NEAG school of education!

Today I opened the most life changing email. I have been accepted to the NEAG school of education for fall 2012 and will be in a three year integrated bachelors/masters program. I am so excited and relieved I cannot even focus on studying right now! However, I'm half way through! 3 more midterms within the next two days and then it's off for 10 days! SPRING BREAK!

Midterm Week

This weekend I went on a field trip for my food class to a farm called Spannocchia in Chiusdino, Siena. To say the least it was different as well as gorgeous. The weather we had was beautiful (in the high 60s) Our guide Kate seemed to have an abundance of love for pigs. She was very into her job and talked to us for hours about Dino the boar that would produce all the meat for them to make. Their pigs were called Cinta Senese which she explained to be rare and difficult to be classified. It was an all organic farm and they have 6 different meats they produced which we would get to try. The sun was blazing and my roommate Taylor wasn't feeling great. Mid speech she fainted in my arms. It was the most bizarre thing to happen since I've been here. She didn't even remember it happening. We missed some of the tour but I wanted to make sure she was okay. 

We than ate the 6 different meats. They were called:

1. Lardo which was translated as literal back fat of a pig

2. Rigatino which looked like uncooked bacon... 

3. Prosciutto which is from the back legs of a pig and is served only on panini's (most popular)

4. Salami (my favorite) which is from the boars head

5. Capocollo which is from the neck 

6. Sopressata which was uncooked salami (everyone loved and why Kate said she took the job at Spannocchia

It was quite a taste experience. I couldn't seem to put the texture past my mind and eat the uncooked white meats. It felt wrong. 

Dino the Boar

You know just some pig legs chillin'

The six meats we tasted starting at 12 o'clock is the 1st meat (lardo) and the order goes clock wise.

Me Taylor and Lexa 

Meanwhile my knee was throbbing in pain from my tumble the night before at soccer. We play on a cement turf that isn't the best cushion to fall on. Walking around all day probably did not help. Later on that night when we went out I was in so much pain I had to walk home from the bar. 

The next day Christy and I had our friend Lauren come to visit. She plays club soccer with us and she is currently studying with UCONN's Granada, Spain program. She brought along a friend named Hannah who seemed very nice. It wasn't the best weekend to visit because one of our other roommates had two friends here too so some people were stuck with the couch or chairs for bedtime. We all also have midterms this week so everyone was stressing about studying but we also wanted to show our visitors a good time. However, in the end we took them to some major sites and they didn't mind roaming on their own for a bit. I cooked dinner for everyone two nights in a row.

Night 1: sausage and peppers with sauce, eggplant parm, pasta, garlic bread

Night 2: lemon chicken, salad, potatoes and broccoli

homemade sangria

my lovely meal

Becoming quite the chef.

Club soccer girliess :)

Visitors plus Christi and Krista getting some late night gelato.

Today I had no exams so I got up went for a run, got my pictures printed for my mid-term in photo class (such a pain), took Lauren to a bagel place (she was craving) and then went to the central market to get some peanut butter and peaches (yummmm).

Now it's off to studying since I've procrastinated long enough because this weather is just too nice to be stuck inside... Next post to be added after this stressful week is over. 

This is how I will be seeing the beautiful sunshine until Thursday.. from my bedroom :(

Ash Wednesday at the Duomo

After a long relaxing week we all had a long school week ahead. This week was our last school week before midterms and spring break! The time flew by so fast I feel like I'm so unprepared!

Monday was my roommates 21st birthday so we went to a nice dinner at Acqua al Due which we have already been to but it was her favorite so we all decided to go back. We made out own bar crawl list of places to go and tasks to accomplish before the clock stroke midnight. Even though technically it was only 6pm EST. We were going strong on the tasks until one of the promoters bought way to many shots for her. We had quite the adventure on the way home trying to take care of her. In Italy 21 isn't a big age so all night people were giving us looks. 

