I heart Jillian Michaels

Actually thats a lie... she kicks my ass. The other day my roommate and I did one of her videos in our living room, and I'm still in a great deal of pain. Especially considering that before we went there we walked all around (mostly to find this specific gelato place...) and then up to the Palazzo Michelangelo (below).

 Its about 3 minute walk from my apartment, a tonnn of steep steps, but when you get to the top its the most gorgeous view of the city. It completely took my breath away, I can't wait to take everyone who comes to visit me there.

<-- with Steph at the Palazzo Michelangelo!

We went to Chianti on a free trip with school for yesterday morning/afternoon.. we went hiking around the town by the olive trees, a huge meadow, and a cute little  lake. It was beautiful. We had a tour around a castle where people still live.. which was freezing. Apparently they live there all year long without heat?? To each his own I guess haha. We got a free "tuscan style" lunch, which I tried all of aside from one thing (but to be fair they said it was liver and my friends made some bad faces while chewing it sooo.. not happening) and a wine tasting. It was a big step up from our 3 euro wine we've been drinking (although I'm a fan of my cheap wine). When giving us the tour our guide introduced us to this old man whose been working there for over 50 years and dresses like the hunter in Jumanji with the fellow in his hat. Minus the whole waking up at 8:30 on a day off, it was a great day.

    

                                                   --> CHIANTI!

Some of Lauren's friends from school are visiting from Rome, so we went & picked them up from the train station, wandered around, took them to our lovely gelato place, and I'm sat on the couch where I ended up staying for waaay too long. We were too tired to actually go out to dinner and we've finished all our leftovers but LUCKILY theres tihs place 1 minute from our apartment where you can go and order a pizza to go and omg it was FANTASTIC. Nothing better than eating amazing pizza in sweats in my own apartment :)




This past week I started to realize that I'm actually in school. We had to work on a presentation, went to the library for research for an 8 page paper, and had numerous homework assignments. May seem pretty silly, but I kept forgetting that's a big part (and the main part) of the reason I'm here. Probably doesn't help that I go on so many walking tours for my class (I love them most of the time but since I'm not in a classroom I forget that it's school!). Although, I did go on one tour in a perfume factory... WAY too many strong and different smells in one place. It was terrible. I didn't want to be rude and hold my nose, but god it was awful.

Other than that, classes have been good, & I'm finally getting into a regular routine which is so nice. We cook in our apartment all the time now because all the fresh veggies are so fresh and cheap! At least once a week we do a full out family dinner (To the left is our eggplant parm, salad, pasta, bread and wine from the other night :)! ) And we will probably do a another extended family (aka with the boys upstairs) again soon, which is so much fun. I couldn't be happier with our group of friends. We got so lucky with how it worked out.

Six of us are going to PARIS Thursday!! It's going to be such a good time! Its three of us in our apartment and three of the boys upstairs... and one of them speaks fluent French which is going to be SUCH a help. I'm so excited :) !

Time to continue figuring out my travel plans! Stupid field trips are getting in the way, urg. Ciao for nowww

Forgot to Mention!

Oh yeah! We officially booked more flights! Laur and I are going to Dublin to stay with her friend for an extra long weekend.. and the first weekend we in February we are going to Paris! Didn't think that planning these trips would be so difficult, but it's pretty complicated. For our Easter break we decided to go down the the Amalfi coast (now that I have a stupid field trip when my parents are going there), so we took care of our itinerary and now just going to start booking everything! SOOO much easier when flights aren't an issue. Next step: planning spring break with mike =) !

A few days later...

So the first week of classes was a little all over the place. My schedule changed just about everyday so I have finally landed on my schedule (I think)...

Monday & Wednesday: 10:45 Food and Culture, 1:45 Italian, & 3:00 Family Business

Tuesday & Thursday: 9:00 Art of Florence, 10:45 Business of Art, and 1:45 Italian

I keep going back and forth about my Food Class considering its the only one I actually can drop, and would make my schedule amazing because I would be able to fly home on Mondays buttt its the only class that I genuinely like. I have the week to decide but I'm leaning towards keeping it (after all, I do get free food and wine...). 

