Land of the Vikings... Or trolls

After leaving Germany, I headed up to Oslo, Norway. Yes, a bit random, but I have a wonderful friend there, Cait Kipp. I've realized that going to see friends in foreign countries is about ten times better than going to somewhere where you know no one. The first perk is that they pick you up from the airport. Score! It's a lot nicer looking for a friendly face at the airport than a sign that tells you how to get to the bus. The second perk of going to foreign countries to see friends, they live in cool places. Cait's family has a cabin right up the hill from a fjord. Cabin in the Norwegian country side with a beautiful view of a fjord or a hostel? Isn't a hard choice if you ask me. Probably the best thing about the cabin, I had a bed! An actual bed! With a mattress! And a pillow! I even had a big, fluffy towel, which really topped my little dinky camping towel. Oh it really is the little things in life that make it worth living. I hope I will never take a bed for granted again. They are amazing things.

Cait, like the rest of us college folk in Europe, is taking classes for the summer. So I was blessed enough to go to class with her the next day. Hence why I said in a previous post that I had to go to class. It was actually fascinating sitting in on a Norwegian language class. I did not understand a word, but it certainly sounded cool. Though while I was sitting there, I was thinking about how hard it was to get around in Germany not speaking any German, and now Norway without speaking any Norwegian. At least in Italy I could kind of understand things, thanks to knowing another romance language. But in these countries, I was completely lost. All I kept saying to myself was, darn those babylonians. Language can be quite a barrier, but at least with good acting and charades skills, you can get around. After the language class we went to Cait's culture class. Who knew you could listen to an hour and a half lecture on Norwegian music? I do have to admit though, I did not know that A-ha was from Norway. I guess you do learn something new everyday.

After three hours of language class and an hour and a half of Norwegian culture class, I was starting to feel a little Norse myself. We went shopping in downtown Oslo. Norwegian fashion is awesome, but I have to say that my favorite store was a souvenir shop full of troll things! Apparently trolls are huge in Norwegian legends. And they are everywhere. I would have bought the whole shop if I could. But it was a tourist shop, so sadly things were a bit expensive. But this is when I decided that Norway should not be the land of the vikings, but the land of the trolls instead.

The next day I got to go to Cait's language class again, and this time I actually got some of it. I can understand some pronouns and random verbs. I was quite proud. Afterwards we got to be tourists and get on a tour bus! They are becoming some of my favorite things, I think. We stopped at Viegland's garden, which is basically a huge park full or statues by a guy named Viegland. They were really neat looking, that's for sure. For some reason, the most famous one is of a grumpy little baby boy stomping his feet and screaming. Why you might ask? No one knows. People just tend to like to steal him and touch his hand. Rather odd if you ask me. On the rest of our tour we got to drive by the Viking ship museum and the opera house where Justin Bieber performed. I can admit it, I have Bieber fever. And I have really high hopes for the Viking ship museum and I really want to go there someday and hopefully not be let down. How cool would it be to see the viking ships?!?!?! I think it'd be awesome.

Something else that I'm doing when I go back to Norway, and yes, that is a when and not if, is swim in a fjord. This time I only got to dip my feet in, but next time, I'm going all out. The fjords are beautiful, along with the rest of Norway. It is definitely something that everyone should see. So go do it.

My trip to Norway was way too short, which is why I need to go back again. But I guess when you're doing a euro tour, you can't stay in every place for a long time.

Motherland #2

So I left my last post off with saying something about the Pisa airport. So the story is that Veronica and I had to catch an early flight, and there were no trains that got to the airport early enough. So we took the latest one to the airport and spent the night outside. Thankfully the pisa airport has lovely grassy areas right outside. And we weren't the only ones with this idea. There were probably about fifty backpackers doing the same thing. As hot as Italy is though, it gets quite cold at night. And wet. The sprinklers decided to come on. That was fun. The happy ending to this story is that we got on our flight and made it up to Germany.

We landed in hamburg, so naturally we had to have a hamburger. The only burger joint we could find though was McDonald's. But we settled for it. As sad as I am to say it, McDonald's is McDonald's no matter what country you're in. The burgers taste just about the same. Though in germany they do offer America's three biggest big macs yet. I personally have never heard of these before. Who knew America had come up with a way to make he big Mac worse for you. And my question is, why isn't this being offered to Americans? Don't get all excited or anything, I did not try one. I stuck with the dollar menu. I'm happy that is universal.

After our culinary adventures, we caught a train up to braunschweig to see my friend, Kate Rooney. There isn't much to say about Braunschweig except that it's Germany and I love if. Also their shopping mall is a palace. Literally. They took a palace and turned it into a shopping mall. It was huge! I do have to say that my favorite part of Braunschweig was sleeping. Kate was kind enough to let us crash in her dorm room. This was like a four star hotel compared to the Pisa airport. Veronica and I even got to sleep on a blanket on the ground! That sounds horrible on paper, but it felt magical after the last night we had. I was as happy as a hungry puppy with a bone.

It is so interesting to get to see how other students studying abroad are living. It opens your eyes even more than just doing your own study abroad program. Just a little thought.

One day whilst frolicking around Germany, Veronica and I ended up in Hannover. Seeing as we had no idea what was in Hannover we ended up just wandering around. We stumbled upon this church, of course. I know I always talk about churches, but they're everywhere and I think they're so cool! This church was certainly like no church I'd seen in Italy or before for that matter. There were knights fighting dragons and skeletons carved all over the outside. I'd love to know the history behind this. Norse roots perhaps? If you know, please inform me. Well inside I finally got the answer I had been looking for about the resurrection thing. In the front of this church was this huge art thing, I don't know the proper name for it. But it finally had the resurrection! It went through the passion and the resurrection. I was a bit excited.

