3 and a half months,
15 weeks,
108 days,
5 Countries,
25 Cities,
324 delicious meals,
and 10 pounds later...
I am sad to say that I am leaving Florence.
Today has been a rough day, with two finals and everyone crying. I don't know if I am ready to leave, but I guess it is time to go. All my bags are packed, I bought an extra giant suitcase that I will be taking back all my extra goodies in. Today my whole host family was crying at dinner while we ate my favorite meal. I am not ready to leave them!!!
But tomorrow my American family will be waiting for me with a Synergy, and we will go get my other favorite meal...SUSHI!!
This has been an amazing experience that I will never ever forget and has made me grow so much as a person. I am so sad it is over.
My diet starts tomorrow.
The end.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
My Cheesy rhyming poem about the amazing city of Florence
For my creative writing class we had to write something about going home. So I wrote this
( I am such my mother's daughter)
( I am such my mother's daughter)
What will I miss about Florence you ask
Well this answer is long so this isn’t a simple task
I’ll miss Angela with her diva hair flip
Our walks to school
And our Venice trip
I’ll miss Francesca and our gym workouts
Just so we could lay on the beach in Cinque Terre and the Amalfi Coast
After eating very VERY large amounts
I’ll miss Michelle and her new phrase “and then I found 20 bucks”
Her mother’s funny texts
And talking about how art history sucks
My roomy Jillian and her contagious laugh
When trying to speak Italian at dinner, she’s my other half
And then there’s my Italian family I will miss the most
The sweetest family in the world
I still don’t understand why they eat cookies for breakfast instead of toast
My mama with her delicious food and radiant smile
I can’t believe I am leaving her and going so many miles
Then there’s Despina my older Italian sis
All of our chats about friends, boys and life I will truly miss
Theresa the youngest of the fam
Speaking such great English
And helping me study for my Italian exam
Gianco my babbo cracking funny jokes
These people have become so much more than just my hosts
Florence, I’ll miss your pasta and cheap wine
Your scenery and boys that are oh so fine
I’ll miss your baby sized coffee and all your gelati
My Italian class at the VR
And taking trains everywhere instead of driving my car
The Duomo as a guide when always getting lost
Can I stay here all summer?
How much will that cost?
Oh Florence, I am so sad that this is the end
That this is it.
The only thing I won’t miss will be all of your dog shit.
It's the final countdown.
I have 3 days left in Italy and realized I haven't been updating my blog much..so here are some highlights
1) My family came to Italy! After a long 44 hours of traveling due to: electrical problems on the plane, broken bathrooms, and 4 plane changes. But they made it! We got to stay in a Villa in Tuscany and they convinced me to miss school for most of the week because they said that B's were good enough for the semester (I love being abroad!) We went to Sienna, Lucca, Rome, Chianti, and Volterra. My favorite day was our Chianti day because we had a picnic, went wine-tasting, and that night we got a private cooking class. I think that might be what I would do if I had to plan a perfect day for myself.
2) The play..read the post below.
3) I attended a Florence soccer game!! It was really fun to see all of the Italians rooting on their team (even though the Florence soccer team sucks.)
4) Kai and I went to Cinque Terre this past weekend (My favorite place ever!) My friend Alison came with us the first day and we went to the place I went to before with the best Pesto pizza ever made on this planet. Then we just hang out on the beach all day. We layed in the sun and the water was even warm enough to swim in. Kai and I went to dinner at a place where he ordered Pesto Ravioli and I ordered sea-bass that they filleted at the table for me. The next day we went to the Cinque Terre, or the 5 lands. My favorite was Riomaginare.
Those are my highlights. I am so sad my semester is coming to an end :(
1) My family came to Italy! After a long 44 hours of traveling due to: electrical problems on the plane, broken bathrooms, and 4 plane changes. But they made it! We got to stay in a Villa in Tuscany and they convinced me to miss school for most of the week because they said that B's were good enough for the semester (I love being abroad!) We went to Sienna, Lucca, Rome, Chianti, and Volterra. My favorite day was our Chianti day because we had a picnic, went wine-tasting, and that night we got a private cooking class. I think that might be what I would do if I had to plan a perfect day for myself.
2) The play..read the post below.
3) I attended a Florence soccer game!! It was really fun to see all of the Italians rooting on their team (even though the Florence soccer team sucks.)
4) Kai and I went to Cinque Terre this past weekend (My favorite place ever!) My friend Alison came with us the first day and we went to the place I went to before with the best Pesto pizza ever made on this planet. Then we just hang out on the beach all day. We layed in the sun and the water was even warm enough to swim in. Kai and I went to dinner at a place where he ordered Pesto Ravioli and I ordered sea-bass that they filleted at the table for me. The next day we went to the Cinque Terre, or the 5 lands. My favorite was Riomaginare.
