The Color Green Does Exist in Florence

So as I promised, I need to keep you updated about my whole weekend because I've been busier lately and keep forgetting that there are people wondering what I did the previous day. The next day....Friday.

It all started off with me and my roommate meeting my friend at Ganzo for lunch. It was quite delicious, as usual. Afterwards, we had to decide where to spend our day. We knew it was going ot be spent outside because it was 65 degrees outside!!! It was the most beautiful day we've had so far. No clouds, no rain, all sun. It was unbelievable. We came to the decision of going to Boboli Gardens in Oltrano, the other side of the river. It's located behind Piti Palace and it's just this huuuge garden area that is full of hils, fountains, statues, flowers, and it just incredibly beautiful. i would HIGHLY recommend this place. You really can't miss it, it's just so beautiful and you forget that you're in Florence while in there because all you see is landscaping. Here's a quick glimpse of it:

And that's not even close to all of it. I was in there for about 3 hours before I left and actually didn't see it all. I've decided though, that I'm going to be in there a lot because it's just so beautiful and it's an amazing place to just sit for hours in the sun and read. Even if it does cost 7 Euro, it's, in my opinion, a view that needs to be seen over and over again.

After we left the gardens we went back to our apartments and I spent my night in because I was so wiped out from walking that day. It was very comforting to just sit in bed and talk to my friends after a long day.

Sorry that this blog isn't much longer but the majority of my day was spent inside the Boboli Gardens and then in my room for the remainder of the night. But it was definitely a day well spent and I'm glad I spent it outdoors in the beautiful weather. Made the day so much more worthwhile. So in a case like this, I think I will post more pictures to show you what the landscaped part of Firenze has to offer:

Once again Florence, I have fallen in love with you. <3

Haiti Relief

I know I've only been posting about Italy for the past couple of weeks but yesterday, I was in a gelateria and they had on music videos and there was one of all the stars singing for Haiti Relief and I thought it was amazing and worth mentioning in my blog. Please watch this, lives were lost, houses were destroyed, memories were demolished. The least you can do is watch this video. Thanks!! <3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glny4jSciVI

Do I Really Have to Even Question Why I Love Italy?

So my sincerest apologies go out because I have been so lazy to write in this blog while I have actually been going out and seeing the sights. I know you are waiting to hear about adventures that I've gone through in the last couple of days. This is why I'm going to write three separate blogs. Most likely all today, about what I've done within the last three days. So I'm going to start off with Thursday: (I promise I won't bore you to death)


So out of all my days of the week, Thursday is by far my favorite, and I can say that with such enthusiasm. It starts off with Chocolate Class and I'm ALWAYS excited for chocolate class. Usually we meet in a kitchen close to my apartment but as soon as we arrived there he said that he was taking us to his chocolate store. I have been there to buy chocolate but never to be in the back where he actually makes the chocolate from scratch. Our whole class hiked the lovely 1.5 miles to his store and once we got there we were all just staring at the chocolate in the store in shock because we couldn't believe that he actually makes all of that for a living. As soon as we all walked into the back to the kitchen, our mouths dropped. Every. Single. One. There were two fountains of constantly flowing chocolate. It was like a miniature Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One was dark chocolate and one was milk; I wanted to die. He explained to us how each one of those was tempered already so he wouldn't need to temper it himself. We then did a tasting, which is the exact reason why I don't eat any thursday morning because I know chocolate will be entering my mouth at some point during my first class. Thursdays Topic: Ganache. We literally must have tried over 10 different chocolates. Plain ganache, rosemary ganache, tangerine, pepper, 100% cacao...which is nasty by the way. We all spit that into the garbage. We even tried green mint white chocolate bars....AMAZING! We knew he sold cookies and so someone jokingly asked to have a cookie and he gave us all cookies and they were fresh and straight from the oven and thin. I love cookies with a crunch so these were perfect. Then earlier in the class we made salt chocolate again and I jokingly asked him if we could eat what we made and he said Sure!! So we all at that as well. I have never in my life been FULL yes....FULL!! from chocolate! I didn't even think that was humanly possible. So when class was over he let us take whatever we wanted so I grabbed a bag full of chocolate, and ate most of it throughout the day even though I was sooooo full. Seriously, the single BEST class I've ever had in my life!!!!




