Chillaxin

Hello all! Don’t worry, this post won’t be ridiculously long like the last one! It has been pretty chill around here lately….the mood I mean, not the weather thank goodness!! The weather has been absolutely perfect and gorgeous here! Finally!!

Thursday was the start of the beautiful weather! We had to get up early to make up our Italian class we missed on Wednesday for the Immigration office so that was kind of a bummer, but kind of a blessing in disguise too cause when class was over it was around 11 o’clock so the sun was out and we noticed how nice it was! Caroline and I stopped to get some take-away food from a restaurant (fried chicken sandwich and slice of pizza) and took it back to the apartment and ate outside on our terrace. It was around 65 degrees outside so we decided we were gonna tan on our terrace. We got on shorts and tank tops and soaked up the sun! I got a tiny bit burnt and the first tan lines of the year! Yay!! I am so tired of being pale like a ghost! It was so nice! Then I had to leave for wine class, and wasn’t too impressed with any of the wines that night so it was kind of uneventful. Then we went out to Duomo for about an hour to say good-bye to the 3-city kids cause they would be leaving to move to Rome for the next month. So now our group is cut in half which is so bizarre! Anyway, I just went back home and called it an early night after that. It was a good relaxing day!

Friday we got up early to go to the market in hopes of buying really cheap clothes, but sadly had no luck. It is so hard to shop for clothes here! Everyone is like a stick! Straight up and down, no curves, and super skinny! I don’t get it! Even my really small roommate Jenny, has a hard time shopping here! It’s a little bit ridiculous! Then we came back and napped a little then Caroline and I went to get pizza from Voglio and ate it at the park. It was the perfect day for the park! We wore capris and tanks and laid out and listened to music and read books. It was so pretty out! It’s like all the colors were enhanced. The greens were greener, the yellow yellower, and the air was so fresh! It was beautiful! We spent a few hours there and headed back for another nap! Haha….they were much needed! Then our roommate Jenny had her roommate from back home here to visit for the weekend. Her name is Callie and she is studying abroad in Florence so it worked out really well. She is a lot of fun! We all went out to dinner and I didn’t like the pasta dish they served us so they gave me an entire pizza! It was fabulous!  Then we stopped for gelato on the way home. None of us really felt like going out that night so we all stayed in and chilled together. We watched dumb youtube videos like ‘The Duck Song’ and ‘The Llama Song’ and ‘Berries and Cream Starburst Commercial’ and now we quote the videos to each other all the time! It’s hilarious!

Saturday we slept in! Then Caroline and I cleaned the apartment while Jenny and Callie were hangin out with the nuns. It was yet another beautiful day so we had all the windows open and were just jamming to music. It was great! Then at around 1ish we decided we would go to the beach and put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea!

 No big deal! It was awesome! We all brought our suits but it was much cooler by the water, still beautiful, but not warm enough to swim! So we had a little picnic on the beach with cracker, fruit, and wine. The sand there was like nothing I have ever seen. It was black. It was sort of beautiful. The black sand made it look sparkly and exotic. It was also some of the softest sand I have ever felt.

 It was just perfect. The water was pretty frigid. It kind of reminded me of being on Lake Michigan but with black sand. It was really nice.

 We decided to walk around a little bit (the town was called Montalto) and explore before we went back and we stopped for cappuccinos. We got back around 6PMish. Then we stopped at the supermarket cause we were all out of food! We were starved after not really eating all day! As we were making food I burnt myself. Last time I cooked potatoes I sliced open my thumb, and this time cooking potatoes I splashed hot oil all over my arm. It was just lovely….not. I have like a mutant looking burn marks now on my arm. It’s real attractive. It hurt really bad too! Stupid potatoes!! Anyways…we went out to Duomo for a little while later. Jenny wanted to show Callie were we usually hang out. It was a good time as usual, but it was weird only being with a few people there. Not only did the 3-city kids leave but a huge group of people went to Barcelona for the weekend (including my other roommate Sara) so there were not that many Americans left in Tuscania this weekend. It was nice, but it was weird.