Multiple of my classes have tours throughout the city, but I forgot to prepare for the fact that at 9am in Florence hidden in between buildings it’s FREEZING! Definitely was not ready for that considering the rest of the day (at least so far) is usually really nice. But as annoying as some of those tours are, we really do learn a lot so I shouldn't complain. This morning I even tried cows stomach! (Obviously I had no idea what I was eating and was a littttle nauseous after I found out) Also a plus, since we already paid certain "site fees" per class, we get free treats so after the lovely cow stomach we got some technically-not-free-but-free-at-the-moment gelato. And Ash, the natural kind is for sure 100% better.

This weekend I had my first trip to INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND! It was an 8 hour bus trip but since we delayed the bus and left at midnight I just slept through the night. Pleasant surprise- they picked up my friends in Rome before getting us so I got to see some of my best friends on the bus =). I genuinely don't think the hostel was bad at all. I was in a 10 girl room with all of my friends so I wasn't worried about any of my stuff or feeling uncomfortable. We did have to share a bathroom with my guy friends next door, but whatever we knew them. It did get a little tight... 5 sets of bunk beds will do that to you but overall I’d do it again.

We spent the day going up the gondola but they didn't tell us that it would be a bus then a train then the gondola then a bus until we would finally get to the restaurant. But getting to hang out with my friends all day made it totally worth it. I forgot how much I missed them. After our "swiss" meal we wandered around the town, bought some AMAZING chocolate, got a few other things for the night, we came back and completely passed out. We only had a few hours of sleep, what do you expect!

Oddly enough one of the best places to eat in town is a Thai restaurant, and honestly it really was very good (especially considering we were in Switzerland). Preparing to go out later in the night, we went to a bar across the street, then squeezed 15 people into our room for our pregame. The bar/club was downstairs in our hostel. Apparently it’s the only place to go in town (minus place for locals) that people go to so every one of our friends from Roma, Florence, and Barcelona were in the same place. It was a PSU reunion in the alps! I even saw kids from high school. Even though I went abroad to do my own thing, I was really happy to spend the weekend with my friends. Although, I've gotten used to going out really late, so since we started at around 8 I was exhausted at 1:30 (the time I usually am just beginning my nights). I went upstairs and I wasn't surprised at all to find a few of my friends up there already eating some snacks haha

Interlaken is preeetty pricey.  Totally worth it because I got to see so many of my friends in on weekend, but a bunch of the activities were just too much so I ended up just going night sledding. It was a really great time… a lot more fun than I expected. We went up on the mountains at night, they give us glow sticks so you can see the person in front of you, and you steer yourself down the mountain avoiding the "black shit" (aka rocks and the cliffs) and staying on the "white shit" (aka snow). I was a little freaked out, you could have so easily fallen off the side of the mountain! Minus a few scares we all had a great time (minus those who were too drunk and weren’t allowed to go..)

We went out again when we got back to the hostel, again just more bonding and such with my friends from school/home, but I realized how much I missed Florence. I've had the most amazing time so far and I just feel so comfortable here. My roommates are great, and I love our group of friends. I honestly have nothing to complain about (minus missing people from home). I could tell that some of my friends weren't as happy as I was and it broke my heart. I can't imagine your time abroad being anything but amazing. 

Back in Florence now and aside from our current electrical problems (the outlets and lights don't want to work in my bedroom currently) I'm so happy. Time to go shower in the dark .. ciao!

Still jeglagged? I think so.. (or "jetlegged" and someone would say...)

1/16/11

Last night was interesting… We got ready and pregamed here as usual. We headed out to go to our girl friends apartment, ended up not knowing which button to press so we pressed every one like obnoxious Americans. Finally we got inside and then we thought we knocked/buzzed the right door… fail. We got yelled at by some crazy old Italian man and he threatened to call the police. Hahah whoopssss.