The next part of my wonderful Thursday is culture class. But that's actually my least favorite part of the day. However this past thursday we got to talk about our three day trip that we have next weekend to Sorrento, Pompei, and Capri!! I'm sooo excited for it because I want to see other parts of Italy and this class trip is free because it's a part of the program which just makes it all the better. But after class is the part of love the most.....TRIPPA! Yes, Tripe...again. Every thursday me and my friend go and get Tripe right after our culture class and we literally had our money in our hands for the last 30 minutes of our class awaiting for the time to pass. We ran to our Tripe stand and found out they ran out of bread!!! It was sooo sad however we got something else where they just put the Tripe in like a container you eat straight out of and then they gave us bread with it. Even though I think the look of it is vile, I ate the whole thing still and the bread and still enjoyed it completely. Tripe has made me love every week that much more.





After our Tripe, we went back to our apartment and knew that we needed to get out more so we decided to be complete Americans and put on sweats, sneakers, and a tshirt and walked out the door for a walk (Yes, if you dress like that you are begging to be stared at) But we went for a walk and took just our cameras and keys with us. We decided to take a trip back up to the Piazzale Di Michealangiolo again because it was a beautiful day but by the time we got up there it was getting a little bit more cloudy. Here's what we saw on our walk through Florence once again:

Everytime I go up there, it just makes me appreciate Florence that much more and to see where I've been living for the past month already. I love it up there and I have a feeling I'll be there a lot more during the next couple of months.

After we finished taking pictures there, we decided to visit the San Miniato al Monte, which is the beautiful church up the hill from the Piazza. There were a lot of steps, tombstones decorated with beautiful flowers, and the amazing church itself. I can't believe I was here all this time and had not even known about this. Even if you have trouble walking or you know you'll have to walk really slow if it's a long walk, it's completely worth it. The views are to die for and the pictures you gain out of it are unbelievable.

Later on during the night we knew we were going to go out so we started to head back to take a nap but for me I need at least an hour for a nap and i wouldn't have had time to barely take a thirty minute nap so I stayed up and started dinner for me and my two friends. We decided to do an all American meal in Italy. So I made hamburgers, potatoe chips, and vegetables. It was the most delicious meal I've made, the burger's were so juicy and potatoes so flavorful. I must say, i am definitely bringing out my cooking skills while I'm here and I love it because it gives me an opportunity to experiement. For the remainder of the night we got ready to go out and to take out my friend for the first time since she's been here .

We decided to head to Amadeus again for the night because me and my roommate love it ther eand al the people are so nice to us. So we got there and we ran into some people we knew but they were heaed somewhere else so we decided to just hang out at Amadeus for a while. Then we headed over to the Lions Fountain which I haven't been to since the pub crawl and it was a lot of fun! Our bartender was from Sweden and he was soo nice to us and we had an amazing time singing to the karaoke on the tv and just hanging out. After a while we left and went to the Red Garter where we wanted to go to the bathroom and it was flooded! like i stepped into a scene in the Titanic...it was disgusting!!! Then we headed over to this club Lochness, sat down, hated it, and got up and left. That's when we decided to try the secret bakery again. We got there, knocked on the door, a man answered, and said....."What would you like?" We replied with two chocolates and a cream? He said okay hold on! We were all beyond excited to actually be getting something from the infamous secret bakery!!!! They were croissants filled with chocolate! We got three for three Euros and it was totally worth it! They were fresh out of the oven and the most amazing thing we've eaten as far as dessert goes. Returning to our apartment at around 2:30am, we have to say that our night was definitely successful. When you go out with friends, that's when the true memories are made and that night, I made quite a few.

Fiesole: Beautiful Panoramic Views....Nothing More.

I could compare my weekend to a potato; Starts off tasting really good with all the toppings and then you get to the bland skin and it just doesn't satisfy you anymore.

Since I already told you about my night at Amadeus and Blob in my previous blog, I'm going to skip ahead to Friday. You may all kill me for doing this but Friday I did nothing. Absolutely zip. Me and two of my roommates decided to make that day our laziest day since we've been in Florence. We stayed in our pajamas, watched movies, hulu, and read while eating our brains out. It was quite a lovely day if you ask me. But the main reason we stayed in that day was because when we woke up, it was pouring outside and it's just one of those days where you say to yourself, "Why go outside when you can be warm in your PJs and do nothing?" So that is exactly what we did. It was actually quite horrible and we felt incredibly guilty about it but oh well, it had to be done.