Then today, Sunday. It has been chill too. The weather is still fairly nice. It is a little cloudy out but the temperature is pretty nice. I’m sitting in the kitchen writing this in my shorts and t-shirt so it is definitely not freezing anymore!! Yay! Then we spent a few hours studying and hangin around the house. Callie left today and Sara comes back tomorrow so things are getting back to normal.  Other than that though, it has been chill and relaxing and pretty perfect lately. It’s a really good feeling!  It is amazing to me how much of an effect the weather has on my mood. I have been in such a good mood and things like the slow internet did not bother me so much cause I was just in such a jolly, happy mood. I like when I’m like that. It’s fantabulous!

Until next time….Ciao! 

Mile Long Update

Okay, warning: this is going to be a very, super, extremely long post…just so you know! To start off, Wednesday and Thursday were very chill. Nothing really happened. All I did was go to my Italian class on Wednesday and my wine class on Thursday since cooking was canceled and the winery field trip was canceled. Nothing too exciting. BUT in wine class we tasted this really expensive sweet wine and it was absolutely delicious! It was my favorite wine ever! It tasted like straight up juice. It was great. I will look up the name for you later cause I can’t remember the name off the top of my head.  Then on Thursday night I skyped my mom for about an hour and a half and it was really nice to talk with her! I also found out that my brother gets to come visit me in April and I am absolutely ecstatic about it!! It is gonna be so awesome!! I can’t wait! Haven’t figured out the details yet, but that will come later on!! Yay!!......Now it’s about to get long…

Friday:

We finally got to go to Viterbo!!!! Yay!! We left at 8:30AM and arrived at around 9 or 9:15 ish. Viterbo is so pretty! (of course, just like every other place here!!) and it was really nice to finally see something other than our tiny tiny town! The first thing you see is the mall!....yes, mall! It was called Iper Coop. We couldn’t go in it right away cause we were really there for a tour of the town basically. So Massimo (one of our advisors) took us around town. We did a walking tour and I thought it was only gonna last maybe 2 or 3 hours……nope…..it was more like 6 or 7 hours…and I was wearing my boots that have a 1-1.5 inch heel (i know its not that much but after hours and hours it felt huge!). My feet were definitely hurting by the end of the trip. We went to the center of the town and went into 3 different churches and all of them were absolutely beautiful! It blows my mind to think of how old these churches are and to think of how they were able to build such intricate buildings with towers and sculptures and just so much detail! You can look at one building for an hour and still not notice everything about it. It was so fascinating to look at. Viterbo is very colorful too. Again, lots of shades of yellows and peaches and oranges.  This town is slightly more modern than Tuscania but is still very old and traditional. 

They had high end shops and electronic stores, even a Game Stop! It is interesting to see which brands are “big enough” to stay in their English name and which ones are translated. Like, Disney and McDonalds and Vans and Barbie are all in English but other brands are translated into English but still have the same logo. There was a McDonalds in Viterbo but we couldn’t find it in the time that we were there. Massimo let us have an hour break to do what we wanted so we went shopping a little bit and grabbed some pizza. We saw a random guy dancing in the street and we stopped for some yummy pastries! I got a giant croissant with whipped cream in it and it was so good! It was like eating a happy rainbow! No joke! Fabulous!! Then he took us around walking some more and then he was gonna take us to a local museum but he said we had to rush there and it closed in like 30 minutes so we just asked if we could go to Iper Coop instead and he said yes, but it was a 30 minute walk. At that point we didn’t care we just wanted to see a mall! When we got there we had about an hour before we had to catch the bus so we got to roam around by ourselves. It looked just like the malls at home, but with Italian names! The Italian “wal-mart” was inside of it too which was cool to walk around also. We also saw a street performer and oh my gosh, it was hilarious! He was an older man and he was just dancing in the middle of the street! It was so funny to watch haha. Then it was time to go back to Tuscania and when we did I had about 45 minutes to spare so we went to the park and my friend Francine brought her guitar and played and sang songs.

 She is an amazing singer! I can’t wait til she comes out with her first album and I can tell everyone that I am friends with her when she is famous! She really is amazing! Then I went to the volleyball game with Abby and Carly. It was the pro game and the guys that we know from Duomo were playing. There really are good too, I was skeptical cause I thought they were just saying they were really good cause it was “bar talk” but no, they really are good. I was pleasantly surprised! It was a lot of fun and only about a mile walk to get there.

