Cheers to London

This past weekend I headed to London to celebrate an early 21st birthday with Kai. Kai and I both booked our tickets to arrive at the same time on Thursday, however he found out he had a midterm that day worth 30% of his grade and had to come to London on Friday. So.. on Thursday I got in to London and figured out how to get to my hotel from the airport (I am starting to get good at this whole solo traveling thing.) Since it was my birthday, my parents booked us a room in the Marriot and I was able to order "Eat, Pray, Love" as well as some delicious room service (delicious isn't sarcastic, it really was delicious.. Tabouleh and Sweet Potatoes.. my kind of meal.)

Friday, I woke up and headed to the tube, to meet my Fat Tire Bike Tour. I figured this was a great way to see the city while I was by myself, and it was! I had a very cute tour guide named Liam who was born in South Africa, moved to London, then Amsterdam, then Southern California, and back to London. He did a great job about teaching us about the history of London. This bike tour was very different than the one in Paris because London is full of beautiful and huge parks, so we had to do less "Street Domination" as my Paris tour guide called it, and more easy riding through the parks.

My Tour Guide showing us that this is where they will play Beach Volleyball for the Olympics

By the time I got back, Kai had arrived at our hotel and we headed out to a fantastic Indian Restaurant in the city. *Fun Fact- London has more Indian food than fish and chips! We took our time because we were headed to a musical called "Thriller-Live" at 8:30 and it was extremely close by. We finished by about 7:30 and decided to get a coffee at Starbucks while we waited (I will admit, even though Italian coffee is good.. I REALLY REALLY MISS STARBUCKS!) As we sat in Starbucks at 7:45 I pulled out the tickets. As I glanced at them I blurted out to Kai, "Let's go, the play started 15 minutes ago!" Yup thats right.. the play started at at 19:30, not 20:30. STUPID MILITARY TIME! We ran across the street and into the theatre. Luckily, we only missed one song, and we were in the 4th row! This musical was more like a concert than a musical full of all of Michael Jackson and Jackson Five music. It was extremely fun and put a smile on your face throughout the entire show. Th characters also had fantastic voices and great charisma. We finished the night of by playing a few games of my travel yam slam (my favorite game ever) and me killing Kai every game we played :)

Saturday morning, we woke up to the pouring rain and 40 degree weather. Our plan was to walk to all of the sites that I got to see on the bike tour Friday, but that plan quickly changed when we saw the weather. One of the benefits of staying at a hotel is you have a great concierge, he recommended we go on a double decker bus tour, that way we could see everything and still stay dry. The bus tour was perfect for a rainy day and I got to see a lot more than I had seen by bike, such as the London Bridge (which is not actually called the London Bridge, also I always thought the song went "London Bridges falling down" but Steph burst my childhood knowledge yesterday and informed me that it is "London Bridge is Falling down" makes so much more sense now.) When this was over we hopped off at Buckingham Palace and got to see the Changing Guards which was really cool and pretty crazy to me that people do this everyday. We headed to a typical British Pub where Kai got the fish and chips he had been craving all weekend, and we got a huge platter of very very fried food.

On the cold/rainy bus tour!

Lunch time! (not Boulderhealthnut worthy)

 After lunch we went to go see "Wicked" (for my 6th time, but Kai's first) and I made sure to check the tickets about 5 times to make sure we weren't showing up late this time. It was really fun because although I could probably quote 75% of the lines in this play, I have never seen it in a British accent. The Glinda was the best Glinda I have seen in Wicked, besides Kristen Chenoweth of course. Of course, I really enjoyed the play and so did Kai (but even if he hated it, I think he would tell me he loves it because of my obsession with this musical)!

We went to an amazing restaurant called "The Goring" for my birthday dinner where we were treated like royalty. The food was fantastic, and the atmosphere and staff were even better. When we got back to the hotel, I had chocolate covered strawberries, champagne, flowers, and a birthday card waiting for me from my family. The weekend was the best birthday celebration I have ever had and unlike any birthday celebration I will probably ever have again. I guess turning 21 in Europe isn't so bad after all. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Kai for making my birthday the best one ever! Love you!

My Birthday Surprise!