Well the next day was my last day in Germany, regrettably. But I was fortunate to spend it in Berlin. I love Berlin. Don't get me wrong, I like the renaissance and medieval history that is all over Italy, but war history is so much cooler to me! In my typical style, I did not have a plan at all going to Berlin, and so I ended up wandering around. Though this time, I bought a map. I walked around a bit, but got tired of walking in the rain, so I hopped on a bus to dry off for a bit. Here's a tourist tip for you all. If you are ever in Berlin, take the bus 100. It goes by all of the main sites and it is only a city bus. That way you don't have to pay for a tour bus. Granted, I did get a little lost trying to find checkpoint charlie. I had just given up and was heading back to the subway station when I looked up at saw a bus stop called checkpoint. I looked to my right, and what do you know, Checkpoint Charlie was right there! Thank God, literally. Because I finally found that I also got to see the Berlin wall, or what remains of it. It's really mind opening to read all about East Berlin and the terrors that went on there. Went right along with the rainy weather. I finished my tour of Berlin with seeing the Brandenburg gates and Tiergarten. And with that I had to catch a train to the airport. Thankfully I made it to the right airport. There are like five airports in Berlin and my boarding pass did not say which one I was supposed to go to. Talk about being a little stressed while traveling. And with that I said goodbye to the second land of my ancestors.

Ciao Italia

So once again I have failed in keeping this updated. But I have decided to break up the blogs this time to be nice to you.

I am done with my time in Italy, sadly. It ended as any other school semester would with a paper and a final. I really hope that I have more motivation for school when I get back because if I don't, then it might not be so good. It is so hard to do school work when you're trying to cram adventrues into your daily life. It also did not help that I got a cold. And on top of the cold I did not want to sleep very much because I did not want to waste my last few days in Florence. Sometimes though I found it hard to try and stay awake. But we found the perfect motivation... A secret bakery! Apparently Florence has several of these, but there was one within minutes of my apartment. You may be asking yourself how a bakery can be secret. Well it's simple. Don't open until 2 am and don't speak around it. That's right. The bakery does not open until 2, so that is why it was the perfect motivation to stay up! To find the bakery you really just have to use your nose. Well I used everyone else's noses on account of mine being broken from my cold. Once you have sniffed out the bakery, you knock on the door. A guy will come to the door, you give him your order. He goes away, comes back with food, you give him money and walk away like nothing happened. It's all very sketchy and not, at the same time. Just remember though, it is a secret, so I did not tell you about it.

Once we were finally done with school, my friends and I decided to reward ourselves with a day trip to Venice. Hard life, I tell you. Venice is amazing. There are no cars. No cars. I guess I should have expected that, but yet, it still took me by surprise. I knew everyone got around by boats, I just thought they would drive too. But no. The streets are not big enough at all for cars. All of Venice seems to be made up of little alleys. And, in any other city, they would all be creepy. But there is just something about Venice that makes them cute. We went to Venice with no particular plan in mind, so we just wandered for a while. Finally we found the San Marco plazza. It's just as impressive as how it looks in all the movies! I'm trying to keep this short, so I'm just going to reel through the rest of the day. Venetian masks are gorgeous, water taxis are fun, long train rides are good for naps, and the Pisa airport is good for sleeping.

I have to go to class now. I know, going to class and I'm not even in school. But it will make sense later. Then you can hear about more adventures!

A Birthday Abroad

One of the best things about being in Europe is the ease of traveling. So, not wanting to sit in Florence for my birthday, my friend Afsheen and I hopped across the continent to London! Traveling is partly so easy because of cheap flights. The cheapest being Ryanair. And the best part of cheap flights? Cheap service. Apparently Ryanair is notorious for running late and messing things up, but hey, they're convenient for college students. After several delays and an incredibly long taxi time, Afsheen and I took off from Italy at the stroke of midnight. So in an essence, I took off into my twenties! So philosophical, right? I still have to get used to this whole twenties thing. It doesn't feel natural to say it yet.

After some more cheap traveling we finally arrived at the place we stayed around 3:30 in the morning. We got situated and settled in, and by that time the sun was rising. Logically, if the sun is rising, you should not go to bed. So naturally we didn't. We opted to go for a walk instead. I don't know about you, but I find early morning to be one of the best times of day. There is nobody out and the world is quiet and peaceful. Add a sunrise and a dewey London morning to the equation, and you have near perfection. On our walk we saw the london eye, big Ben, parliament, Westminster abbey, and London bridge. Basically, almost everything that was on my list of things I wanted to see. And it wasn't even six in the morning yet!

Later we saw the changing of the guards at buckingham palace. That was the last thing on my list. I don't know if it was just because it was a Saturday or if it is always like this, but outside of the palace was packed! I'm telling you, tourists are crazy! Why does everyone want to see the same things? Jeeze. Because of all the people and my apparent lack of height compared to a large portion of adults, it was rather difficult to see the ceremony. So lesson learned, I need to go back and get to the palace about an hour early to get a good spot or bring a trampoline.