 After the game I was finally able to go home! It was an exhausting day!! We did so much walking, I was getting blisters on my feet and I was so achey that night! BUT of course we had to go to Duomo that night! We all got dressed and we were so excited to go out cause our roommate Sara went out with us finally! Since there was no more snow she decided it was warm enough to go with us! Yay!! So we all went out and Duomo was kind of dead that night. It was mostly the Americans which was fine, it was still a blast! My friend Flowers made a CD and gave it to the bartender Alessio to put on and he did just for us! It was hilarious to watch him dance to the American music! It was so much fun!! We got back around 3AM. While we were on the bus to Viterbo we also decided that we would go to Pisa on Saturday as a last minute decision, so we did!

Saturday:

So, we had to wake up by 7AM to meet for the bus to Tarquinia at 8AM. It was a rough morning. Let’s just say that when we woke up we could still feel the…effects…of last night at Duomo. Hadn’t completely worn off yet, but we were not gonna let that stop us! So we hopped on a bus to the town of Tarquinia to catch a train at 11:30AM to Pisa. All together there were 6 of us that went. It was me, Caroline, Carly, Abby, Cameron, and Matt. When we got to Tarquinia we stopped for cappuccinos and pizza (breakfast of champions) which were absolutely delicious, then just found a nice sunny area to chill out in until it was time to catch the train. The train ride was 3 hours long and we got to Pisa around 2:30ish. Pisa is an awesome city! When we got there we went straight to the hostel we wanted to stay at because we heard it was a special hostel for teens and college students and we didn’t book the rooms ahead of time, so we wanted to make sure we got a room to stay in. When we found it we were all amazed! It was so brightly colored with neon colors with black accents and looked like a lot of fun. 

We had to get split up, so Caroline and I were together, Cameron and Matt, and Carly and Abby got a room together with another random French guy haha. It was kinda funny. Anyway, we dropped out stuff off and asked the front desk how to get to the leaning tower and cheap places to eat and we were off! We started to walk around and it smelled like moldy butt right around our hostel. It was pretty gross, but as we kept walking the smell went away, thank goodness! We grabbed some pizza….again haha, but this pizza was sooooooooooo amazing! It was round like we are used to in America and it was soft and the crust was big and puffy and it had just the right amount of cheese and sauce and it was just, ugh, so good! It was only 4 Euro for the whole pizza so we just split it up so it was really cheap for all of us to eat! By this time we were all starting to feel better and getting out second wind! We went back to the hostel after pizza cause when we got there earlier it was too early to officially check-in so we did that and made out beds then finally ventured out to find the leaning tower of Pisa!! The lady at the desk at the hostel said it was about a 30 minute walk to the tower so we started to book it to make sure we could get good pictures before it got dark out. We walked through the heart of the town and it was gorgeous! It is so different from out tiny town of Tuscania.

 The streets were filled with people and there was so much noise and so much going on everywhere you looked. It was like going from a small town like Belleville to a big city like Chicago! It was great! There were so many stores and small restaurants to eat at outside and street vendors. Everyone is walking in a fast pace and it was just awesome! Both sides of the street were filled with buildings 3 or 4 stories high and filled with all sorts of energy! Then we are walking and all of a sudden we can see the top of the leaning tower!!! It’s like it just pops out of nowhere! We all got so excited to see it! We sounded like such tourists! It was such an incredible sight to see! The Leaning Tower of Pisa is definitely my favorite building and piece of architecture I have ever seen! It is so amazing and mind boggling! It leans about 2 mm more every year and the top of the tower is moved over 4 feet more than the bottom of it! It is so fascinating to learn about!

 It was also comforting to be there because as soon as you are in that area you see all types of tourists and it didn’t make me feel so out of place. It was so nice! Every now and then we would hear someone speak English and it would take a while to register at first cause we were like “oh, wait! I know what they said! I understood that!” It was funny. There were also lots of Asian tourist groups which are always fun to see haha. We wanted to go up in the tower but you have to book that in advanced and since our trip was a last minute decision we couldn’t do it, but at least we got to see it and take typical tourist leaning tower pictures! We had to take pictures where we are holding the tower up and on the other side where we are pushing it over! It was awesome. The leaning tower is just so cool to look at, it almost looks fake! It’s like looking at a picture cause you just cant believe that it can actually exist, this tower that you’ve seen in so many movies and so many pictures, it just blows your mind! Then the Cathedral and Dome right next to it are equally amazing! We were able to go inside the Cathedral and it was gorgeous in there! It was incredible too with how many tourists there are and how loud it is outside that as soon as you step inside, no matter what language you speak, everyone knows to be respectful and not be loud and not talk. It was amazing. It was like something comes over you in there and you just feel so calm and at peace. It was beautiful! The dome was also amazing, but we could not go in cause they were closing, but by this time the sun was going down and there were so many clouds in the sky and it was the perfect background setting for the tower and dome and Cathedral. I still can’t get over how amazing and beautiful it was there.  It baffles my mind.