The next day on her actual birthday we had a cake for her and some people went out to dinner again. My money seems to be flying out to window so I decided to stay in and make the cake. I have been back in my baking mood which feels good. Biscotti over the weekend and a cake during the week. Plus all my dinner meals I have been getting very good at planning and cooking.

On Ash Wednesday I went to the 6pm mass at the Duomo with my friend Michelle. It was the most amazing experience. It was the first time I felt really homesick. I think it was because church just reminded me of my religion and how my family always went to church together. The bishop was there and gave the service. When we went to get the ashes it was placed on the top of our heads and not on our foreheads which I found interesting. It was the biggest church I had ever had a service in. I want to try to go once a week from now on. It was all in Italian so I couldn't really understand but I picked up on a few words. 

Then Michelle, Brittany, Anna and I went to the opera with our school called La Opera Tosca. It was another interesting experience. It was all in Italian but I could figure out the plot. One of my friends read the Wikipedia article before it started which I should have to but our other friend speaks good Italian so she helped us out during the whole thing. It lasted 3 hours with 2 intermissions and I thought I was going to fall asleep at some points but I managed to stay awake. Some of my friends left after first part and some after the second. Very few lasted the whole time! Everyone was all dressed up in dresses and slacks, it was so classy. It was an experience I'll never get again and I'm glad I did it.

Very cultural week and a lot of studying and writing to get to before midterms come! 

Carnivale & other happenings

This weekend I was planning on being all alone in my apartment because all 7 of my roommates were going on a trip to Prague but I couldn't because I had a field trip. However one of the agencies canceled the trip because there weren't enough people so everyone re booked it with Bus2Alps but Christi didn't really want to go or spend the money so she stayed with me for the weekend which was nice because we had the house to ourselves but yet weren't completely alone.

Thursday it was nice to come home and not have to rush to a bus for the weekend. After everyone left I made Shepard pie it was kinda easy and came out really good. I'm proud of finding good simple meals to make with the resources that we have. Then I did come laundry and chores around the apartment and went to bed early because I had a field trip the next morning that I had to be there by 8:45. The field trip was to two Medici villas on the outskirts of Florence. They were called Villa of La Petraia and Castello. They were very beautiful but we could only see the inside of La Petraia because Castello was privatized in the 17th century. We got to see the real statues of Venus and Hercules squeezing Antheus. They were bigger than I expected. The day was kind of groggy but it was nice to put a visual to what we talk about in class.

When I got back I wanted to go to the school library to get some school work done. I have two 8 page papers coming up and exams next week. I always forget I actually have school work here! But it was closed so instead I asked Christi if she wanted to go see the David. I felt weird I hadn't seen it yet and we've been here for a month and a half. It was amazing! It stood 510 cm tall and the pose was to show victory of Goliath. The sign said that Michelangelo started it in 1502 from a piece of marble he found in his backyard and didn't finish until 1504. I couldn't believe how big it was in person. My jaw dropped. Then we went to the chocolate fair that was being held until the 19th. I went with colleen on Valentine's day but in the day there were more vendors and a lot more people. We got delicious chocolate covered waffle sticks and I met the sweetest man. He kept telling me to come back later and he'd give me a deal.

We went home and made some fajitas! It was nice to have a change of cuisine and everyone knows I love my Mexican food. Then we ventured back out to the chocolate fair to see Micheal my cute Italian man. He gave us a deal on some chocolate bars and then told me "You broke my heart first time I see you, your smile is most beautiful thing I seen". He was so adorable to bad he was 35 and probably just wanted me to buy his chocolate. Once again we went to bed early because it was off to Venice on Saturday.

Venice was a day trip through bus2alps. They were bringing like 350 students. It was the last weekend for Carnivale. They suggested we go to Murano or Burano before heading to San Marco for the main attractions. We went to Murano because I was curious to see the glass blowing. My aunt and Nana have said that murano glass was very cool and I have a few necklaces at home made of it. The glass blowing show was amazing. The guy made a vase and a horse statue in about two minutes. It was kind of cool. They had a huge shop too with everything made of murano glass. Then when we walked around that town every shop on the sidewalk was made of murano glass too. We got a bunch of souvenirs.