Since my list of tourist things to do was quite short, I got to experience a typical lazy London afternoon of window shopping, tube riding, and hopping from restaurant to restaurant to get different types of foods. I must say though, the highlight of my weekend might have been the crumpet I had for breakfast. I mean a crumpet in London, can't get much better than that. It's not even like crumpets are anything special, in fact many londonians don't even eat them, but it's just really fun to say I've eaten a crumpet in London.

Realizing that this is my last week on Florence, the pressure is now on to do all the tourist things here that I have yet to do. I finally saw the duomo yesterday. I've walked by it a million times, but have never stopped to walk in or climb the cupola. The view from up there is breathtaking. I feel like i have an obsession with climbing tall buildings now. But since I've climbed all the important things on florence, i just have to be content with seeing other tourist stuff now. Next on the list is the Medici chapel, and of course shopping. Then Thursday is the uffizi gallery. Apparently homework is not the only thing i procrastinate. And yes, I am writing this blog in order to avoid the research paper I have due on Thursday.

Eat, Pray, Love

Today was another cooking day in class! I have to say, they may be my favorite days. Today we made Kibe, which is like a fried veal meatball, and tzatziki sauce. I was ecstatic since I love tzatziki sauce! It was mighty tasty, even though I don't think fried meatballs are the healthiest thing. But hey, I'm not complaining. Besides becoming master chefs we have been learning quite a bit in my class. A lot of the time we have debates on the best way to educate people about nutrition and change society. Needless to say, there doesn't seem to be any easy solution. We have also been examining the food pyramids of other societies, such as the mediterranean or African or Latin American. All these food pyramids put a much stronger emphasis on fruits and veges and much much less on red meats. They also all have a base of physical activity. In each one there is an old couple walking, kids doing some sport (Latin America they were playing soccer, China they were doing Karate, and Africa they were playing basketball.... hmmmmm) and some couple dancing. Sorry that is a really awkward sentence, but I'm not writing this for an english class. Another popular debate of ours is that of milk. In the US there is such a strong campaign for milk and it seems like the miracle cure to everything. But did you know that 75% of the world doesn't even drink milk, and they are perfectly fine. Turns out that the dairy industry in the US has a pretty strong foothold in political matters, so they can make these huge campaigns and get the government to up the recommended servings of dairy if they so feel like it. And lets just say that they certainly feel like it. What we've discovered that most nutritionists say is that if you like milk, drink it, if you don't, then don't drink it. There are plenty of ways to get your calcium. Like dark leafy vegetables. Or if you like cheese, but not milk, many cheeses are great sources of calcium. In fact, 100 grams of parmigiano cheese has more than your recommended daily intake of calcium.

In 2011 the government came out with the MyPlate to show relative portion sizes of what you should eat. The only thing is that this plate lacks a lot of information and is a bit inaccurate. But like I said earlier, some industries have quite a strong hold in the government. I suggest that if you are interested in a more informative and accurate plate you look at the one Harvard came up with. Here is the link to it
Harvard Plate. Just to let you know, no matter what recent laws say, ketchup and pizza sauce do not count as vegetables.

Fourth of July is just not the same not in America. Granted, there are tons of students here from the US, so we were all excited about it. But it just was not the same. People were dressed up in American flags and we tried to eat American, but to little avail. So. With that said, I will be celebrating the fourth when I get back to the states. Starting out with eating a burger and some apple pie. Good old American food that is not pasta.

In my free time I have been visiting some churches with a friend. She likes to go because she is an Art History minor. I like to go because they are churches and they are so calming. It has been so cool because I have gotten to explain the religious side of the paintings to my friend. She does not know many Bible stories, so it has been so amazing sharing them with her. It is refreshing to see her curiosity about them! The churches here are, of course, beautiful. We stumbled into Basilica Santa Trinita one day. On every pillar of the arches they had brass reliefs of Jesus carrying the cross. You started on the front left side of the church and worked your way around the church. They had every major event in his journey to Calvary, his actual crucifixion, and it ended with Mary holding Jesus's dead body. They were spectacular and even gave me goosebumps. But they made me realize something. The passion is an absolutely beautiful story. It is one of the top two best stories in human history, the other, is the resurrection. So it struck me that there was not a single piece of art in the church that alluded to the resurrection. Why? It is just as important as the passion. As the Bible says, without the resurrection, we would all be fools for believing what we do. Just some food for thought there.

Continuing the theme of Christian art, we went to the Galleria Academia last night. Thankfully they had a free night for the public! Much of the art in there is Christian art. I went with the same friend I've been visiting the churches with along with some others. While looking at the pieces my friends asked me to explain what was going on in some of them or the meaning of them. I got to pretty much explain the entire gospel to two of the girls! I was so pumped that I couldn't talk fast enough to get out all the words I wanted to say. They were actually interested in it all and had never heard of the gospel of grace. They had only heard of earning your way into heaven or sinning enough that God wouldn't forgive you. One thing I can say is that I can certainly see how everything in my life has led up to moments like this. I never thought that I would be able to explain these types of things to people, but God had prepared me for it. Thank you, Jesus. Our tour of the Academia ended with seeing the David! I have seen plenty of copies and pictures of the David, but I never expected him to be like he was. I figured I would just be staring at another sculpture, but there is just something about the David that draws you in. For one, he is huge! I thought he was only slightly bigger than lifesize. I was wrong. He is giant. No wonder he could beat Goliath.... just kidding. The detain in the sculpting is nearly miraculous. Every detail is there, even the veins in his hands. We sat there looking at him for a good twelve minutes. Thats probably the longest I've ever looked at a statue.

