The end

Well well well… I’m back in the States and the fantasy trip that was my semester has now come to an end. I don’t think it has really hit me yet that it is over and that I won’t ever get the chance to do that again. I think I’m mostly so happy to be home and in my own bed that I haven’t really thought about it. I’ll start from the last time I blogged but in the modified version because I’m not sure that I remember or have the energy to write it all. Plus it would be kinda boring.

All I can say is that I was so happy to see my mom and Barry when they finally arrived that I was late. L Ha I left a little later than I wanted to because I was talking and walking that I was 5 minutes late to meet them and by that time mom was having a break down. But we finally met up, hugged, cried and all the rest before heading to the hotel. After our room not being ready and moving to a different hotel for the night we walked to Piazza Michelangelo to get a great view of the city and have lunch. We picked up my stuff from Anna’s house and took a cab to the hotel before heading out into the piazzas for drinks dinner and more drinks. It was really cool because the wine that I chose was from the winery we had visited and it was still as delicious as I remembered.

But that’s how the week went for the most part, some form of activity during the day, a nap and then out for drinks and dinner and a lot of wine. We went to Fiesole, got caught at the top because there was a marathon, went to the beach, saw David, went to the Uffizi, drank wine, went to dinner at Anna’s house, visited Siena, went shopping, went to the market, saw the leaning tower of Pisa, ate at the markets, climbed to the top of the duomo, went to the bargello, ate pizza and just spent time wandering and enjoying the streets of Florence.

The most entertaining part of the trip was on our last night out when we were celebrating Barry’s birthday. We decided to go back to a restaurant that we found on a little side street up by Santa Maria Novella. We had been there before and we all but licked the plate. It was great. So we showed up again and got sat at a table right near the kitchen. We ordered a bottle of wine and Brucetta and enjoyed the atmosphere. After another delicious dinner Barry wanted to fulfill his promise of lemoncello and grappa shots before we left. It was awful but I think we may have been making a bit of a scene because the owner brought me in the kitchen to meet the cooks because they wanted to meet me since they could hear my laughing in there. I got a nice chefs hat before heading back to my table. I asked the owner to have everyone in the kitchen sign it and it came back signed by Alex with his phone number. Ha oh boy. As we were leaving the restaurant the owner ran downstairs and brought back two wrapped presents, a little cow for myself and a picture frame for mom. Needless to say it was the best dinner and best service that I’ve ever had at a restaurant. And the most entertaining. Ha

So it was a great week and many fun memories. After 16 hours of travel, 2 cars, 2 planes and a layover I was home and Chelsea picked me up at the airport. J And after talking the entire way home we stopped at taste freeze to have my first American meal. J Ha

I have to say that right now I don’t feel any different. I haven’t had any monumental experience that my response would be different from before the trip and afterwards. But I think in small ways I am different. I’ll try new food, think about different viewpoints and am more willing to not always be right. J The things that was important to me before are still important and I don’t feel like I’m on a new level of life because I went away. I think it was a great experience for me to get out into the world and see new cultures, not to change me but to define me and further instill the values and what is important in my life. I loved my experience, the friends I gained, the memories, the pictures, the history, the art, the language and the life that I was able to live while I was there because it will probably never happen again. Yes I’ll travel back to Europe but I highly doubt I’ll have the opportunity to take 4 months to go live in two different countries and see the culture and the places that I did in such away. I’m a little spoiled and I hate to say that but it’s true. I got to do something that I have always wanted to do and lived in 2 different countries and learned things I would have never dreamed of thinking about. It’s been a great experience and I’m glad that I did it, but there’s no place like home.

“It’s good to feel lost…because it proves you have a navigational sense of where “home” is. You know that a place that feels like being found exists. And maybe your current location isn’t that place but, Hallelujah, that unsettled, uneasy feeling of lost-ness just brought you closer to it”

That’s the best quote that described how this trip was. It was 4 months of being lost, uncomfortable and out of my comfort zone. But at all times it just made it clear what home was, the importance of home and the people at home that make it important.

I wouldn’t give up this trip for anything. I can’t wait to go back to Europe soon but I’m happy to keep my feet with in the States and see what this country has to offer. J It’s been a great time and I hope that you have enjoyed my blogs. I think for now my blogging adventures are over. Next week I go back to Ripon and start working 2 jobs so it’s back to the real world. J

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a wonderful day! I hope to see you all soon so I can stop missing you! J

Finito!