Next we took a boat ride to San Marco. As we approached we could already see some pretty intense costumes. There was a giant guy dressed in a purple dress and he just trudged through everyone and people swarmed for pictures. That's basically how it was with all the major costumes. Everyone had a mask, face paint or little costume but than the big outrageous costumes had people running to take pictures and photographers pushing everyone out of the way. It was like a big competition who could out do the other. The costumes were so detailed and amazing I had no idea that carnivale was even like that. There were little stands throughout the street. We saw the cathedral from the outside and the wine fountain. Everyone was drinking straight out of wine bottles and throwing confetti. It was like a party for thousands of people. Music everywhere. Quite amazing if I do say so. The weekend before everyone said they were miserable because it was cold but we had a beautiful day. It started to get cold later in the night but it was doable.

We then stopped for some food. It all seemed so expensive but that's because there was seafood in a lot of it because we were right on the water. That was also hard to believe they traveled everywhere by boat because they had no streets and the boat rides were like 40 minutes. We met up with some of my other friends from a class and had a big dinner. After we headed back to the main piazza to watch the performers. Everyone was dancing in the street and singing in their costumes. The music was very good and I enjoyed listening and dancing with my friends.

The boat buses were packed on the way back and we were supposed to be back on our buses to Florence by 10:30 but we didn't get there until 11:15... good thing they waited. It wasn't our fault it was just a super slow bus ride with a lot of stops. We did;t get back to Florence until 2:30 and I was beat. I was happy to not have to set an alarm for anything in the morning.

I woke up at 11:30 which I was happy with so I didn't waste the day away. I cleaned, uploaded photos and now I'm going to make some biscotti's if I can find the ingredients at the grocery store! I'm glad it's raining here so I can just relax and catch up on everything before the rest of the crew comes back from Prague. Hopefully I do get to go to Prague though sometime before I leave. Until next time... Ciao.


Here are some cool pictures of costumes and our masks :)

A long exciting week

So I'm sorry to all that follow that I haven't been up to date on my blogging. I have been busier than ever this past week and with traveling all the time I am getting very wore down and tired. Here's what has gone on in the past week.

Last week I did not go out at all during the week because Rome was such an adventure and so draining that I couldn't even get the energy to do things other than school work and sleep. The week flew by so fast and before I knew it we were about to get back on an 8 hour bus ride to Interlaken.

You can tell were a bit excited!

Thursday we all had our first Italian Test. I had made the class pass/fail because learning another language is harder than you think and I didn't want it to hurt my GPA this semester. We all studied together Wednesday night. Everyone went into the test confident and came out confident which was a good thing because no one wants to be cranky on an 8 hour bus ride. Once we got out of class we all had half hour to an hour to pack, eat something, and run to the train station a half hour away. Once we got there I was happy to just relax and hopefully fall asleep on the ride up.

Three hours later and I was not asleep. We stopped once for a bathroom break than dinner. It was approaching midnight and our bus driver told us due to law he was going to have to stop for 15 min breaks every hour. We didn't get to Interlaken until 4:15 am. But at least this time we weren't roaming the city and got dropped off right in front of our hostel. That's the good thing about preplanned trips everything is just made so much simpler but it was more expensive.

We all passed out knowing we had a long weekend ahead. This trip was something I was really looking forward to and knew it would be one of my favorite weekends. We split up in two different rooms based on what activities each of us were doing. Col, Taylor and Brit were staying together because they were planning on waking up earlier the first day to skydive! The rest of us (Christi, Krista, Lexa, Anna and my friend Hannah) were in a 6 person room because we were the ones planning on snowboarding/skiing on that Saturday.