Finally making it to the club (without our friends from that apartment), it was pretty sketchy. I was not drunk enough for that to say the least. The Italians can be super, super creepy. Its going to take a little while to get used to. We found our guy friends so we all felt a lot safer. We stayed downstairs in the less intense section, got a few more drinks, and eventually made our way back to what couldn’t be described as anything but a ridiculous dance party. There were enough of us that we had our own little area so no one was creeping too hard. If anyone came up there is always someone around to pull you away. Clutch. I ended up having a really good time but eventually it was pretty late and I was ready to get out of there. There comes a point where you had enough (aka 3:30 am) and gathering a large group of people to leave is not an easy task. It took about 45 minutes to really get everyone to pay their checks and get out of there. For some weird reason, Lauren, Steph, Brigid and I thought it would be a great idea to stay up until 6:30 am talking about how we should bring all four beds into one room and make the other room a closet? I blame the jetlag. We must of thought it was a little past midnight or something because that is not normal (especially considering we were WIDE awake).

Due to the fact that we went to sleep so late, we woke up 2 ½ hours past when we wanted to (aka waking up at 1 pm), getting a very late start on our day of errands.  Since Italians either close things on Sundays or they partake in “siesta time” most of the stores weren’t open by the time we got out. The three of us were at least a little successful (I got my very cheap tan boots) but overall I was a little grumpy. We got back, relaxed and prepared ourselves for something that would end up putting us in a great mood: extended family dinner. One of the boys upstairs, Noah, has let us all know that he is a great cook, so he decided to take over in the main dish—Penne a la Vodka. The girls were in charge of making the salads, bringing the bread, and the wine. I decided to take on the role of “veggie maker.” I made a whoooole lot of zucchini, broccoli, and cauliflower. If I say so myself, those veggies were delicious. (Thank you Mom for making everyone now enjoy cauliflower). The pasta, veggies, tomatoes and mozzarella, and a big loaf of bread made an EXCELLENT meal. I attempted to get to bed at a normal hour but I was still all jet-lagged so I couldn’t get to sleep until after 4 am.

Today was the first say of classes and aside from being pretty exhausted they went well. I had a 9, 10:45, a nice little break to get a Panini and sit and hang out with my friends, and then a 1:45. As nice as it was to just wander around, get a Panini and sit in the square… an hour and a half is just way too long. Definitely headed back to my apartment next time. Luckily I only have one Friday trip so far, and keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow I don’t find out I have too many! I don’t mind since I will just end up going on day trips on the Saturdays the weekends I have field trips, I just wish they weren’t predetermined. I don’t want to be one of the only ones left here for the weekend because I have to take a 3 hour trip doing something for class. But oh well, obviously theres nothing I can do. Although I am hoping that it works out that I can change my schedule so my earliest class on Mondays is 1:45. That way I’ll be able to travel longer, and come home on Monday mornings!

I FINALLY got my Italian phone! It’s the smallest little phone and weighs about 1/5 the weight of my blackberry. And I finally got my credit card fixed! Thank god because that was becoming a really big pain in the ass. Almost a week later I think I’m finally getting on a normal sleep schedule, so that’s all for me tonight, here’s to praying I can fall asleep before 4 am tonight! Ciao!

4 hour journey..

Well lets just say that my naps and the amount of time I actually sleep at night are getting to be more and more similar... and not because I'm taking ridiculously long naps.

Last night we had another great pregame at our place (probably going to be a regular thing since we are one of the apartments that isn't too close to any Italian families that will get mad at us for excessive noise) with the same people as the night before and got pumped up for the night (thanks to the best gift ever, my key chain speaker). The group of us headed out to a different club and immediately started dancing (obviously). Everyone was having a great time until some sketchy Italians decided it would be cool to steal my two friends wallets/cameras. I did get to see some of my ASA favorites before the crazy-ness of the pick-pocketers. After thinking they would find their stuff on the floor and trying to give my number to the coat check lady so she would call me if they found it (while speaking in spanish?)  we headed home and found another delicious snack.. nutella and crackers. Yummmm

We had orientation againnnn today, but you could go at any time between 9-1. Unfortunately it was necessary to leave around 8:40 since it was first come first serve with switching around your classes and singing up for excursions (Chianti and Sienna day trips :) ). Luckily I was able to change my schedule around since it initially sucked but it ended up working out really well.