Those are my highlights. I am so sad my semester is coming to an end :(
Come you like it.
When you go abroad you learn all sorts of things about yourself you didn’t know.. well folks, I learned I am an actress!!
Haha, well not quite, but I was in our school play, “As you like it.” So how did I end up signing up for this? Well, my friend Francesca is in a class about the history of the Italian theatre. Long story short she got extra-credit for being in the play, so my friend Angela and I decided we would be good friends and do it with her. For the past couple months we have been asking ourselves how we got ourselves into this. But, the night of the play we realized what a blast it was! Going abroad is all about doing things that you would never do at home, and I am glad that putting myself out there for the school play was something I did. It was an experience I will never forget.. Pictures will be up soon but my wi-fi is too slow at my house.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Canceled Flight!
Welp..my families flight got canceled to come here today..stupid United! But hopefully there flight tomorrow leaves!! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Amalfi Coast!
I am sad to say that this past weekend was my last major travel weekend! But it was such a great one!! On Thursday Franchesca, Michelle, Jesse, and I headed to the Amalfi Coast! We were supposed to go with a student run program called Florence for Fun, but they canceled on us last Monday so we quickly decided to put the trip together ourselves. We took a 3 hour train to Naples and then a sketchy hour metro from Naples to Sorrento. I was very glad we were with our guy friend Jesse for that part of the trip. When we finally got to Sorrento we checked into our AWESOME hostel!! It had a bar downstairs, a sun deck and the rooms were so nice! The only problem was we were staying in a room with a girl that had a stick up her ass (pardon my french) and couldn't stand the music at the bar downstairs and turned the heat up to 90 degrees (no joke) every night.
The first day we had a lazy day where we explored Sorrento, ate delicious pizza, and layed on the beach and got our tan on. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. For dinner we went to the coolest restaurant that our hostel told us about, that had only Italians in it. It was so cool to see that since we haven't been to too many places that aren't overpowered with Americans in Florence.
On Saturday we took an all day boat tour to the Island of Capri. The person that owned the boat was friends with the guy who ran the Hostel so we got the trip for half price and the other 8 people on the boat tour were from our hostel. We met the cutest New Zealand boy ever :) I decided that him and Kai would be best friends because he had the biggest spice for life like Kai does. He was so much fun to have on our boat tour because he got everyone enthusiastic about everything and everyone became friends because of him.
We first headed to the Island of Capri on this tour and got to hang out there for a couple of hours. It was beautiful but unfortunately it was raining while we were on the Island, but when we got back on the boat it was sunny out again! We ventured around the Island on our little boat. Let me just tell you this is a huge accomplishment for me because I have this weird irrational fear of open water in the ocean (even though I was a swimmer my whole life.) But I accomplished my fear because this is what the semester is about. I even got in the 45 degree water. This was not a wise decision.
4 people from our group decided to get in the water and I was debating it. Francesca looked around and goes, Look at all of the jellyfish in the water, oh my god!! So I asked the guy, do those jellyfish sting a lot of people and looked at me and just says "Yes" but I was in the mood to be adventurous and while Francesca was getting nervous, I just decided to jump off of the boat. I hadn't felt the water with my feet or anything and as soon as I jumped in the breath got knocked out of me because of the freezing water. But I decided to swim a couple minutes to where I could get up onto a rock to walk up to a cave. I swam there and tried to get up, it was a lot harder than I thought and I couldn't use my strength considering I couldn't breath, so I had to swim back to the boat without seeing the cave. But hey, I went swimming with Jellyfish in Capri, pretty cool.
That night we went to the best restaurant ever! The cutest old Italian man picked us up in his macchina, aka car, and drove us to the restaurant. The people were very excited to have us because it was far away from the center of town so no tourists ever come there. They talked to us about California and what we were doing in Sorrento. Then they gave us there homemade bread with their orange and lemon infused homemade olive oil and their homemade wine to go along with it. We got fried mozzerella and rosemary roles and fried anchioves for our appetizer. He gave his homemade passionfruit and papaya sorbet before our main course. We ate seafood for dinner, and he gave us his homemade special desserts afterwards! Followed by his homemade digestive alcohol. It was everything people think of when they think of an Italian meal. The nicest people, with the best homemade food and wine, and tons and tons of it.
Sunday we headed to Pompei on our way back to Naples. It was so cool seeing such an ancient city preserved so well. If anyone gets the chance to see Pompei I highly recommend it because it was just a really interesting place that is hard to even put into words.
I am sad that my major traveling is over, but I am SOOOOOOO excited to see my family on Saturday and Kai again in 3 weeks! I can't believe I only have 28 days left abroad!!!