Saturday was a little bit more exciting because me and my roommate went on a trip to Fiesole which is a town about five miles outside of Florence. You depart from the Piazza San Marco, hop on the Number 7 bus and take it all the way up to Fiesole. The bus tickets are 1.20 Euros for one way so it was not that bad at all. This town is very small and is known for their ampitheater which holds many concerts during the springtime. However, since it's not that time of year, we went to go see the beautiful views it had to offer. This town gives you one of the best panormic views of Florence you will ever see. Here is some of what this place had to offer:

It was truly unbelievable. Although it was cloudy and kind of raining, it didn't stop me from taking astonishing photos. But let me tell you! If you can't walk up hills, forget about it! I almost died! These hils aren't very far up but the angle at which these hills sit is ridiculous!!!! I felt liek I was climing a completely vertical line. My legs were burning. There were girls there wearing high heels and walking up this hill. Let me tell you, I was waiting for one of them to fall over. I didn't get lucky that time but I know that someone had to have fallen down that hill at least once. But in all seriousness, once you get to the top of that hill, you won't regret a single muscle you pulled getting there.

After we saw the views of all of Florence, we were taken to a Roman Church that still exists today (although I highly doubt many people go with the height of those hills) It was very cool; very small and quiet and we even got to see the convent on the top. My clothes wouldn't fit in the size of one of those rooms.....just saying. And of course...we had to walk up ANOTHER hill to get to this church.

After we finished touring the church, we went to a market which was sooo small, there was nothing there and then they gave us free food. Probably my favorite part. Shocker, right? So then they gave us the option to either head back to Florence with them or stay and wander and take a bus later on in the day back to Florence. Me and my friend took the option of staying for a longer period of time and just coming back later on. We couldn't find much but we ran into one of the women from the school who took us and we asked her if there was anything else to do in Fiesole other than see the view. She blatantly told us....No. So that was pretty much our cue to leae and go back to Florence. Fiesole is beautiful and definitely worth seeing so if you need a quick day trip, I highly suggest going there.

When we arrived back in Florence we decided to get Tripe again!!! Thsi time the bread was better but the seasoning wasn't that great and ti was sooo messy, I got it everywhere. Even my jacket. :( After that we got dressed for the night and went out and I didn't get back until probably 4:30am. It was a looong night filled with drama and people and much more that isn't worth talking about. But I came back and talked to my roommate for a long time and Oovoo'd with some friends that I wanted to talk to. It was a lot of fun but then it was time for bed. :)

I think so far my week has been pretty good, yesterday I made an AMAZING chocolate molten cake that I ate the whooole thing and coudl probably eat about 10 more. We also made a cake that called for 450g of Starch! If we were smart we would've realized that, that much starch makes a cake a weapon. But we did it anyway and it was impossible to pick up with one hand because it was THAT heavy. But since we put melted chocolate on it, of course it became delicious despite the fact that it was like a brick was sitting inside of my stomach. The bad news is that I bought a ticket for the Florentina vs. AC Milan soccer game tomorrow and my Italian teacher won't let me go to it because I have a 10 minutes quiz. It's the only soccer game I can attend during my whoel time in Florence and a stupid quiz is now not allowing me to attend. I hae the ticket, I can't get the refund or anything. I guess this is one of the many reasons I don't like school. But what am I to do right? Oh well....maybe it'll get reschedules for some obscure reason. After that happened, my mood pretty much decreased about 60%. I'm trying ot make it go back up by buying myself small things like boots and gelato. :D

....I think the only thing I'm really looking forward to are my tentative weekend plans with Maria and Tripe again on Thursday!!!!

TRIPE TRIPE TRIPE......and other things that don't matter as much.