We wandered around the city a bit before coming back to the apartment, getting delicious pastries on our way home at the place right next to our apartment (which could also be a big problem), and of course napped again. Then we decided to go wander around our side of the river.. little did we know that we would walk almost the entire thing for 4 HOURS! It was amazing though. I was a little skeptical of living so far from things before but now I couldn't be happier. It is absolutely beautiful and we have so many undiscovered areas. We found an abandoned school that was turned into a dog park so we neeeeded to go in and watch all the puppies playing with eachother. We sat for 45 minutes just entertained by all the dogs and their old man owners. By the way it was GORGEOUS out today. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and a leather jacket and I was comfortable. It was so sunny, it felt like a spring afternoon. We wandered all around, found a bunch of really cute vintage shops, got some pizza and decided to go climb down to the river. It was incredible, we could have touched the water we were so close. Climbing back up was a little more difficult (and kind of muddy) which just made it all entertaining. Ending our outing with gelato I would say it was the perfect day.

Determined to become an excellent chef (and save some mula) we are cooking in again tonight, then heading out for another crazy night. And I am definitely NOT bringing out my camera or credit cards!

Ciao!

THE BEGINING OF THE BEST FOUR MONTHS OF MY LIFE

Buongiorno !

After a pretty crazy amount of traveling (and a lot of surprisingly helpful people) we made our way to our GORGEOUS apartment in Florence on the other side of the Arno. I live with 7 other really cool girls, we share a bedroom with one person and each bedroom has their own bathroom (clutch). Its really big but very Italian feeling which is really nice considering some of the other apartments look like they are completely bought from IKEA. Also wonderfullll, we have a microwave and toaster in our apartment and free wifi. Definitely going to make my life a whole lot easier. I may or may not have watched a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother online while getting ready to nap (yup, already napped both days..). Even though our apartment is a pretty decent hike from school (say 25 mins?) I'm pretty happy about it. We are forced to walk all over the city and considering I'm going to eat just about everything, hopefully it will keep me from gaining 20 lbs haha.

My roommates are all really great. We had our own family style dinner last night (which was delicious if I say so myself). One of the girls was here last semester so she's like our own personal tour guide. Thank god too because getting to school the first day.. well lets just say I absolutely would have missed day 1 of  Orientation. We have 5 boys living above us in our program which is becoming really convenient. I'm sure the fam (Especially you Mom and safety man) will be happy to know that when coming home at night we walk back together to avoide those creepy Italian men.

Last night was our first excursion to the bars... amazing! We had ourselves a nice pregame with the boys and a bunch of girls we know from all of our schools. We went to a clearly American bar with college t-shirts all over the walls and ceiling and we took a PSU shot.. it was absolutely disgusting. No joke, I was thinking about telling them to change that shot it was so gross. After we wandered to this club (making it there thanks to tourguide Jenna) and it would be an understatement to say that we were raging. We all had such a good time... there was some pink wigs, champagne and flaming cigars involved. I'll leave it at that. Oh and my leftover pizza from the night before made the perfect late night (drunken) snack. Delishhh

Orientation day 2 was today... waking up at 8:30 when we were out until 4 and I was skyping til 4:45ish was not so easy. And for the most part a waste of time... way too much information that I absolutely did not retain. After wandering around aimlessly (and getting my first panino) we decided to get our Italian phones forgetting about the wonderful/slightly annoying siesta time, so by the time we found the store it was closed. At least we managed to buy our chasers for tonight so something was accomplished haha

There is a gelato place 30 seconds from my apartment... I feel like this could be a problem in the future. Might have to be my afternoon snack everyday... good thing I brought leggings incase my jeans don't fit in about 2 weeks.

Thats all for now! Can't wait to have my first weeeknd in Florence, the markets may be my down fall. I've already thought of about the bagillion things I want to purchase. Ciao!