Paris for Valentine's Day

Well folks, I did what every girl dreams of doing, I went to Paris for Valentine's Day (at least an early one.)  It was one of the best weekends I have ever had, the only problem was it was way too short!

I headed to Paris Friday afternoon. This entailed taking an hour and ten minute bus to Pisa and then after that the flight was only an hour and twenty minutes! I quickly realized that traveling in Europe is the easiest thing ever. Kai met me at the airport and we quickly hopped on the metro and headed to the Eiffel Tower. It was unbelievable and I couldn't believe that I was actually seeing it in person! Kai and I were very eager to go up, but the line was about a 3 hour wait, so we figured we would wait until Saturday.

Instead we headed to a restaurant where we decided to order some Bordeaux. Dad, I am starting to learn differences between Wine, I have realized that I love Chianti, but Bordeaux is too heavy for me. Aren't you proud?! I then saw on the menu they had Escargot. I told Kai we were ordering some and he said there was no way he would eat them. I had, had them on a Carnival Cruise when I was in fourth grade and even Carnival made them taste good, so I figured in Paris they had to be amazing. I finally convinced him that we had to order them. The Escargot came covered in butter and pesto, what could be better. When Kai tried one he loved it, and we had officially began our French experience.

We headed to the place we were staying, a room in a couple's apartment that they rent out. It was in Nanterre, an adorable and quaint suburb of Paris. Kai had been there earlier that day and so he knew where the apartment was, or so he thought. We ended up walking around in circles for about an hour, looking for the place while Kai kept saying "this looks familiar" in a very unsure voice. Finally, we were able to get ahold of the man who's place we were staying at, Randall, and he walked us home! We were so far away from it, we could have been walking all night.

Saturday we woke up and headed to the Eiffel tower once again. We got breakfast at a cute little restaurant; an omelette and croissants. Finally, eggs for breakfast!!! The Italians eat them for dinner and I have been dyeing to have them for breakfast. Then we went to go meet our Fat Tire Bike Tour. Lisa Danis told me to do one of these and since Kai and I were short on time we decided it would be a great way to see everything. It was a blast! Our tour guide, Sadie, was very fun and entertaining, and the people were on it were either young couples or students. We got to see and learn about the Eiffel tower, Napoleon's Tomb, The Louvre, Ecole Militaire, Alexander III Bridge, and the most expensive hotel in Europe where the winner of the Tour de France gets to stay! I highly recommend doing a Fat Tire Bike tour if you are ever in Europe, it was so much fun and the perfect way to see the city.

When we finished the bike tour we decided to walk 669 steps up to the second floor of the Eiffel tower! This was harder than I thought because there were some people that looked pretty out of shape inline so I thought it would not be too tough. Well, 669 is a lot of stairs, but we made it! There was an iceskating rink on the Eiffel tower too, and of course beautiful views of the city. We headed to the very top by elevator and when we got there it started pouring rain, which actually made it a really cool view.

By the time we got back down the rain had stopped and the sun came out. We went to go check out the high end shopping. It was ridiculous. Every designer you could possibly think of were all on the same street in Paris. We went to an overpriced dinner near there, where we enjoyed the best french onion soup I have ever had and the worst nicoise salad I have ever had. We made it safely back to our apartment that night without getting lost.


The weekend was very fun and romantic! It was so great seeing Kai and it made me wish we had studied abroad in the same place, but I am headed to London to celebrate my birthday this weekend and get to see him once again!

Cooking, Pisa, Lucca, Wine tasting, and Chocolate Festivals.. I love Italy!

Well the title gives you a quick update about my week here in Italy. It was amazing! I guess I will jump right into it and tell you about the first thing. On Wednesday night my friend Angela and I did a cooking class. One of the great things about Syracuse University in Florence is that they offer all kinds of extra-curricular activities for students to do. So Angela and I thought we would take advantage of it and sign up for a cooking class. We went to the cooking class at 6:00 and started the long process. First I learned to make tiramisu, one of my favorite desserts and is so simple to make! The ingredients are simple just like every Italian dish. We just used eggs, sugar, marscopone cheese, espresso, amaretto, and biscuits. After the simple part was over I learned how to roll pasta. We made ravioli from scratch! This is something I never thought I would do. To be honest, I don't know if I will ever do it again because it is a lot of work. Luckily I didn't get put in charge of kneading the dough because that looked way to difficult. But I got to roll out the pasta, and then we stuffed it with our spinach, ricotta and parmesan mixture, and sliced it. Yes, that sounds easy but it was actually a lot of work. We also made homemade butter sage sauce, tomato sauce, roasted red pepper sauce, angel hair, and linguine! After our hard work of cooking for two hours, we all got to enjoy our creations. My favorite was of course the ravioli and tiramisu, but I tried the other pastas at that sitting. I was so full after! What was so great about the class, was that our instructor taught us a lot about the food that made us appreciate it and made us more knowledgeable with Italian food.