So I guess you've noticed that my blog updates haven't been coming in a lot anymore. But yesterday me and my friend realize what the main reason was. Within the first two weeks, we saw places and people in Florence that we'd never seen before. Experiencing experiences that we've never had before. And because of that, it had to be documented, usually with a camera and then told about in our blog because it was something new and exciting that we did. But since we've been here for almost a month, we done a lot, seen a lot, eaten a lot. It's just getting very repetitive and I don't to have to bore you with a blog that was written before.
So right now I think I'm just going to give a synopsis of what has happened to me over the past week:

Monday: So monday started off with my Italian cakes and pastries class. The assignment? Carrott Cake and some other cake I honestly don't know the name of. However, I really wasn't excited for this class because for my whole life I've hated Carrot Cake so I knew that I wouldn't want to eat it. But at the end, when it was made, I decided I have to try it because I could be missing out right?? So I tried it, and surprise surprise...i LOVED it. It was delicious. However, I heard it was nothing like the American Carrot Cake because this was not very brown or anything so I don't know. But from what I had, I loved it. We didn't put frosting on it or anything but it was still moist enough to make me satisfied. After class I went to the market. This time, I didn't accidentally spent 22$ on meat. But I did accidentally get two types of meat instead of a meat and a cheese because the butcher didn't understand me correctly. What I find funny though, is that I love going to the fresh food market because I love being around the food and thinking about what I'm going to make for myself during the week. The butcher that I always go to is my favorite person in the world there because despite the fact that he screwed up my order, he's really really nice to me. He always gives me free samples and talks ot me a lot and tries to help me out with my Italian. Probably one of the main reasons I love Mercato Centrale. The rest of my day pretty much included me cooking and then going to Italian class. Nothing to exciting for that day.

Tuesday: So my only class of Tuesday is Restaurant Management from 9-11:30am. You know how you can love your life but there's always one thing that gets in the way and makes it horrible?? Yeah, well this class is my one thing. It's 2 and a half hours of this man talking in an Italian accent, pretty much incomprehendable, and he's old and you know what exactly what that means: He talks monotone and sloooooowly. I can't handle it!!! And then we get a 20 minute break in the middle. Why? Oh, because he needs to smoke, EVERYONE needs to smoke. If you don't smoke, then you're American...that's how I think of it. But there is a small piece of that class that I like. And it's that it's actually relates to what I want to do in the future, own a restaurant (hence, restaurant management). But our final project consists of us pretty much forming our own restaurant and making the staff, and target market, location, etc and then present it to the class. And I'm very excited for this because I can use my presentation and relate it to my future. It kind of gets me excited and nervous all at the same time. After class, my roommate came to meet me and we headed to Ganzo for lunch where I had a very unfortunate lunch, for the first time ever there. Oh well. Can't always have a good meal. Weirdly enough, I can't remember what I else we did that day. Everything is always a blur. We did go and get gelato at a new place we heard of called Grom which is healthier. It was really good. I know it sounds like all we do is eat but I walk around a lot and then when I'm not, I'm eating. But I'm not always walking around to go someone so it's hard to talk about anything more than food. Later at night, I met my friend and a new kid she met and we met at this place called Joshua's Tree and it was a lot of fun. It's a very low key bar but all the staff is very nice and welcome and we just sat in there and talked for about 2 hours and then left because we had class the next morning.

Wednesday: I like this day because I don't have class until 6pm so I have the day free. This day was BEAUTIFUL too!!! It was 60 Farenheit so it was amazing! I wore a tshirt. I started off the day going food shopping and then i came back and I had heard of this 24-hour bakery you go to really really late at night and they give you very inexpensive pastries. So I decided to go search for it and see if I could find it for future reference. However, when I got to this secret location, I realized that I probably couldn't find it because I knew there was no signs for this place or anything and it also was around 2pm so clearly it was not open you so finding this door was pretty impossible. Then my plan was to go inside the Duomo because I was told that the best time to go was when it's very sunny inside so you can get amazing pictures, but of course it got really cloudy and so I couldn't go :(. However, I met my friend a restaurant she was at and I picked her up and we decided to just go walking all over Florence since we had the day free until I had my class. We walked past the Duomo and decided to go into a bunch of stores because we haven't really done a real shopping since we really haven't been into stores at all yet. We found some really good ones and some crappy stores that you can find in the United States. After about 2 hours of walking around I had to go to class. If something else happened, I can't remember. Two days is a long time ago.