The first day we had a lazy day where we explored Sorrento, ate delicious pizza, and layed on the beach and got our tan on. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. For dinner we went to the coolest restaurant that our hostel told us about, that had only Italians in it. It was so cool to see that since we haven't been to too many places that aren't overpowered with Americans in Florence.
 |
| Sorrento |
On Saturday we took an all day boat tour to the Island of Capri. The person that owned the boat was friends with the guy who ran the Hostel so we got the trip for half price and the other 8 people on the boat tour were from our hostel. We met the cutest New Zealand boy ever :) I decided that him and Kai would be best friends because he had the biggest spice for life like Kai does. He was so much fun to have on our boat tour because he got everyone enthusiastic about everything and everyone became friends because of him.
 |
| Michelle and me with our New Zealand friend |
 |
| I'm on a boat. |
 |
| Love |
 |
| Our boat! |
We first headed to the Island of Capri on this tour and got to hang out there for a couple of hours. It was beautiful but unfortunately it was raining while we were on the Island, but when we got back on the boat it was sunny out again! We ventured around the Island on our little boat. Let me just tell you this is a huge accomplishment for me because I have this weird irrational fear of open water in the ocean (even though I was a swimmer my whole life.) But I accomplished my fear because this is what the semester is about. I even got in the 45 degree water. This was not a wise decision.
4 people from our group decided to get in the water and I was debating it. Francesca looked around and goes, Look at all of the jellyfish in the water, oh my god!! So I asked the guy, do those jellyfish sting a lot of people and looked at me and just says "Yes" but I was in the mood to be adventurous and while Francesca was getting nervous, I just decided to jump off of the boat. I hadn't felt the water with my feet or anything and as soon as I jumped in the breath got knocked out of me because of the freezing water. But I decided to swim a couple minutes to where I could get up onto a rock to walk up to a cave. I swam there and tried to get up, it was a lot harder than I thought and I couldn't use my strength considering I couldn't breath, so I had to swim back to the boat without seeing the cave. But hey, I went swimming with Jellyfish in Capri, pretty cool.
 |
| Capri |
 |
| Freezing water!! |
That night we went to the best restaurant ever! The cutest old Italian man picked us up in his macchina, aka car, and drove us to the restaurant. The people were very excited to have us because it was far away from the center of town so no tourists ever come there. They talked to us about California and what we were doing in Sorrento. Then they gave us there homemade bread with their orange and lemon infused homemade olive oil and their homemade wine to go along with it. We got fried mozzerella and rosemary roles and fried anchioves for our appetizer. He gave his homemade passionfruit and papaya sorbet before our main course. We ate seafood for dinner, and he gave us his homemade special desserts afterwards! Followed by his homemade digestive alcohol. It was everything people think of when they think of an Italian meal. The nicest people, with the best homemade food and wine, and tons and tons of it.
Sunday we headed to Pompei on our way back to Naples. It was so cool seeing such an ancient city preserved so well. If anyone gets the chance to see Pompei I highly recommend it because it was just a really interesting place that is hard to even put into words.
I am sad that my major traveling is over, but I am SOOOOOOO excited to see my family on Saturday and Kai again in 3 weeks! I can't believe I only have 28 days left abroad!!!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Cinque Terre=Heaven!
This past weekend I went to Cinque Terre. It had to be one of the most beautiful and breathtaking places I have ever been!
We stayed in a cute little place on Monterosso where a cute Italian lady rented out rooms to travelers. For 30 euros a night, we got an adorable room with views of the ocean! She also had two sons, one who owned a pizza place, and one that owned a nice restaurant. We got discounts for going so we figured we would give them a try.
The pesto pizza we ordered at lunch was UNBELIEVABLE! It is in a tie with Dad's grilled pizza for the best pizza I have ever had. Cinque Terre is known for their pesto, so when we went to the other restaurant that night I ordered homemade ravioli with pesto. Cinque Terre's pesto is for sure the besto!
The next day we did the most beautiful hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. It was two hours and it was amazing! We then hopped on a train to go see Corniglia. We had to get back though, and couldn't visit the other villages. Therefore I will have to go back to this amazing place in the future to see the rest! I am hoping I can return in the next month.
Off to the Amalfi Coast on Monday!
We stayed in a cute little place on Monterosso where a cute Italian lady rented out rooms to travelers. For 30 euros a night, we got an adorable room with views of the ocean! She also had two sons, one who owned a pizza place, and one that owned a nice restaurant. We got discounts for going so we figured we would give them a try.
The pesto pizza we ordered at lunch was UNBELIEVABLE! It is in a tie with Dad's grilled pizza for the best pizza I have ever had. Cinque Terre is known for their pesto, so when we went to the other restaurant that night I ordered homemade ravioli with pesto. Cinque Terre's pesto is for sure the besto!
The next day we did the most beautiful hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. It was two hours and it was amazing! We then hopped on a train to go see Corniglia. We had to get back though, and couldn't visit the other villages. Therefore I will have to go back to this amazing place in the future to see the rest! I am hoping I can return in the next month.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)