Ciao!

Ho fatto con mio classi, presentazoni e carte. Oggi ho fatto mi ultimo presentazoni e finito mi carte. Ciao estate!

My italians not very good, but in celebration of being done with EVERYTHING  I couldn't help but express my joy in Italian. :)

"I am finished with classes, presentations and papers. Today I did my final presentation and finshed my paper. Hello summer!"

I was the first person to present my topic and I think it went pretty well. From all my research it was hard to narrow it down to a 10 minute presentation because I felt like i knew too much from all the books I read. But I think it went pretty well and then for the remainder of the day I just listened to everyone elses presentations. I have to say we all did a pretty good job. woo! The best part of my day was going to check the mail one last time and finding a package waiting for me. It was from Erin, one of my sisters. It absolutely made my day. It had cosmo magazine and sour patch kids inside. :) such an amazing treat. :)

After everyone was done we went to go take a group picture and go get gelato. The place that we wanted to take a picture was an art staircase and not realizing it had a barrier we went there. And despite the barrier we took pictures before going to get gelato. It was really good and very refreshing because it was another extremely hot day. Nothing like strawberry and chocolate to cool you off. :)

Kayla and I then walked home, a few people were going to get drinks but I wanted to get my papers done so that I could enjoy thursday and not feel stressed about packing and such. And I am so glad that I did. I went for a run in this heat and I have to say that was quite miserable, but when I got done it felt really good. After a nice cold shower I edited my papers until dinner.

For dinner we had pasta, eggs and zuccinni. It was very refreshing because none of it made me hotter and it all tasted really good after my run. :) And for dessert we had fresh cherries. I have to say that I've never had them before but they were very good. :)

I went right to work again after dinner and by 9:30 my papers were all done and sent which meant that I was DONE! and that summer has officially started. yippie! I rewarded myself with watching the season finale of glee and reading my cosmo.

Today we have to take another group picture because apparently being on the art work was illegal, but we get gelato again afterwards so I'm not to upset to go. :)

Hope you all have a wonderful day! Miss you all!

Girls day out

Ciao!

This morning we had our first of two days of presentations. It was miserably hot again today, but overall I had a great day with good friends.

We walked to the Uffizi this morning and by the time we got there I was covered in sweat. Gross. I gave my presenation first and I think it went pretty well and then I spent the next 2 hours fanning myself and listening to the other presentations. I think we all did a pretty good job considering all the people and the number of people that decided to come and just listen to us talk.

We got out of there and were pretty hungry, so Brooke, Isabelle, Kayla and I found a cute little restaurant and I ordered lasagna, salad and wine. It was exactly what I wanted because I was incredibly hungry for some reason. We then hit the town to do some shopping.

I got a new skirt and tank from Zara because I think I might die of heat in the next few days because it was extremely hot today and it is only going to get hotter tomorrow and Thursday. I'm not sure what Italy has against air conditioning but it is no where. I then picked up some gifts for people because I haven't been very successful so far at getting them. :) oops. And before I knew it it was 4:15. Kayla and I parted with Isabelle and Brooke and headed home. It was a nice day, mostly because I haven't been shopping in a while and there is just something comforting about it. It was also nice to know that we are almost done with classes and such so it was just a good day.

I came home and finished up my presentation for tomorrow with all of my notes and powerpoint. Im feeling confident about it, in fact I think I have to much information. Hopefully I'll stick to my tendency to talk too fast that way I am under the limit. :) ha

I've been staring at the computer too long, so i have a headache so I'm going to just go sit and relax. Tomorrow its presentations all day (I'm first again) and then pictures and gelato. And then it's editing all my papers and sending them off to that I can have all thursday to enjoy the day. :)

Hope you have a wonderful day! Miss you all!

Jersey Shore

 Floors in the library

 how you would find your books

medici diamonds on the floor

A very beautiful book

Ciao!

It was a hot day today in Italy. It got up to 88 degrees and I was thankful to be wearing a dress because it is still hot out and it's 10:30.

Today was our last day of class and it was at the Medici chapels, I had to drop off some books at the school so I left early, stopped by there before meeting the group. We then looked at the the Princes chapel. It was a very decorated chapel, filled with marble in every direction. It was beautiful, mostly because I didn't expect to see something so grand.