Thursday: So usually Thursdays are my favorite day because I have my favorite class and then it's also my last day of the school week and it's time for the three day weekend. So I woke up and went to my favorite class, Everything Chocolate: From Therapy to Pleasure!! However, yesterday's class was very disappointing. Well first off, we made something I did not enjoy which was chocolate with fillings. The first filling was ganache, which I usually like but it was different. Apparently he put saffron in it, come on now...saffron? in a filling? doesn't not sound appetizing to me....does it sound appetizing to you??? Also, to top it off, he was in a really bad mood which was crappy because he is a really fun and exciting teacher to work with. After that class is my Culture class which, I'm sorry is the most BORING class ever!!! It's only an hour and fifteen minutes and it feels like 10 hours long. After class my friend and I wanted to get lunch and we kept seeing this stand outside on Via Macci that's ALWAYS crowded and we never knew why so we decided to go and just buy whatever they sold and just eat it. So we were waiting on line and it looked like pulled pork or something and then by the time we were almost about to order I looked at the sign and it said "Trippa" and I kept asking myself why that sounded so familiar and then I screamed "OH MY GOD! IT'S TRIPE! We're going to eat the inner lining of a cow's stomach!!!" But we decided to be brave and get it and i can't believe I'm saying it but it was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my life. I actually would recommend this to anyone because it's just so delicious. After that, we decided to go back to shopping until we had to go and get ready for our four course dinner later on in the night. I ended up buying a sweater and we walked on the waay outskirts of Florence, it was kind of sketchy but oh well, I'm safe now. When we got back we took an hour nap (which was AMAZING) and then got up and got ready for the night. We went to Ganzo for a four course meal which was delicious:

Antipasti: Proscuitto wrapped Asparagus with parmesean balls and an amzing sauce.

Primi: Parmesean Risotto with some melon sauce in it to even out the strongness of the cheese and that was sooo good.

Secondi: Lamb Shank in a Balsamic Glaze with a Cauliflower and Walnut mash.

Dessert: Fruit Deep Fried Raviolis with a strawberry sauce and was INCREDIBLE!

After that we headed to a bar called Amadeus because our friend was leaving the next day for Paris and he was bartending there for his last night so we decided to go see him. When we were ther we heard about a small hole-in-the-wall bar called Blob and that we should follow a kid named Bob to get there. That may sound weird but it was just a student from London staying two months in Florence. So I met Bob who was extremely nice and all of his friends from England who were really fun to be around. We got to this bar/club and had an amazing time. I love finding new places like this...Florence just keeps surprising me. Then after, me, my friend, and Bob went ot go find this bakery again and WE FOUND IT!!! i knew I was right and when we got there, there was about 20 people waiting outside this door. But by the time they got there, they weren't giving out any more pastries, it was really sad but I shouldn't have eaten anyways, I've eaten too much lately. So we decided to go to Twice just to dance and we were there for a little while and left and headed back to our apartment later on. The day didn't start off so well but ended being amazing. Florence just keeps surprising me and I love it.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Fiesole which is a town right outside of Florence and the school is taking us excpet I have to pay about 2 Euros which isn't bad so I'm going to go. It's a very hilly area with a bunch of ruins and I hear it's very beautiful. The weekend is empty for right now because I spent a lot of money in the last two days and not on very useful things so I don't think I'm going to be doing much for the next week. Money + Foreign Country (with good food, bars, stores, and museums) = Very broke and sad Emily. :(

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, But the Friendships I Made Were

1. BRING YOUR PASSPORT EVERYWHERE YOU TRAVEL!!!!!!!!
Well, I guess I may as well sum it up. Me and my friend almost got put in jail for three days. We were on the train and then these cops came up to everyone asking for our papers and we made copies of every single page in our passport because we were told that was alright when traveling within Italy. So the cops checked ours and said we need originals and we said we didn't have them and then we found out copies are not acceptable. Luckily, they let us go with a warning. Then, we we got to the hostel, we found out that they needed real ID too and that usually we'd be put in jail but for now they'll let us stay. We were soooo lucky but seriously, now we are attatching our passports to our hips.

