Running doesn't exist in Florence, but Chocolate Raviolis Do

So yesterday is probably the slowest out of all of my days because the only class that I have to take on Wednesdays is Intermediate Italian....at 6pm! So what do I do? I wake up at 11:30am, and never regeret it. After I woke up I watched all my tv shows on Hulu (which i'm doing not very legally..shhhh), and started reading my new book, yes....I still do read while in Italy. It's very relaxing after a long day of doing nothing. Around 3pm, my roommate comes back from class and we were going to go to the winebar so she comes outside with me and it starts drizzling and I come up with the genius idea, "Hey, why don't we go running? It won't ever thunder here and the rain will cool us off." Next thing I know, I'm upstairs putting on sneakers, sports bras, and underarmor with my ipod in hand to go running outside. Running!! Do you know the last time I went running?? Probably sometimes in early January, i was was still huffing and puffing while running a mile even though I was doing it 4 times a week.

When we start running, it's already drizzling, but it's nothing bad so we continue. We start off running on the side of the Arno River and continuing up and around all these bridges. About a mile through, I'm feeling strong. So we decide to go all the way to the second bridge after the Ponte Vecchio, which, let me tell you....isn't close at all! So crossing over the bridge in the middle, we continue running, and running, and running. Now, this is the point when I start to realize we're running on a little bit of a slant. Which means, this is the point at which I started to die. I pushed through and continued over that goal bridge and then we both stopped. I'm DYING! I'm panting like a dog on a hot summer day. The rain started to fall harder and harder, luckily no thunder or lightning. But we decided to walk a little bit to catch our breath but while doing that, what we noticed was that there were other people out running that we kept passing. But the weird thing is.....every single one of them? American! I'm telling you, this made me realize that American girls and guys are so obsessed with their bodies. With how they look on a daily basis. If they don't go to the gym one day or do some sort of hardcore workout, they think they are going to blow up like a balloon. New Flash!!! The Italians never run and look how thin they are. Italians walk EVERYWHERE and they eat what they want when they want. But when combining that with the amount of physical activity they get during one day, it all evens out. Italians look at the Americans wondering why we're running outside, just look at their reactions to you. And running in the rain? It's as if we're showing desparation. Desparation to look like them, to wear a bathing suit, to be thinner than your friends. If I just walk everyday and eat what I want to eat but in reasonable portions, I will look like them, without the running and constant exercising at the gym. But back to my original story....
After about five minutes, we decided to run again but this time we split because I wanted to run more in the streets of florence then on the river where there were a lot of crowding tourists. As the rain was pouring harder, my ipod was getting soaked because being the genius that I am, I didn't buy one of those cases to cover it to protect it from the rain. So that gave me incentive to run harder and faster. So about 15 minutes later I arrived home, luckily meeting my roommate at the door at the exact same time (because I didn't have my key). I got upstairs and just died on my bed for a couple of minutes before heading to class. Let me tell you...I slept sooo well that night. But honestly, I think i'm done with adding on the extra exercise. I'll go on walks, sightsee, because that all includes me moving my feet, hence, physical activity.

Now it's time to tell you about TODAY...wonderful wonderful thursdays!!!
First class of the day: EVERYTHING CHOCOLATE! my favorite class in the entire world. We had a guest speaker today named Andrea who was another teacher/chef at Apicius for the Advanced students. He tought us how chocolate can be used in a normal menu other than desserts. So what did we make? Chocolate Raviolis stuffed with an olive oil gelatin with a permesean cream sauce. How was it? How do you think? It was delicious! And ther ewas so much of it which means a lot of it went into my mouth. The raviolis weren't as chocolatey as I would have liked but they were still good. The sauce was cheesey and milky (clearly). People didn't really like it, but I'm a huge cheese lover so of course I fell in love with it.
After class, we are supposed to have our cuture class but since we have that trip tomorrow, class was cancelled! So instead I went to Ganzo with a couple of people from Chocolate class and enjoyed a lovely veal meal. I know i know....Thursday is Trippa day, sadly no one would go with me so I had to settle for Ganzo. But don't worry....Next monday? Trippa! You can count on it.
For some reason I had no motivation to go out today after that because it was rainy and you know that kind of weather. The "I just want to stay inside and be all cozy and dry" weather. So that's exactly what i did. While my roommate went to the gym with another roommate (<---Look at that! more physical activity that isn't needed but we do it anyway!) I stayed in and looked up some trips that I may want to do in the future. I'm staying here for an extra week after we move out of our apartments and I found great flights to Paris!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The city of love. <3 I have been dying to go there ever since I was a little girl and this just may be my chance. However, I need to find someone to go with before I can book it. Wish me luck!

But that was my last two days experiences....ran my brains out for four miles the first day and ate all that I lost yesterday, today. Seems to be working quite well for me. Tomorrow I have to be up at 5am to reach a 6:45 bus to start my first FREE weekend trip with my class. Off to Pompei, Sorrento, Capri, and Napoli!

Then next Thursday...in ONE WEEK! is going to be the start of the best week ever!! My parents and sister come!!!!!! <3 I'm BEYOND excited for this. Then on saturday my friend from school at home is coming to visit and is bringing a friend and then the following week my cousin is coming and I get to take them out and can't wait for that either! Then 2 weeks from this saturday, GREECE Spring Break 2010!!!!!!! I have been waiting for this for about a year and can't believe it's finally creeping up on me. after spring break, I only have two months left....it's insane!!!! I cannot believe it'll be two months pretty soon. I feel like I just got here yesterday and am still getting used to it.

Bon Voyage! (I know that's french but I don't know how to say it in Italian haha)