Well now my apartment is clean, my laundry is done, I'm packed up and I'm about to leave for London! G'day governor!

Italian Philosophy

So really nothing exciting happened today. Except we got our power back! Our power had been out for 24 hours, but we finally got it back on. It is such a relief to walk into an apartment with some lights on after 24 hours of no power. So now I get to charge my computer again! Of course my computer died after the power went out and of course I had homework due today. Thankfully the school building opens half an hour before my class starts.

The problem with the power going out is that the internet also goes out. So last night I was planning on FaceTiming my mother, but then the power was out. So I got creative. Our school has WiFi for all of us students, but by 9:00 at night the school was closed. However, you can bum outside the door to one of the buildings and pick up the scraps of Internet that float outside. I felt real cool leaning against the door while talking to my iPod. I was certainly a sight for all the people passing by.

I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely love nutrition! I feel like it is good that I am studying it since it makes me so happy. Since I know you are all so interested in my class that I'm taking here, I'm going to tell you all a bit about it. First off, I am studying the Mediterranean diet. If you are like me, I though this meant studying what people in the Mediterranean eat. Wrong. The word diet comes from the Greek word dietia. Dietia means lifestyle. So in a sense, we are studying the entire Mediterranean lifestyle. What we have learned so far is that in the Mediterranean, food is appreciated and enjoyed. People sit down to have a meal with friends and family. They take their time when eating. I learned that first hand when it took about two hours to eat dinner the first week. You do not see any people walking along the street eating as they go to work or school. And when you see people in a restaurant, no one is alone. Everyone is eating with at least one other person and they are engaged in a conversation. It is a phenomenon called commenzality. People have done sociological studies across countries and when Americans are asked what it means to eat well, the typical answer is fruits and veges, lean proteins, and whole grains. But when you ask someone from the Mediterranean their typical answer is to sit down to a meal with friends and family without a phone or paper or anywhere to be. They don't even talk about the food they are eating. It is about the experience! How cool is that?

Lifestyle does include food though, so we have looked into the nutritional aspects of their 'diet'. Today we even examined the Italian food pyramid. It is quite different from the US one. Fruits and vegetables are the base! Now isn't that smart? As I have already experienced, the diet is largely based on fruits and vegetables. That is why there are open air markets everywhere! I had my first experience today cooking lentils. It wasn't too shabby. But I didn't have a recipe, so there was definitely room for improvement. Experimenting did not really work.

That is really what we have focused on in our class so far. Also, variety in the diet. That is all you need to get your vitamins and minerals. A variety of fruits and veges. So eat lots of colors. Oh, we also eat a lot more protein than we need. Protein is so heavily emphasized in the states that we always think we aren't getting enough. Really, the opposite is true. It only needs to be 10-12% of your daily caloric intake. And only 1/3 of these calories should be from animal sources. That isn't much at all. It is strange how hearing these things in a different context really makes it stick. I had heard both of these things before, but now they are put into practice. I felt like I was not eating any protein here, turns out, I am eating just as much as I should.

Another interesting fact. Pretty much all grocery stores are set up the same way. They have flowers or fresh produce in the front to draw people in. Then dairy is diagonal from the entrance and towards the back of the store. This is because most people buy dairy when they go to the store, and by putting it in this position it causes the customer to walk pass more products. The more products you see, the more you buy. The aisles are also set up to be just long enough to hold your attention. Once your mind starts to wander, the aisle ends. Something I had heard before, but just had reinforced here is to be a periphery shopper. All the fresh food is around the edge of your store. Don't even venture down the aisles unless you have to. That way you will get mostly fresh food, which we all know is so much better for you. Is it just me, or do you all feel extremely manipulated by the grocery stores now? But now that we know, we can start to outsmart them. Go us!

The food and lifestyle are not all I have experience here. Yesterday in the market I had my first experience with an Italian loving blondes. As I was walking through the aisles, a man grabbed onto my arm and practically yelled, "Mamma Mia! You are blonde! I love you!" I couldn't help but to crack up. He let go of my arm and let me keep walking, but I certainly got a nice chuckle out of it.

Thankfully it was not as hot here today. I was getting sick of 100+ weather. They say that it was just a crazy heat wave that plagued this place for the past two weeks and that the weather should be cooling down for good now. I was so glad to hear this. I'm pretty sure I would have started to melt if the heat kept up.

Epic Fail

So my promise of trying to keep my blogs more regular has been completely broken. Life and heat and unreliable internet have kept me from blogging much. So much has happened recently that I will try and keep things brief.

I'll start from Wednesday! Stephanie, Veronika, and I traveled to Pisa for the afternoon. Lesson learned from that train trip, if the AC is not working in your car, try the next one, because it usually is in that one. We sat in a roasting car for a good half hour before we realized this. AC has never felt so good. After we arrived in Pisa and ventured our way through the town, we found the Field of Miracles, where the leaning tower is. It certainly is leaning. It leans 5 degrees, so the top is offset 15 feet from the bottom. Now you can sound all smart when you casually bring up the leaning tower of Pisa in your next conversation. So when you first start climbing the tower, all you really notice is that the steps are a bit steep. Then you start to realize that they get easier. And then steep again. Then as you pass people that are coming down you realize that you run into them no matter how hard you try to stay out of their way. Right about then is when it hits you that you are climbing the LEANING tower of Pisa. That's when everything starts to make sense. Besides the spectacular views from the top of the tower and the tower itself, there really isn't much to do in Pisa. So we got ourselves some pizza in Pisa to finish off the day and headed back to Florence.