2. The Colesseum is not a place to go when it's snowing.
It has been said that it has not snowed hard in Italy for 15 years, so you have to think, when is it really going to snow again? The chances are slim to none. Oh, but boy was I wrong. Waking up on Friday, my friend and I decide to go to the Colesseum bright and early so we would have the whoel rest of the day to go sightseeing. It was drizzling but we tried to be optimistic, and then we thought, maybe we shouldn't go today cause you want ot see it when it's sunny. But our friend that we met, Josh, he told us to suck it up and to go that day and see it, so we agreed. By the time we arrived there, it was raining a lot, but we had our umbrellas up and were ready to see the infamous architecture. We paid our twelve euros and went upstairs. It was amazing! I got one picture of the inside and then what happens?? It started SNOWING! Out of the 15 year break of no snow, it snows, the day I'm there, paying money. Then it's a blizzard and we don't even know what to do with outselves. We have to go inside and warm up because our fingers and toes were beyond frozen. Then a woman comes up to us and says that because of the snow, the building is closing. So we paid 12 Euros to go into a building, take no good pictures, and freeze our butts off, and got no refund out of it. Was not enthralled at all.












However, last night i got to back with a kid named Mitch and take some pictures of the Colesseum at night and I have to say that I think that made my bad experience here turn good because the pictures I got out of it were incredible and made me fall in love with Rome even more than I already had. Beautiful right?

3. 24-Hour Bakeries are the most brilliant invention on the planet.

So, when we arrived in Rome on Thursday night, we were starving and nothing in Rome was open. (Definitely not like New York City). But we heard from the guy Tim at the reception desk that there was a bakery that serves food 24 hours a day and it's baked fresh. So we respond to that by running down the hallway, grabbing our coats and shoes and money and headed out the door. Our new Australian friend Josh, came for the walk with us. We kind of got a little lost but eventually we found it. When I walked in, I could've sworn I heard angels. It was like a gift from God. They had fresh pastries being made and the size of everything was something that you couldn't even believe. After eating our troubles away of almost getting arrested, we walked back to our hostel incredibly satisfied.

4. Go to the Trevie Fountain when it's very sunny out.

Luckily, our day with the blizzard had to continue with more sightseeing so we headed to the Trevie Fountain. My friend ordered me to visit there and take pictures so I knew it had to be visited in the time that I was in Rome. For some reason, a miracle occured and it got sunnier, not warmer, but no more ridiculous weather. When we arrived at the Trevie, the sun was out and the fountain was flowing and it was the single most amazing fountain I've ever come acrossed. I didnt' want to leave because I just kept staring at it just mesmerized by the sights it had to offer.

5. It is possible to walk all over Rome, but know exactly where you're going.

So, walking home with my friend back to our apartment on Saturday we tried to go a long way, over a bunch of different bridges and taking a lot of pictures and getting as many sights in as possible. But we decided to not open the map until we found some place to go to eat. Bad idea. Because of course i think we found the one road that had not one food place on it. So we ended up wlking down this one road that pretty much took us into a residential district. We tried to find it on the map at that point and for the first time I had to say, "I think we're off the map." So a bus, adn about 4 miles later of walking, we returned back to the hostel ready to not move our feet for the next couple of hours. At least we got some good pictures out of it:

6. The Spanish Steps...yeah, they're just steps.

I don't care what the historical significance was or why they were built, but the Spanish Steps...they're just steps! There's nothing special about them. Even if it is beautiful, which I'm sure it is in the summer with all of the landscaping, i just think it was a sight that i would have been okay with missing. There was nothing there that really caught my attention. My house has steps, the hostel I stayed in had steps, I see them everywhere! I want to be able to see sights that will take my breath away and the only thing about the Spanish Steps that took my breath away was walking up them.

7. Never underestimate a hostel, you may meet the friends of a lifetime.

On Thursday night, my friend and I walked into the hostel in Rome and all we saw were people drinking and screaming and running around. We literally looked at each other and almost turned around and left because we didn't know what to expect. Little did we know, this hostel changed our view of Italy in the most dramatic way. I met the most amazing people, every worker was so friendly and helped us with anything; it was a place I never wanted to leave. My roommates were so amazing. First there was Mitch from Canada who is so cool and so much fun to hang out with. Then there's Victor from New Zealand who was a bit older but acted just like the rest of us. There were two other people I didn't know because they were never there but the last one was Josh from Australia. He had to be one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Me and my friend fell in love with him and had such a blast hanging out with him. He even let me straighten his hair. (You know, to go with that gay image of being a shoe salesman) Then there were other people from just the hostel. Lawrence and Aaron were always the very very drunk ones from Australia but they were a blast to be around. I hung out with them every single night. And I can not forget about George/Sjorn. That curly haired kid from Holland. Then the workers Tim and Angus, were soooo amazing. They drank with all of us and cooked and were so helpful with anything we needed. It was mindblowing. Everyone there was so nice to me and it made me think of my friends back home and how much I miss them. If I could have stayed in that hostel longer, I don't know if I ever would have left. This hostel made my trip to Rome above and beyond anything I imagined.