We then went and looked at the new sacristy done my Michelangelo. Which was very different coming right from the other chapel. The room was white and grey and was filled with light that really accented the pieces of work. It was really beautiful, but what I loved most was the drawings on the walls. There are little characters drawn on the wall, drawn no better than I can do, almost as if a 10 yr old was given a pencil and told to draw. They are attributed to Michelangelo, as a part of art non art kinda thing. As a joke to the viewers. It was just nice to think of him as being a real person with a sense of humor and enjoying what he did as opposed to just this fantastic artist. It gave something real about him so that he became more than just an brilliant artist, but that he was human.

We then went and looked at the Medici Library which was also designed by Michelangelo. It was very beautiful and apparently it is the first grand staircase. All the others that we think of are because of Michelangelo and his orginal design. Interesting. I guess I had never really thought about it.

Before I knew it we were done with class, my last class of the semester. I have to say that felt pretty good. :) Brooke, Isabelle and I decided to go to our pizza place one last time and as we got over the area who did we find but "The Situation" handing out flyers to try the place. I grabbed one and as we were able to go in the resturant we were stopped and told that if we wanted to eat we needed to sign the waivers. We went around the block and signed probably 20 pieces of paper to let me into the building, so that MTV could alter my personality, apperance, character etc. Knowing that at the most I would get 5 seconds I didn't really care and I went inside after strict instructions to not take pictures and to act normal. I ordered my usual Margahrita pizza and it was ready shortly after. It appears my pizza was made by Vinnie and Sammi was the one who gave it to me. We sat in the background and watched them make pizza. It wasn't very entertaining, but I can at least say that I saw the Jersey Shore her in Florence and that they made my pizza. As we left the situation said ciao bellas and we all laughed as we walked away. Someone should tell him that that pick up line doesn't work for the italians, it probably won't work for the wanna be italian either.

I went back to the linguaviva and scanned photos for my presentation on Wednesday. I then came home and finished my paper and went for a nice long hot run up to San Domenico. Which was probably a terrible idea because it was rediculously hot and my calves haven't been feeling very good lately. I came home and took a nice cold shower before working on my presentations again.

Since it was so hot for dinner we didn't have any pasta, which was perfectly ok with me because I wasn't very hungry and I didn't really want to be made hot by my food. We had breaded fish which was actually pretty good and green beans. Yum. And after a little miscommunication we found out that we were getting Gelato. It didn't actually get to the house until like 10:30, but it was well worth the wait because it was fantastic. Pastaccio, chocolate, nuts and strawberry. Yum. Our host mom sat in our room with us and we showed her pictures of our family and pets while we ate this delicious treat. It was really nice and I'm gunna miss her when I have to leave. She's been so wonderful to us. Tonight at dinner she told me that in 4 days I won't be eatting well anymore because she won't be cooking. :) ha so true.

Well tomorrow I have a presentation to give and then I'm gunna do a little shopping before coming home to finish up papers and presentations. It would be really nice to be done with everything tomorrow night...but Im not getting my hopes up.

Hope you have a wonderful day! Miss you all! (4 more days till mom and Barry arrive! They leave tomorrow for Rome!!) yippiee!

Presentation, Presentation, Paper, Paper

Ciao!

I apologize for not posting yesterday, but in all honesty I did absolutely nothing but write a 9 page paper. So I hope you will forgive me for my lack of motivation to write a blog about nothing. :)

And today was not much different, except for the fact that I lacked motivation to complete paper so it was full of distractions.

I woke up this morning and just laid around for a while, ate breakfast and then resumed doing nothing. I watched a couple episodes of Grey's anatomy and checked out the news from around the world. Around 12:30 I figured it was time to start my paper, I got about a page and a half done before I decided i was bored so I walked to find some lunch. I went to San Marco because thats the closest open place to my house on a Sunday. I found a hot dog (which was surprisingly quite good) a diet coke, raisins and a cookie. I wandered home and was able to skype with mom and barry before I finally continued on with my paper. I ended around 4:30 and now have three full pages done. Tomorrow I am going to finish it but my brain needs a breather. :)

Kayla and I set off for the bus at 5 because we were went and saw Edipus Rex up in the Fiesole roman outdoor theater. It was a beautiful day and the view was magnificent. I can't say that I thought it was a wonderful performance because the action was quite slow and when the characters don't move much or their actions don't give way to what is going on in the play it was extremely hard to follow the story when it is in Italian. But it was a great experience, I can't say that I will ever get the opportunity to do it again so I'm glad I had the opportunity.