Thursday we found the best pizza in Florence. Dante's. Two bridges west of the Ponte Vecchio. There you go everybody. That is my gift to you. After Dante's we found a little piazza with a big screen TV and tons of Italians to watch the game! It was rowdy. I did not mention that I have German blood in that crowd. I might have been trampled. But it certainly was a win-win situation for me. I could be proud no matter which team won. Thankfully Italy won! And they advanced onto the finals. But we all know how that one ends, so not as exciting anymore...

Friday Veronika and I had nothing to do after class. So we decided to adventure. Our goal was to discover Florence and get lost. But something that I learned is that it is hard to get lost when you really don't have anywhere you're supposed to be going. We stumbled upon some treasures like a shady park by the river, and the most beautiful neighborhood in Florence. There were tree-lined streets and shrubery everywhere! We hiked up a large hill which ended in the Piazzale Michelangelo. For those of you who don't know about this piazza, it is situated up on a hill right over the Arno River and you can see the entire city from up there. We spent a long while up there admiring the view and resting. We had walked for almost three hours by this point. Since we walked so much and were so hungry, we treated ourselves to Russian food for dinner. I have never had Russian food at a restaurant before, so thankfully Veronika speaks Russian or else who knows what I would have ordered. The store owner loved us since Veronika is Russian and I picked up a few words. Granted, he laughed whenever I tried to say something, but it was worth it. We got a huge discount. I know where I'll be going from now on!

On Saturday, everyone went to Sienna... except me. The trip was already full by the time that I tried to sign up. But this was certainly a blessing in disguise! I got up early in the morning and caught an early train back to Rome to see the lovely Sarah Worland! It is certainly a mind blowing experience to hang out with a dear friend halfway around the world. It kept blowing my mind that I was hanging out with Sarah but we were in Rome and not Albuquerque. We got to see all the things that I missed out on the first time I was in Rome. We went to the Spanish Steps, Piazza Popolo, Vatican City and St.Peter's Basilica, Piazza Navona, and St.Ignatius Church. First off, St.Peter's, wow. That was the only word I could utter when I walked through the doors. It is breathtaking. Every inch is so intricate and beautiful. Then we climbed the Cupola. Five euro and 550 steps and about a pint of sweat are totally worth it. You can see to pretty much every edge of Rome. As amazing as St.Peter's was, I think that St.Ignatius is my favorite church. The perspective of the paintings on the ceilings leaves you awestruck. The ceilings look 3D. I am still not convinced that some of the things are only painted. Sarah and I stood there just gawking at the ceiling with jaws dropped for several minutes. It was so nice to be able to have a bit of home for a day. But it also made me miss everyone else!

Sunday we explored the Boboli Gardens and a Costume Museum in one of the Medici palaces. It was certainly a nice activity for a Sunday afternoon. We even got to see some original clothes that the Medicis wore. I can't wrap my head around the fact that those clothes were about 500 years old. That's older than the United States! Right by the museum was a restaurant called 4 Leoni. Here's my second gift to you. If you are in Florence, even if just for a night, go there for dinner. Get the tuna steak (it's big enough to feed at least two) and the pear ravioli. You will never want to eat anything else again.

As far as school goes, I love it! I was excited to get up and go to class this morning. On Friday we even got to cook! We made tabouleh with stockfish and baked pears. I am thinking about having a dinner party where I cook tons of stuff just so I can try and show everyone the deliciousness of everything here. Words cannot describe it.

So I will keep on working at getting better at this consistent blogging thing. For now, ciao ciao!

Let the Schooling Begin

So here comes another twofer since I was too lazy to blog yesterday. Though I realized that now that I'm not nomadic, my life is not as interesting.

Yesterday we went exploring and found all of the school buildings. My school is actually a compilation of 9 different schools with buildings all over downtown Florence. So we had to find where each one of them was and figure out how to navigate inside of them. It was a bit difficult at first since all the buildings kinda look the same. But, I am now an expert explorer and know this part of Florence like the back of my hand. It is hard to think that I've only been here for three days. It feels like I've been here forever. Though, there are still things I'm trying to figure out. Like how to feed myself. The best part of the Mediterranean diet is that everything is so fresh. The problem for a lazy college student is that I have to cook anything I want to eat. It was really nice yesterday though because we found an open-air market! It is just down the block from our apartment also. This place is like the Los Alamos farmers' market on steroids. It is wonderful. There were so many vendors with fresh produce and cheese and meats and breads and eggs! It was great. I was a little overwhelmed at first, so i just bought the basics for a salad. But I will be back to explore and experiment some more. I think I already found a cheese guy that I will go back to. He seemed pretty cool. The plan is to find my favorite vendors and then be really sweet to them and hopefully get a discount soon. I felt so Italian in the market though. I have learned enough to be able to talk to vendors about price and say thank you. I'm hoping that gets me through.

At night we explored to the other side of the river and found the Ponte Vecchio. Sadly all the cute little shops were closed, but the sun was setting. And I don't know if you have heard about sunsets in Florence, but they rival New Mexican ones. I finished the night off with gelato, of course! I had my first taste of pistachio gelato. So I've never had pistachio ice cream and so I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't expect it to taste like pistachios. To my pleasant surprise, it tastes exactly like pistachios! It really is all the little things that make life interesting.

