ok, I promise no other entries will be quite this long, but I felt the need to update on various aspects of my experience so that my future posts can be more centralized on one topic. Above left is the Duomo, for which Florence is known. I see this pretty much every day. Below is a picture from Krakow. It's random, I know, but gorgeous!

Ciao!