We came home and we had dinner of pasta, chicken and veggies followed by strawberries for dessert. :) yum. So this was an extremely boring day and I'm sorry that you read that uneventful blog. As a reward though I'm going to post pictures from the last blogs. :)

Tomorrow is our last class and then we have the afternoon free to which ill probably go for a run, finish my paper, and make my presentation. I'm in the last stretch. Now i've just got to get there because mom and barry leave in 2 days to come see me, which means that tomororw morning it is only 4 more days til i see them. I cannot wait.

Hope you have a wonderful day! Miss you all!

Wine

 Medici Villa

 Our "Party Palace"

 The Rose garden at the winery

 The Villa at the winery

 Wine from there vintage collection

 The first wine

And the second red from the vintage collection

Ciao!

Today was a fantastic day despite how tired I was when I woke up this morning.

We had to be at the bus by 7:45 so we were up at 6:15 and outta the house by 7. We opted for the bus because our poor little feet were extremely tired from yesterday and we knew we had another full day ahead of us. At 8 we found our bus for the next 8 hours and took a short bus ride to a small convent just outside Florence.

This was probably the most peaceful place we have been and the brother who helped us there could not have been more kind. We looked at the church and the set up of the loggia and convent it's self. This convent also boasts a crucifixion of Jesus done by Donatello. It was really interesting to see how two famous artists works were in this tiny little convent. It was so peaceful out in the countryside as well. And when you got off the bus you could literally feel the difference in how clean the air was. :) It was fantastic.

We got back on the bus and drove by an old Medici villa. It's been all renovated inside so we just drove by and looked at the architecture before driving to Prato to see another Medici Villa. We were a little early for the tour so I got a cappuccino at a little cafe and then it was time to go in. It was a very interesting house and it was decorated so beautiful. Isabelle, Brooke, Kayla and I spent a great amount of time picking out the things that we would have in our house. What each room would be used for if we actually got to live in this palace. It was very fun. The fact that the house had a billiards table type room and a theater lead us to name the house the party palace where we would throw our festive gatherings with all of our friends in the countryside.

We had about 40 minutes for lunch in this little town. We wandered for a few minutes and didn't want pizza like everyone else because we had had it the night before. So Kayla and I went back to the same place that we had the coffee earlier and just ordered panninos and a glass of wine (it was cheaper than water!) and went and sat in the back garden. When we got back there we saw the plates of other people who had eaten there with the fresh pasta. We asked the waiter for a menu, but it was only on a big board out front so we just kinda didn't worry about it. Little did we know that 2 minutes later the head chef walks up to our table holding the big menu just so that we can order. I should mention that he speaks no english and we were laughing to hard to make out much Italian. We ordered cheese penne and split it for about 2 euro a piece and I have to say that it was one of the better things that I have had here. It was like fresh mottzerella mac n cheese. Absolutely wonderful. :) We laughed our way through lunch, thanked the chef and paid our bill. I have to say I'm going to miss the adventures of Kayla and Sara finding food in Italy. Because we always seem to come out with a pretty good story and great food. I really do think we should start our food blog/ tv show. We could make millions.

We got back on the bus and drove around for a bit until we got to the next church where we looked at a painting of The visitation where it is Mary and Elizabeth telling each other about there sons. It was a really beautiful painting and once again it was interesting how this wonderful painting ended up in this tiny little chapel in the countryside. It was nice to actually see the art where it was intended. The museums are nice but after fighting with people to see the works its hard to understand that they were originally intended for prayer. So it was nice to be out of the tourist realm and see the paintings up close, in there intended settings.

We hopped back on the bus and went to a Villa to do a wine tasting and get a tour. It was a wonderful tour where we got to learn all about the process and see the barrels and understand the differences between their quick wine and vintage wine. We also got to see where they make olive oil. It was a very interesting process and then we got to do a wine tasting. It was neat to actually try all the wines and for her to tell us what the wine should look like (the colors), how it should smell and then taste. We tried two different types of wine. The second was my favorite because it was much smoother. We also had bread on the table so there were two different dips and then of course the olive oil. It was delicious.