I started class today. I am super stoked for it! My teacher is a sociologist so we are going to be looking at the rates of diseases throughout the Mediterranean and the lifestyle and everything. Here is the nerd in me coming out. The past few days I have been wanting to look into the correlation between the Mediterranean diet and rates of coronary diseases and cancer. I was going to do my own research on it, but now I don't have to! It is going to be great! We learned a lot of interesting stuff today. Did you know that tomatoes didn't even arrive in Italy until after the discovery of the Americas? And then they were only used as ornamental plants. It wasn't until several hundred years later that they became widely used in the Mediterranean food. The first written combination of pasta and tomatoes wasn't until 1891. And then they used lard as the base for the sauce instead of olive oil. Learning about this stuff makes me so happy! You will be hearing much more about my class as it goes on.

In an effort to avoid doing homework tonight, I got a burst of inspiration to cook dinner. I think I should have taken a culinary class while I was here. I pan seared chicken and sauteed red peppers. Then added a tomato sauce with some balsamic vinegar and basil. Then I cooked pasta and combined it all. That is definitely going to be a go to dish while I'm here.

My only complaint with Florence so far is that there are tons of mosquitoes! I have become a walking buffet table for them. Thankfully I remembered what my wise grandfather told me to do with the bites. Put toothpaste on them! So i am covered in little white spots and smell minty fresh. But it is working.

And I've started making a list of things that Italians don't believe in. Here it goes: peanut butter, dryers, standing in lines, leaving space between vehicles, pedestrian right of way, traffic laws in general. I'm sure as time goes on, this list will get much longer.

Vai Italia!

My Italian pride has soared through the roof! And I don't even have any Italian blood in me. Just to tell you guys about the regular stuff... This morning we had to give oral presentations. Blah. The idea of doing school work has completely evaded me. Then we traveled to our final destination, FLORENCE! We got settled into our apartment. I'm pretty sure this apartment is bigger than the house I am renting in Albuquerque. We have the entire bottom floor of a building and we even have a back yard! There are six of us girls living here and there are three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Though I don't really know if you can call my bathroom a bathroom. It is probably the size of a large port-a-potty and has all the things mixed into one. The shower head is almost directly above the toilet, which is right next to the sink! But hey, it's all part of the experience, right? The best part about our apartment, though, is that we have a huge fresco painting on the ceiling of our living room. It's almost like living in the Sistine Chapel! We also have an orange tree in our "back yard." I'm interested to know if the oranges will be any good. They all look like they have warty things on them.

Anyways, after we got all settled in we went in search of a market. After seeing what is in the market, I've come to accept that I will be living off of pasta. Not really that I'm complaining, but I still don't know how typical Italians get their protein everyday. Everything is carbs! There is pasta oozing out of everywhere. I guess I should have expected this, but I almost thought that it was a bit of an exaggeration when other people said it. It's not.

Today was probably the best day to arrive in Florence. It is a city holiday for the day of the patron Saint of the city. In order to celebrate the Florentines had a medieval soccer game in the middle of one of the piazzas. Unfortunately, we did not have tickets to it. But we did catch a glimpse of it on TV. I'm pretty sure it was soccer without rules on a dirt field. There were people going crazy and some were dressed up in the proper medieval attire for the festivities. Once it got dark, there was a wonderful fireworks display over the Arno River. Not to anyone's surprise, all the fireworks were red, white, and green. I did feel a little flutter of pride whenever they threw a blue firework in there. But the goal of this trip is to integrate myself into being Italian. After the fireworks we sought out a little cafe that had a TV so we could watch the end of the Italy vs. England Eurocup game. It was so intense! Especially being here. There were dozens of people crowded around the two windows that looked into this cafe just watching the game. We celebrated together when our team made a PK and anxiously waited as the Brits shot. When we made our last PK the entire street erupted. Cheers were heard everywhere and people were flooding into the streets from all around. It was quite exciting! Needless to say, I felt very Italian. Even though I have British blood in me, I had to root for Italia.

Well there is another eventful day for the record books! More pictures will be coming on Facebook soon.

Biking in the Ritz

Hey everyone! The Tuscan sun brought another amazing day today! We went on a coastal bike ride. Ok, I have always wanted to ride a beach cruiser along the coast, and I got to do it today! It lived up to every one of my expectations. We rented the bikes and rode several miles south to a town called Forte di Marme. This is the place where all the Italian celebrities and richies come to vacation. We got to walk through this flea market. I kow understand how Italians dress so cutely all the time. There were so many clothes and it was all so cheap! In price, not quality. We then got to get lunch. The little Cafe we ate at was surrounded by Gucci and Prada and Rolex and all of those types of shops. We were gonna shop a bit, but um, as I said, celebrities go here. I could barely afford to look in the windows! Our professor, Cosimo, said he spotted Denzel Washington here last year. While we were riding our bikes, we passed the villa of the owner of fiat and Ferrari. it was like riding through the Hollywood of Italy! The curbs and sidewalks were even made of marble! Granted marble is cheaper here since the largest quarries in the world are half an hour away, but still. Marble curbs! I don't think I will ever get over that. Today was petty laid back since it is our last day on our tour. We're supposed to be spending the afternoon putting together oral presentations about this week. But how can you do that when the beach is right by your hotel? I keep forgetting that I am technically taking a class right now. Any class on Italian culture should definitely be taught like this, just maybe without the having to turn in work at the end. Before this trip I knew that Europeans generally did not smell good. Especially those darn frenchies. But now I think I know why. First, it is ridiculously hot and quite humid. Second, the showers are small and the water is soft. And not soft like in the states, but the kind where I don't feel clean after getting out of the shower. I almost feel like I am stickier after my shower than before. Finally, they have no time! Last night we visited a popular nightlife spot. It is apparently known throughout Europe, so we had to check it out. There were so many people there and it was so hot that we were drenched in sweat! By the time we finally got away from there and got back to our hotel, we just wanted to crash. Then we got up and left immediately for our bike ride in the sun. Once we got bak from that it was time for a nap and some school work. Then there Is the beach to think about and getting gelato and walking around. I mean, showers just don't seem like anyone's priority. So there we go. The mystery of the smelly Europeans has been solved. Well I'm off to enjoy my last night at the coast! Ciao!