We woke up for the free breakfast which was a piece of toast and jam... literally with some coffee or tea. However, we all brought so many snacks and bread for sandwiches because all of our friends that went prior told us it was ridiculously expensive to eat in Switzerland. We looked at all the activities you could sign up for and we decided we were just going to go ice skating for 6 franks and explore the town. But somehow an hour later we were getting ready to paraglide the Swiss alps! I'm not even sure how it happened. We all just spontaneously decided to do it. I was freaking out not because I was scared but because I knew I was going to be spending a lot on snowboarding the next day and this weekend was going to put a dent in my pocket. I didn't want to end up with nothing left at the end of my abroad experience and have to not have fun the last few weeks. However, I said screw it and did it.

Getting excited to fly over cliffsss.

Feel like I'm on top of the world

Oh Hey Swiss Alps!

I'm glad I did because it was an experience of a life time. We took a 20 minute bus ride up to the top of a mountain. We had to choose who we want to go down with. I choose a guy named Floretine. He was super nice and told me he had been doing this for 10 years so I trusted him. They gave us all extra coats, pants, and helmets because it was going to be very cold in the air. We walked to the launch area and they told us that we were 2,500 meters in the air. After they explained the whole procedure I was excited more than nervous.

We had to run and jump off the cliff over the tree line. I went second after Lexa and I just ran but it was really slow motion. They the parachute lifted and I was floating over the alps. It was so freezing but I tried no to focus on that because it was such a great view. Of course my camera died but he had a camera to take pictures of the view. The view was absolutely amazing and I had never seen something like that before. It was breathe taking. I couldn't hear anything he was saying though because the wind was so loud. My pictures came out amazing I had to buy the CD. On the final landing he asked if I wanted to corkscrew down and I did. It literally made my head spin but was the best part of the whole thing. It lasted about 20 min. When I landed Lexa told me she had puked and I didn't believe her but she really did all over her guy. It was all a good laugh.

Then we headed back to the hostel to make our nutella and peanut butter sandwiches. I felt like I was at an actual ski lodge. Then I sat by the fire and read my book. It was such a cozy atmosphere. Then the people who were skiing the next day went to rent gear and get our tickets. It was another 200 franks. My money was flying but I was so excited.

Life of a student abroad... packed lunches and boxed wine. 

All of our euroadventure group went to fondue at this place called Bebbis. It was cheese, meat than dessert fondue. I had never done something like that so it was really cool and the place was lively and energetic. His name was Nicholas and all the waiters wore cow pants. It was quite a show. I had never tried the raw meat and dipped it in oil. It was all delicious. Then we went back to the lodge and some people went out but I just wanted to go to bed and get rest for snowboarding!

NICOLASSSS IN COW PANTS. 

Col and I.

The five of us woke up early and were on the bus at 8:45 with all of our stuff. Walking off the bus was just a crazy feelings seeing the giant mountain in front of you. All the trails were so high up you couldn't even see the trails until you got to the top of the 30 min gondola ride. It was another breathe taking site. Some of the trails were so narrow it looked like I was going to drop off the side of the cliff which was scary for a snowboarder because it is hard to stay straight and I felt like I was going to lose balance. Another thing was that there were SO many flats. Christi and I the only boarders had to keep taking off our boards and walking. However, I didn't care I couldn't believe I was actually snowboarding the Swiss Alps. Everyone on the mountain seemed to be pros. It was mostly terrain and not a lot of park area so it was just my style. We stopped for a quick lunch and had some more nutella sandwiches, which this time were frozen, and then were back on our way. At 2 pm two of the girls stopped but I went back up with Christi and Hannah. I wanted to get a full days worth. I knew I was tired and someone was going to get hurt so we just took it slow. From the point we went to all the way to the bottom was 50 min and we didn't even make it to the tiptop.

So beautiful I can't even believe it. 

Favorite picture :)

I was wiped out after but we showered and went to this Irish Pub for dinner. I got some good ole fish and chips. Everything was so expensive my dinner was 21 franks. We found out that the coast of living is so high in Switzerland and their minimum wage is 17.00 franks. The franks are relatively close to dollars. I think the conversion was .92 franks to 1.00 dollar.