20Something

So, I haven't written in this blog for the past couple of days because nothing exciting has really happened other than the fact that I've had classes going on. I made cheesecake on Monday in my first class and that was incredible!! We made one that was cooked and not cooked; I prefered the not cooked one.....it tasted like vanilla ice cream on top. Yum! :) My Italian class is going well. I'm learnign a lot but I'm still not able to really carry a conversation with any locals. However, we found this winebar (in a location to be un-named), and the owners knew students from our college that came a year ago and they treat us so well, giving us free glasses of wine and talk to us, help us with our Italian and make amazing food!! We went yesteray and ate Bufalo Mozzerella (the best mozerella you can find here) wrapped in proscuitto and baked and was like heaven in your mouth. Other than that, nothing really has happened other than just my classes. However, today in my Cultural class, we got these pamphlets with articles and stories that students write in and I read one that was incredible and just made me think of my life here and it was summed up perfectly and made me realize that Florence is an experience and things will be different. This is a looong article but I'm going to type it here so that everyone can read it and see what I mean by it changes your thoughts and makes you feel like this person is talking about you:

The Reflections of a 20Something Year-Old, Abroad, With Many ???, and Many More Ideas Floating in his Head.

When you're in your twenties...An idea tthat becomes really stressful when it's the only one that you have...It's called "The quarter life crisis" - you find yourself trying to get away from the crowd more than ever, you get this weird feeling of insecurity, and you start questioning yourself about where you'll be a year from now, but then you realize with panic that you hardly know where you are right now. You realize that there are a lot of things about yourself that you were not aware of and you may not like. You realize that your circle of friends is smaller than what it was a couple years ago. You realize that it gets more difficult to see your f riends and to coordinate your schedules for different reason be it work, school, partner [girlfriend/boyfriend], etc...And you start enjoying more and more the occasional evening beer because it's a great excuse to talk a little longer with your buddy that you don't see often. The crowded nightspots are not "fun" anymore, they even make you uncomfortable sometimes. You even miss school and its commodity, the groups, how you socialize with the same people in a certain and constant way. But then you start to realize that while some were real friends the others were not that special after all. You realize that some people were selfish and that maybe those friends that you considered closest were not exactly the best people thta you'd ever met, and the ones that you've lost contact with were the most important ones. You laugh more, but you cry less tears with more pain. Someone breaks your heart, and you ask yourself how that someone that you loved so much could've done such a thing to you. Or maybe you go to bed at night and question yourself why you can't seem to meet something interesting enough, someone that makes you fall in love with him/her. It looks like everyone you know has a boyfriend or girlfriend forever, and some of them are even getting married. Maybe you also love someone but you aren't sure if you are prepared for a long-term commitment. You feel the same emotions and ask the same questions over and over again, you even talk to your friends about these issues because you can't make up your mind. The one night stands are not interesting anymore, even getting drunk and acting like an idiot seem really stupid. Going out 3 times a week has become exhausting. You take a better look at your job and maybe you are not even close to doing what you dreamed of doing. Or maybe you are looking for a job and the thought of having to start from the bottom scares you even more. You try day after day to understand yourself, what you want and what you don't want. Your opinions become stronger. You take a look at what everyone else is doing and then you find yourself becoming more judgemental, your list of stereotypes keeps getting longer. In the end you worry too much about 'who' decides what's right and wrong. sometimes you feel great and invicible and other times - just lonely and afraid and confused. Sometimes you try to hold on to the past, but then you realize that the past is moving farther and farther away from you and that there's no choice but to keep going forward. You worry about the future, loans, money...and constructing your own individual life. While winning the race would be great right now you're only conforming ot the rules of the competition. What you may not realize is that all of us who are reading this right now identify with all this, with being '20Something.' All of us are in our twenties and we would all like to be a teenager again. Back to that age where we didn't have responsibilities. All this looks like an unstable place, a moving vehicle, a mess in your head. But EVERYONE says it's the best time of our lives and we shouldn't waste it because of our silly fears. Then they say that these years are the foundation of our future. Only yesterday it seemed as if we were 18 years old. Then tomorrow we'll turn 30!!! Just like that, as quick as the snap of a finger!