The First Week

Hey everyone! I've decided to start a blog to make it easier to tell everyone everything. Plus, I don't want to forget anything that I've done. So here it goes.

When I first arrived I was amazed by Rome! It all looks so quaint and beautiful. Once we got settled in we went for a little walk and just happened to stumble upon the Coliseum. I was stunned! It was just sitting there in the middle of the city amidst all the hustle and bustle. That is when I really started to realize that Rome is a history book. After our stroll, we were exhausted so we crashed for several hours. Waking up again was the hardest thing. But we pushed through and got an amazing dinner out of it. Our group went to a small restaurant called the Gallina Bianca. We had pizza and gelato for dinner and let me tell you, best pizza I had had up till that point in my life! The crust is so thin and the ingredients so fresh. There is just no comparison. And I don't know what it is about Rome, but eating pizza and ice cream for dinner just seems healthier than in the states.

The next day we set out for the real adventure. We had a walking tour of Rome scheduled for the middle of the day. I don't know if you guys have been checking up on your global weather lately, but Italy is experiencing a heat wave. Our tour guide, Nick, led us to all the main attractions. We stopped by a Santa Maria Basilica. The facade is made from the ruins of an ancient roman bathhouse. History lesson of the day, the word spa is apparently an ancient acronym. It comes from the saying "Salute Per Acqua" or health through water. The ancient romans believed that water was the source of all life. Continuing our theme of water we headed to the Trevi Fountain. I must admit, it's actually smaller than I expected. And much more concealed. It is located at the end of a palace in a small plaza. The water comes from an ancient aqueduct and is safe to drink, if you are brave. Some girls in our group filled their water bottles from it and survived, so I guess that's a good sign. I threw one coin into the fountain to hopefully ensure that I will return to Rome. I thought about throwing more, but finding love in Rome and getting married in Rome just don't appeal to me for some reason. Maybe they will when I return. We then continued through tiny cobblestone streets to the Pantheon. We were just walking down a street and BAM! it hit us. The Pantheon in all its marble glory stood before us when we got to the end of the tiny street. Romans like the surprise effect like that. The Pantheon, might I say, is huge. The architecture is amazing too! The entire dome roof is supported by nothing except the walls on the outside. And there is a big hole in the middle of the roof. Doesn’t seem structurally sound to me, but it’s been standing a lot longer than I’ve been alive, so I guess they did something right. The hole, or eye, is the only source of light in the place. It also lets in a lot of rain, for which the ancient Romans created a pretty advanced drainage system. The ancient Romans were geniuses. We made our way to the Coliseum after the Pantheon, making several stops along the way. We stopped at a big beautiful white building, the Capitol, and the forum. The Coliseum amazed me even the second time I saw it. Probably because the first time I didn't see it up close. Every detail has meaning to it, even the decorations on the tops of the pillars. The combination of the three different pillar tops was supposed to say to visitors, We are Rome, Please come in, We are strong and will not fall on you. All that, just from simple decorations. The inside was incredibly intricate too. The maze of cages in the bottom was enough to wow me. Can you believe that it used to be completely covered in marble? What happened to that marble you might ask yourself? Well, during the Renaissance, architects needed marble and they needed it fast, so they deconstructed buildings, such as the Coliseum to take the marble. Did they not know that thousands of years later people would go to see these ruins that they pretty much destroyed?!?!? Silly people. At least they were green and recycled though. This night we ate dinner in a 2,000 year old tower. It was pretty spectacular. They brought us out a pasta dish and we all scarfed it, thinking that was it. Then they brought out salad. At this point we were like, maybe they just do things backwards here. Nope. The meat came next. Meat and potatoes! How were we supposed to eat meat and potatoes after gorging on pasta and salad? I, personally, could only eat a few bites. But those were some mighty delicious bites. Chicken Saltimbocca and rosemary potatoes. That will certainly be on my list of things to make when I get home. Next came the tiramisu. Anyone who knows me, knows I ate all of that. I had been dying for some tiramisu since before I left the states, and I got it! So I was pretty happy. After that we all felt like dead weight, but that did not keep us from enjoying the Roman night up on the roof of our hotel. We had a pretty spectacular view overlooking the city from up there.