The next morning we got a tour to the lake. It was freezing by the water but so beautiful! The water was so blue and I got some good photos for my photography class. Then we walked around the town, got some souvenirs and then went to the Swiss chocolate factory since we missed the showing the night before. It looked so good but I held back. Then we all met to get back on the bus. Every one's goal was to get back as fast as possible with less stops. We left at about 2:30 pm and got back at 10:30 which was a lot better than the way there and we only made two quick stops. After the weekend was over I felt so disgusted by the food I ate. Traveling really puts a damper on the good meals I get in Florence!

Such a pretty view and the water was so blue. Wish I lived in a place like this. 

However, this past weekend was the most amazing weekend ever (so far)! I never thought I'd be able to say I did the things that I did. Paragliding the Swiss alps or snowboard them. It was such an amazing place and I didn't want to leave. Hopefully I come back with my family sometime because they would really love it seeing as though we are a snowboarding family.

Monday I was so worn out and barely got through my classes without passing out. I wanted to go to bed early but my mom was dying to skype so she could be the first to wish me a happy Valentine's Day :). There was a lot of love going around in Florence on Valentine's Day. There is a giant chocolate fair that goes on in the Piazza Reppublica. There was homemade chocolate everywhere and it goes on all week. Italians really love to show their love.

Dillon and Nikki giving me kisses on Facetime <3

Me and one of my roommates from Penn State Colleen decided a few weeks ago since neither of us had ever had a Valentine date that we would go with each other. So we planned to go to the Hard Rock Cafe of Florence. We went at 8 and had a hour and a half wait but we just went to the chocolate fair in between. I felt like I was on an actual date which was funny. Then we sat and watched the live band and ordered some nachos. It felt as close to home as I was going to get. We talked all night and had a lot of fun. Then we met the rest of our roommates at the bar and had a few drinks and spent Valentine's Day together. It was kinda cute.

Now that I have finally blogged about my great weekend and precious Valentine's Day I feel more up to date on my adventures!

Until next time... Ciao!

four weeks already

It's crazy how four weeks can change you. It flew by and I can't even remember packing at this point. It was exactly four weeks from today I was packing my last thing, getting in the car with my dad and sister, heading to the airport and saying my final farewell to my family. The time flew bye so fast I can't even believe it. It it's just going to keep flying by because I'm always so busy. I just got back from Rome and in two days I leave for Interlaken. Also all my teachers are starting to talk about our midterms and I feel like I just got here!

Other than that realization I haven't done much today since it's freezing here. We did have an awesome family dinner tonight though. Col made chicken with spanich and tomato, mash taters, broccoli and tomato and mozz salad. Very good dinner.

I also now am starting to get a lot of homework which sucks but I am here for school right...

When in Rommaaa... it snows.

So this weekend was very interesting. I had a early morning field trip on the day we were leaving and I was freezing more than I ever have been in my life. Our train was leaving Florence at 7:15 pm. My friend Morgan told me that she was already there and it wasn't even worth going. However, we all said we'll just go and see because we payed for the train and hostel. When we got to the train station it said all the trains to Rome were canceled but ours wasn't even on the board. Once it got up there it was delayed 50 minutes. We had to bring our confirmation number to print out the tickets but no one told me so I tried to used my friends data plan to look it up and instead I just broke her phone. I texted my friend from my Italian phone who was at her apartment to look it up for me, she saved me because by the time I finally got it the train was here.

Trying to entertain ourselves on the train.

off we go to our first weekend trip. 