Some fun facts I learned from our cooking instructor..
-The word Salary comes from the word salt because people used to pay each other in salt
-Ricotta is not actually cheese because you have to have at least 30% fat to be considered a cheese and Ricotta is only 5% fat. Riccotta comes from the leftover fat from Pecorino cheese. It is called Riccotta because it means re-cooked! Pecorino is called Pecorino because it comes from sheep's milk and the word for sheep in Italian is pecore.

Angela and Me rolling the dough

Making the Ravioli

Here are mine and Angela's, not perfect but not bad!

The final product!

and of course the Tiramisu

Friday, I was able to go to Pisa and Lucca with my art history class. Pisa was fun because I got to take a picture where I looked like I was holding up the leaning tower of Pisa, but besides that it wasn't too exciting. Lucca on the other hand was amazing. I want to live their someday. Apparently so does Tom Cruise because he is possibly buying a Villa there soon. Lucca is a place I want to go back to and run or bike around the walled town.

Holding up the Leaning tower of Pisa

Jumping for joy in Lucca

On Saturday, I went Wine Tasting in Pazano in Chianti, another place I wouldn't mind living. I went with a student tour program called Florence for Fun. We had two Italian tour guides that spent the day with us by taking us on a two and a half hour hike all over Chianti. This was my favorite part of the day. The weather was perfect and Chianti was gorgeous. It looked very similar to Northern California! After the hike we got to go to the Villa of the wine maker and have a fresh meal with different types of wines. Lorenzo, the man who makes the wine explained to us in Italian what each wine was like, then we had it translated to us by our tour guide. We had three different types of wines with parts of our meals. Then we finished with their dessert wine which was disgusting. After that they told us we had to try grapa because the Italians think it helps people digest their food. So we took it like a shot and it was probably one of the most disgusting things I have ever had in my life. I think if you gave me that and rubbing alcohol, I wouldn't know the difference between the two.

Sampling the Olive Oil.. I bought a bottle to take home

Danielle, Carly, and Me..All from CU

Lorenzo telling us about the Chianti Classico

A fun fact from Lorenzo, the winemaker..
-The most expensive part about producing Italian wine is the cork!

Today, I went to the Chocolate Festival in Florence. It was unbelievable. About 10-15 vendors come and set up huge displays of chocolate in Santa Croce. It was amazing how much chocolate there was! I tried arrancia ciocoloto, ananas ciocolto, truffle di coco, e truffle di pistacchio (Chocolate orange, chocolate pineapple, Coconut truffle, and Pistachio truffle) all which were phenomenal and so different than the types of chocolate that we eat in the states.

So much CHOCOLATE!

Chocolate tools

"I Love You"

This week was a great Italian experience. I learn more and more about the place and culture everyday and grow to love it more and more everyday. On Friday I am off to Paris to see Kai for Valentine's day!

Venezia is Bellisima!

I did it! I completed my first weekend of travel to Venice this weekend. The weekend started off by realizing that our train tickets were not from the main station in either Florence or Venice, so this was our first test of travel. We figured out how to take a one euro train to the station we were leaving from and were able to get on the train to Venice and we were off! When we got to that station we had to figure out how to get to the main station in Venice. This station was very small and it was late at night so we couldn't find where to purchase our tickets. Then we saw the train we needed to get on and without a ticket just jumped on. The man came around checking tickets, and I just decided to look confused and give him a very sad face telling him that I will pay right there. As we were getting off the train he just let us all get off and ride the train for free! We then proceded to take a fairy to our "hostel" which ended up being the most adorable bed and breakfast in the best location!