We took the bus back to Florence and it started to pour rain so we got the bus back to our house and I spent the rest of the night just relaxing and doing a whole lot of nothing which was wonderful because tomorrow is paper writing day. Goal is to have at least one whole paper written by tomorrow.

I had a wonderful day today. It was great to laugh, spend time with the friends I've made here, have another typical Kayla and Sara adventure and have too much fun than I actually should be. I think it's finally hitting me that in one week this is all over and that I have to go back to real life. No more wine for lunch, no more gelato because im in Italy, no more xyz because I'm abroad. I'm going to have to do real work, make money and live a life that normal people live. Granted these next few days will not be fun because they will be filled with papers, but I'm still in Italy, the weather is beautiful and in the worst case there is always gelato. :)

Hope you have a wonderful day! Miss you all! (At this time next week I will be with Mom and Barry!!!! :) )

Gardens, art and Cooking

Ciao!

Today marks the longest day that I have had in a super long time. Coming back to our house tonight at 9:45 after leaving at 8:45 felt sooo good. And I think my feet are ready to separate from my body and live a life of sitting and sleeping.

We had class again at the Pitti Palace but this time we went to the Bobilli Gardens behind the palace to look at the ancient statuary. So we had to leave the house around 845 for our walk to the other side of the city again. But it was a beautiful sunny day in Florence so I was perfectly ok to walk to class and walk through the Bobilli Gardens for class.

We walked around the gardens for about 2 hours look at all the different myths and how they were placed in the garden in relation to each other and to the palace. It was interesting to think about how they have meaning within themselves and then also in relation to one another. The coolest part was that we started off so long ago (7 weeks ago) in the archeological museum which was a garden of sorts. It was interesting to compare the two different places and how each place used the art in context with nature and what purpose it served. It was interesting to think back to the first of class when we were all fresh faced to the new ideas of mythology and roman florence and see how much I now know.

After adventuring around for a while we were free to go back to Linguaviva. We got on the first bus back to the station. I grabbed lunch at the super market and went back to study for my Italian final. And what did I find but COOKIES from grandma waiting for me in the mail room. Never have I ever been more excited for something. The cookies were still all in one piece and still very fresh. I ate a cookie before my italian final and I got a 90% on my final. Which I'm going to consider a good grade considering how much of a panic I was in. Unfortunately I was stupid and went against my fundamental rule of going with the gut answer and I went back and changed two answers and those were 2 of the 4 I got wrong. Uhg. silly me. But I'm still pretty happy with that grade. :)

 We then had class in the Uffizi. I went early so that I could find my painting for my presentation for Tuesday. I thought it didn't exist in the room because the painting was sooo small that I didn't realize that it was even there. I spent some time studying the painting and reading more about it and then I just roamed around for a while and then finally met up for class. We looked at the works of Bottichelli, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and raphael to name a few. It was a very interesting day of art.

Kayla and I left a few minutes early from class because our pizza and gelato class was just across the river and started at 6:30. It was a whirlwind of a 3 hour class, but i can now make pizza at home and these delicious "chocolate salami" rolls and gelato, though I need a machine for the gelato so I don't know that I will be able to make that at home. But I made a fantastic margarita pizza, made fresh with sauce, fresh mottzerella and basil. Yum. My favorite part is the end of these classes where you get to sit down with everyone from the class and talk. It's so fun that in the end you get to make new friends talk about new things and learn about everyone else. Its neat that food still brings people together all over the world. Especially in Italy, where the food is always good and there is always more wine. :)

Kayla and I were quite stuffed so we walked our way home from the class, and I ate so much that the 30 minute walk home didn't make me feel any better. But I don't have to worry about feeling hungry for at least the next day or two. I think I have eaten so much that I might just explode.

Tomorrow we go and visit a few different palaces in the tuscan country side followed by Wine Tasting in the afternoon. It should be a very intersting day and our last excursion as a group for the program. We only have 3 more days of class together following tomorrow so it should be a fun day with everyone. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful day! Miss you all! ( 7 days until mom and Barry get here! not that I'm counting!)