LIFE IS NOT MEASURE BY THE TIMES THAT YOU BREATHE, BUT BY THE TIMES THAT TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY!

By: Edgardo Nieto-A Student from Mexico.

This made me really think about what i'm doing with life and that this moment, right now, should be my main focus and to make sure that I'm fulfilling the dreams that I've always wanted and not wasting my time away. Nothing left to blog from here, but going to Rome today, and will be back Sunday. Let the moment i'm living now take my breath away.

This was not my Take on a Carnival.

Fact of the Day: Carnevale means without meat. Comes from the word Carne meaning meat.
Yesterday was my first real trip outside of Florence since I've been here and it was to Venice to see and experience the Carnevale in the Piazza de Saint Marco. Let me just say that this, in no way, was what I was expecting. It started off getting up at 6:30am, which was very painful on a Sunday morning. I think we can all agree on that. Then me and my roommate walked to the train station, which thankfully is right by our apartment, for 7:30am. When we got there, there must have been 200 other people there waiting to go on this trip. Around 8am, we boarded the bus and they played the Italian Job on the way there because it takes place in Venice. I didnt' watch it but I did try to sleep. Then around 11:30-12pm, we arrived at a port where we had to board a boat in order to get to the Carnevale. The boat ride was nice because for the first time in a while, the weather was beauuutiful. So we stood on the top deck and took some pictures. Around 1, we finally arrived to the Venice Carnivale. The first thing that me and my friend decided to do was buy ourselves masks because what kind of fun can you have without masks at a carnevale? So we went into a store and bought beautiful masks that were being sold all over the place for a variety of prices. When we left the store we started to head towards the central area where the Carnevale was taking place. Every couple of feet that we walked, we saw peopel in extravagant costumes with full skirts and the masks on and they played the part of the person they dressed up to be. They just walked around the area during the whole time that it took place. As we kept walking, more and more people started to show up. There must have been about 100,000 people at least, there to see the Carnevale which lasts over two weeks. Some of the costumes there were just insane and I couldn't believe it. The amount of effort that they put into these outfits is unbelievable especially for something that lasts only two weeks out of a whole year. But i guess that's the most exciting part about it. There were people dressed up from the age of 4 to people in their 80s. The way people were dressed, though, was my favorite part by
far, which is probably why I took over 200 pictures there. I went photo crazy but I think it was
completely necessary.

And these pictures were only from the beginning. We had about five and a half hours to spend here but around 3 my friend and I were starving so we decided to go out and find food. We headed out into more of the central Venice area, away from the Carnevale to find some inexpensive, non-tourist food. There were a bunch of restaurants all around so we went to this place where you order outside and you pick it up and go. I got a panini and it was soooo good. I think all the food here just tastes good all the time no matter what you eat. After eating that panini, me and my friend still weren't stuffed despite the fact that this panini was quite large. So for the next twenty minutes all we were doing was walking around and talking about how much more food we could eat because for some reason we were still starving. So we took that as a sign and decided to get gelato..yes again, becuase we were standing right outside one at the time. This time I spent 2 euro on a cup of chocolate and chocolate chip combo and let me just say that it was amazing!!!! I've come to the conclusion that I could eat paninis and gelatos for the rest of my life and never complain. When we finished there, we continued to look around and see more people dressed up in costumes up until the time when we had to head back to the boat. Here are some more I took:

At 6pm, my amazing day in Venice ended by meeting everyone in our group in front of our boat. By the end of the day, it was freezing!!! The whole day was sunny and not even windy but for some reason it ended up being freezing and my feet were frozen and it was so hard to walk down stairs because I couldnt' feel my feet. They felt like they each weight 100 pounds. After standing on a boat for a half hour. We reached our bus across the river and sat down in the warm heat, which couldn't have felt any better. For the next three hours, while they played another movie that took place in Venice, I fell asleep to my music. When we arrived back in Florence, I went to my room, checked my email and went straight to bed because I was exhausted and I had class in the morning. For my first field trip, it was a lot of fun, but very cold. I can't wait to see what my other trips with school and on my own are like!