Friday morning we woke up, and were told we were getting breakfast served to us. Thinking we were getting an American breakfast, after missing it so much, we were very excited. When we got the breakfast, it was cookie, hard rolls and Nutella. I don't understand how the Italians eat this kind of food for breakfast. We headed to San Marcos square, picking up a toothbrush for me on the way. As we walked into the square, I was amazed by how beautiful the church was, and when we walked in it I was in awe. I never thought that I would be so amazed by a church, but the whole inside is covered in gold and the most amazing art.

After we visited the church we headed to the Gugenheim in Venice. All of my friends here have majors that somehow focus around art so they were in love with all of the works of art. I felt like a snob because I thought all of this modern art looked like something I could have done. Modern art is just something I don't really understand so it was difficult to really be amazed by it all.

For dinner that night, we found a random little trattoria, close to our house and away from the main tourist areas. When we walked in there was about a 10 minute wait. The people felt terrible so handed us some sparkling wine while we waited. When we sat down we ordered lots of seafood for dinner and appetizers! The waiters also gave us a liter of wine for free, and then a special discount when were all done. The staff treated us like we were celebrities.

The next morning we headed to the outdoor markets which were so fun to be around and see all of the Italians shopping for their fresh fruits, vegetables, and lots and lots of fish! Then we hopped on a gondola with a cute boy that showed us around Venice. He asked where we were from and all of my friends here are from California so he proceeded to sing Katy Perry's song "California Girls" as he rowed us around Venice.

Later that afternoon my friends and I went to the top of the bell tower and saw all of Venice. It is such a beautiful place and it is hard to believe people actually live there. My friends and I decided to do some shopping and go get a glass of wine. I don't know what was going on, but we walked into a restaurant where we were once again treated like royalty. We each just ordered a glass of wine and we got a free appetizer of Bruschetta, our own individual plates of mozzarella and bread, a free bottle of wine, and free bellini's. Not to mention they played a California playlist for us when they found out we were from California. We each payed four euros for all of this!

My weekend in Venice was such a fun one and a great way to learn how to travel through Europe. I highly recommend going there if you are in a group of 6 girls because you will be treated like Royalty!

A few quick updates

I just realized I haven't written much in my blog lately so here are just a few updates. Last Friday I went to Assisi, which is about 2 and a half hours away from Florence. This is a gorgeous ton with a beautiful church that is painted with Fresco's dedicated to the Life of St. Francis, or San Francesco. It was a very cute town and fun to see Monks walking around everywhere. The only problem was it was about 30 degrees and snowing/raining, so it was hard to enjoy the town completely because no one was prepared for this weather. Also this week, Nona came to town. The adorable 83 year old Nona, or Grandma, of my host family has been staying with us all week. She is such a stereotypical Italian Nona. She reminds me a little bit of Kai's Grandma, with her very humorous strong-willed personality. On Monday, I found out I have tendonitis  in my heel from all of the walking I have been doing in non-athletic shoes. So, I have a comfortable pair of new walking shoes and I think my heal is getting better. No extreme physical activity for me until it does though which is always hard for me! Last but not least, I am off to Venice today for the weekend! I am talking my first ever train ride (besides the Polar Express of course) and am getting to Venice at about 9:45 tonight. I am also staying in my first hostel! I will tell you all about my adventures in Venice when I return on Sunday.

Starting to figure it all out..