POOOOHH<3

We already knew it was going to be a long train ride because we choose the cheaper train that takes double the time aka the "slow train". We were supposed to leave at 7:15 and get there at 10:40 but instead we didn't leave till 8:00 pm and got there at 3:30 am. At first we were moving okay because in Florence it wasn't snowing. As we got more toward Rome it started slowing down and we didn't know what was going on. The conductor told us that the tracks have frozen and we needed to stop. Every 20 minutes we stopped for an hour and the lights would go out and the train would just stop. I felt like I was in a horror movie. Everyone was complaining the whole way but I liked bonding with everyone. After a while it was annoying but we got through it.

Once we got there we didn't even know where our hostel was and no cabs were working. There was a foot of snow on the ground and the cops wouldn't even stop for us. We walked for a half hour then finally got there at 4 am. I got many 4 hours of sleep before we got a wake up call and some breakfast stuff brought to our room before we went to our appointment to see the Vatican Museum.

The snow made it look really pretty but the ground was very icy and my feet were frozen. I was already wearing three pairs of socks but it wasn't helping. The actual museum had awesome paintings. The fresco's were so bright and beautiful. This was the first time I actually got to see and relate to the things I was seeing to what I was learning in class. The Sistine chapel was absolutely amazing and on high patrol. There were so many guards yelling "NO PHOTOS". Everyone was trying to sneak them on their iPhone without flash.

St. Peter's Square

The classic group shot. 

Then we got some lunch and I was craving a nice salad. I have been having too many carbs it's making my stomach feel so fat. I got a nice cobb salad and some bruschetta to share. After we walked to the Spanish steps which were death. They were all iced over and everyone was falling. They were beautiful but I really wish it was sunny or at least not icy. Once we finished slipping everyone we went right to the  Trevi Fountain. That was also blocked off so you couldn't go down close. We all had to throw coins from up top. Mine didn't even make it in. I did find out that if you throw one coin you come back to Rome, if you throw two you will fall in love in Rome, and if you throw three you will get married in Rome. I guess none of the above will happen for me.

Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

Threw in a coin and missed so sad. 

At this point we were all exhausted and headed back to the hostel to shower after a day of hitting three major landmarks of Rome. I did miss out on actually going through St. Peter's because the line was three hours long. I did stand in St. Peter's square though which was beautiful.

That night Col, Taylor, Brit, and I met up with Col's friend who is studying abroad in Rome. They took us to a nice restaurant. I ended up getting pizza like usual because I get sick of pasta. The wine we bought was the best wine I've had yet. After we met up with all of her friend's in the Rome program and they took us to a bar. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet a bunch of new people, all American though. They said they were going to try to visit us in Florence!

After another night of 4 hours of sleep we had to get up to go to our reservation to see the Colosseum. We get there and it's closed. Had to take pictures and pretend we saw it just from the outside. Hopefully we can get our money back. There was a radio station outside asking us how we felt about being in Rome during a historic storm since it hasn't snowed since 1986 in Rome and this is the first time the Colosseum has ever been closed. Glad we made history.... hope I eventually see it.

We switched our train from 7pm to 1pm and hoped we actually made it home in less than 8 hours this time. We ended up getting  a cart to ourselves and then two American guys from Indiana were lost and just sat with us. They were really nice and the trip flew by because we all talked the whole time. We said we'd all meet up and go out sometime.

I was back in Florence by 5pm so we had time to shower and get ready for the Superbowl game at Red Garter. I was excited we had a few hours to relax. I was mad I had no Giants apparel to wear so I just wore navy and some eyeliner for face paint (being creative). Out of the 8 of us only two were Giants fan and I was hoping for the pull through. The game was awesome to watch with 300 people. It was intense and the Giants pulled through with another win. Superbowl 42 repeat!

Sucked getting back to my bed at 4:30 am and I knew I was going to have another shitty night sleep.
Thursday= 6 hours
Friday= 4 hours
Saturday= 4 and a half hours
Sunday = 5 hours

I don't know how I survived classes today as well as buying some new shoes :)

Now I'm going to catch up on all of my work and get all my blogging and journalling (if that's a word) done and go to bed early. Hoping for more than 8 hours of sleep tonight.