The next day we went on a bus tour of Rome. Talk about being super tourists! We saw many of the same things we saw the day before, but we added the Vatican, the circus maximus, and the site of Julius Caesar's death to the list. We also got to experience driving in Rome. I pray that I never have to do that again. It looked like we were going to hit so many people and so many cars. I had to close my eyes several times. After that we hopped on a travel bus to head up to Tuscany. On our way to our resort, we stopped at a place called the Tarot Gardens. This lady had these dreams that dealt with the Tarot cards and she wanted to bring them to life. So she spent 15 years sculpting and constructing these things. It was like Alice in Wonderland, Willy Wonka, and Lady Gaga all wrapped in to one! Kinda trippy, but extremely cool. She even lived inside of one of her sculptures. She had an entire apartment, appliances and all. And all of it was covered in mirrors. Pictures don't even do this sculpture garden justice. It was just a incredible that this place was stuck in the middle of the Tuscan countryside, surrounded by farms and fields and little villas. Here is the website to the gardens. http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com/ 
We then arrived at our resort. There were sunflowers everywhere! Sunflowers are one of the big exports of souther Tuscany. The sunflower fields looked like they extended forever from our hotel out. It was amazing! If I ever marry an Italian, let's just say you all will see this place for my wedding. But with the likelihood of that happening, I'm just going to recommend that you all come for a visit. We ate dinner at the resort like true Italians. Dinner didn't start until after 8. We started with two anitpasti dishes, then spaghetti, and then nutella pizza! I would try and describe the food, but you can only say the words amazing and incredible so many times.


Now we get to Wednesday. Wednesday is the day my dreams came true. We got to go wine tasting at a Tuscan vineyard! Just driving through the country to the vineyard would have been enough to satiate my desire to see beauty. The huge vineyards with rows and rows or grape vines and olive trees against the backdrop of rolling, green mountains. I don't know whose jaw would not drop seeing that. At the vineyard we got to learn how to make wine. So new goal in life, make wine. Even if it's just a bottle. The staff then served us a traditional Tuscan lunch. It started out with prosciutto, salami, sausage, cheese, and honey. Believe it or not, cheese and honey is pretty darn good. This is when we got our first taste of wine. They brought us out a bottle of their white wine and rose wine. So we learned that you start light, and work your way darker. We got to pour ourselves a taste of the wine. We examined it for color and transparency. To be honest, it looked like wine to me. Then we learned the proper way to swirl and smell it. Wine tasting is no even really about the taste. It is about the experience of the wine. It should please all of the senses. Next we took a sip and let it rest on our tongue. Resting on the tongue is very important. We then got melon to go along with the rose wine. And finally we got liver pate and bruschetta, pronounced bru-ske-ta, to finish off the meal with the red wine. I feel like a wine snob now. So when I become of age in the US, nothing will live up to the standards set by Tuscan wine. After leaving the winery, we traveled to a little coastal area called Cinquale, which is where I am now.


Thursday we got to adventure up in the part of the Alps that are here. We visited a little town called Pietrasanta. This is where all the big name sculptors go. The town itself is like an art gallery. It is just littered with sculptures everywhere. It was really neat to see the city wall that was built during the Medieval times. It still blows my mind at how old these things are. Just imagine if construction was still like that. Our cities would last through anything! Our next stop was the marble quarries in the mountains. So these mountains are literally made of marble. Like the entire mountain! All they have to do is cut out a piece of it. There is a whole long process of how they do that, but that's still all they have to do! We got to walk in a cave that was pure marble! Like the floor, the walls, the roof. All marble. Solid. Do you know how much you would have to pay to build a marble room? And here we were, just standing on solid marble. We then stopped at a Lardo production place. Lardo is exactly what it sounds like. Lard. The quarry men back in the old days had to eat cheap, high calorie food in order to have the energy to work. So they found a way to make this stuff called lardo. They take the back fat of the pig and put it in these marble tubs, layer it with salt and tons of seasonings and let it sit for 6 months. It smells a bit funky, and looks a bit off, but it doesn't taste half bad. At first I was skeptical of eating pure lard, but hey, when in Tuscany... As one girl put it, it is like eating meat butter. Don't get me wrong, this isn't something I would eat on a daily basis (just imagine the blood pressure and clogged arteries) but it was something I might try again. After this we got dinner on the beach, and they served some of my favorites! Pesto lasagna, caprese salad, and fruit for dessert. Once again I say, delicious! Don't worry, I will cook when I get home.


Today we started out with a tour of the Carnival museum. They have Carnival here too! Just like Rio. Why don't we do this everywhere in the States? It should start happening. We got to see some of they floats and they are huge! They are housed in three or four story tall warehouses. Here, most of the floats deal with political issues and make fun of politicians. Not to be crude or anything, but I did see the unmentionables of some European politicians. That I could have lived without. I don't think that part would fly in the States, but we need to start celebrating Carnival. Then we traveled to the promenade where the Carnival parade takes place. It is in a town called Viareggio. I don't know how big the towns are here because it is like southern California, there is no separation between the towns. Yet, they all have the same small town feel. Since this place is famous and on the coast of Italy, rich people from all over vacation here constantly. We saw yachts that were probably worth $100 million. One day, one day. After lunch we headed back to our hotel for a beach day! The beaches here are amazing. The sand is soft as flour and the water is pretty warm. I don't know what it is about the Mediterranean Sea, but it has healing qualities. You get into it, and even if you didn't feel bad before, you just feel better. My hair had some really awesome beachy waves when I got out. I'm starting to look Italian! Besides the blondeness. Now it's time for dinner. Italian seafood on the beach. 


Sorry this is so long! But it is so hard to be concise about a week of traveling in Italy. The rest will be more regular and shorter, I promise!