After one week of living in Florence, I am starting to figure it all out. While I am still not a pro I am better at living here than I was a week ago. The things I have mastered so far:
1)If you have ever been to Florence you know that the cars are crazy! The first day of being here I would stop at a crosswalk and wait about 5 minutes until the cars would stop. But now, I just close one eye and cross! The cars will stop.. I have learned this from my host family and all of the other local Italians. You just have to be forceful that you are crossing the street and cars will stop. According to my Uncle Bob I need to find nuns because everyone stops for them, but I think I am doing ok without the nuns.
2) I started Italian on Monday and am beginning to learn the language. I decided to order a coffee this morning just because I was proud I could say "Passo avere un caffe regulare" and the man understood me and I got exactly what I wanted. While I am no where even close to conversational Italian, I am beginning to learn the basics.
3) I have successfully booked my first flight using ryanair! We will see how I do when I actually have to take the flight, but I am officially going to Barcelona for spring break. All of my other travels are still in the process of being decided. But so far it is looking like Paris for Valentine's day weekend and London for my birthday weekend!
4) I now know some of the history of Florence and all about the Medici family, that have a lot to do about Florence's past. I also learned the story of The David and many other statues! I learned the reason that the Fleur de lis or the Gilo is everywhere is because France really helped Florence out many years ago and therefore Florence has the symbol of France everywhere.
5) I now know about the Prime Minister of Italy, Bertalone, and all of the trouble he is in for using underage prostitutes and lieing about anything. According to my host family Clinton is a god compared to Bertalone. However, he still has 3 more years and will most likely stay in office for that long.
6) I found and joined a gym and will be going to Italian bodysculpting today. So we will see how that goes! I also figured out a great running path and was surprised to learn that many people in Italy run!
7) I have figured out that the bread, wine, cheese, and olive oil just taste better here. If it is the cheapest bottle of wine, it will still taste good.
8) Most importantly, I have figured out how to twirl spaghetti!!!! For the first time in my life, I twirled my spaghetti instead of cutting it into small pieces! This is a huge accomplishment for me..

What I have yet to figure out is how the Italians are all so skinny

Some things I've learned about the culture.

The best part about the studying abroad experience so far is living with my host family and learning so much about the Italian culture. There are some major differences between our culture and theirs, and then just some things that I didn't know about.

1) Lunchtime- For the Italians, lunchtime is family time. Most of the shops are closed from about 1-3:30 so that people can go eat their lunch with their family. Today I ate lunch with my host family and they do the same thing that they do for dinnertime. They sit down, eat a meal starting with pasta, and then protein and vegetables, and then they all talk for about 45 minutes. After this, the day continues. I told my host sister that in America we never do this, and she was surprised to hear this.

2) Marriage-I asked my family when people in Italy get married. Despina responded by saying, "Like never" haha. Apparently the economy in Italy is bad right now so people won't marry until they can buy their own "flat," in other words, Italian people want to support themselves before they get married. Right now, that is hard for them to do.

3) Living at home- The idea of living with your parents at the age of 26-30 is awful in the United States. However, here it is completely normal. People will live with their family until they can fully support themselves which sometimes takes a while. Yesterday, we drove by a castle and my host family told me their friends live there, but not just their friends. In the castle it is their friends, and the parents, the kids, the cousins, basically it is like when I go to the lake in Indiana and living with that amount of people all the time.

4) The Media- It is funny to me how the Italians watch the same shows and movies as us, but in Italian. I have watched Glee everyday with them. Last night I watched Invictus with my family. We also watched the Italian version of American Idol, where they pretty much sing American songs.

5) Healthcare and the Government- Yesterday, Despina asked us my roommate, Jillian, and me if we voted for Obama because the Italians really like him. And yes, we both did. We were talking about how some people don't like him because they expected him to get us out of the huge mess Bush left our country in instantly. She agreed and said it's not like he can do magic. Then we started talking about healthcare and how Italian healthcare is free. She was telling me that she can not even imagine living in a place where you have to pay for healthcare because what if you are sick and need help. The Italians have that thought right.

6) Italian Breakfast- In Italy they basically eat sugar cookies (like the kinds that Peppridge Farm makes) and they have Un Cafe. When my family went to New York they said that they could not find any breakfast cookies, whereas here they have a whole aisle for breakfast cookies. I told them that nobody eats cookies for breakfast in America, and that that is basically a little kids dream. Despina said she can't imagine eating eggs, meat, and bread before lunchtime.

7) Living in a country with the Pope- The family told us that living in the country where the Pope lives is sometimes difficult. The reason for this is because they can't change the laws for certain things. For example, people that are gay will probably never be able to get married here, or at least not for a long time. Also, if you can't get pregnant they can't do things such as in vitro fertilization.

These are just some main things that I have already picked up about the culture since I have been here! I will tell you all about what else I learn. Tomorrow classes start and I am taking a class called "Family, gender in culture in Italy," so I am sure I will learn plenty about it!