Of course we all had to by touristy souveniers too! I bought a post card, a shot glass (that was leaning!! Haha), and a magnet all for only 5 euro! I was pretty excited for that! Then we decided to walk back to the hostel rather than take a bus cause we wanted to see the town of Pisa at night and it was so amazing….of course! They had icicle lights hanging between the buildings and all the stores were lit up and people selling roses to couples all over. It was so pretty to look at! We were all absolutely exhausted by then so we decided that we would take a little nap before going out for dinner and drinks afterwards. As we were walking back we noticed a McDonalds and we just had to stop to get French fries! It was so nice to finally see a McDonalds!

 It was really funny to see though too, like everything was slightly different looking and their slogan is something like “The taste of America” and had a bacon cheeseburger called the Chicago Burger haha. Great, now all of Italy thinks that is what every American eats all the time! Haha oh well, we didn’t care we just wanted fries! They were heavenly tasting! I love them! I got a medium which is like a small in America and their large is our medium. It was weird but I didn’t care as long as I got some! It was delicious! But since I hadn’t had processed food like that in over a month, I could feel it tearing my stomach apart as soon as I ate my first fry, but it was totally worth it!! Then we walked back to the hostel to take a little nap before going out later. Then…..that awkward moment when the hostel is way more comfortable than your apartment…yeah. The bed was so comfy and they had the heater one, ugh, it was great! Then we went out to eat at a place that is known for their pasta. I just got penne pomodoro. It was delicious! Then we walked around but none of us really felt like experiencing the night life there since we were so extremely exhausted from walking around all day so we just went back to the hostel for bed time!

Sunday:

We woke up at 7AM to catch our train at 7:45 and we were back home by 11ish.  At about 2:30 in the afternoon I had to leave to be in the Carnevale parade!!

 It was so awesome! It was really cool to see the float that we helped build all finished up! Originally we were gonna dress in red, green, and white colors and be on the other float, but it was easier to dress as farmers to be on the float we helped build. It was a lot of fun! It was me, Meesh, Amy, Allie, and Kelsie and then a bunch of little kids and their parents on the float with us. We threw confetti to the crowds and it was great seeing our friends, both American and locals, while we were riding on the float. Once the float parade was done, they threw like a huge party in the center of town. Everyone was dressed up in costumes and they had Carnevale treats. It was a blast! Everyone was there! There were people dressed as cowgirls, devils, angels, cows, movie characters, it was like Halloween all over again! Bright colors everywhere and elaborate masks, everywhere you looked it was like a fairytale! It was beautiful to look around! It was so much fun! My feet and legs were absolutely killing me though!! I was starting to feel exhausted! I had done nothing but walk and stand all weekend and I have about 8 blisters on my feet and shin splints! It was totally worth it though!!

So basically, to sum up my weekend I went to Viterbo, came back, went to volleyball game, went out, Went to Tarquinia, went to Pisa, went to Tarquinia again, came back, rode on a float in a parade, celebrated Carnevale, then finally slept. I’d say it was very successful!

Monday:

Ugh! Monday! I hate Mondays! So I woke up and I was definitely sick. I could feel it coming on, on Sunday morning but thought it was just cause I was tired, nope! I am actually sick. My head felt about 10 times its normal size, my nose was clogged, my throat hurt, my voice was going away, and to top it all off, I had a fever! Greeeaaaat, I am sick in Italy! Just what I wanted!! If I were at home I would have skipped classes, but since I am here and we are only allowed 2 absences no matter what, I decided I needed to go to them. My first 2 were okay, nothing too special or difficult, but then I had my cinema class…dun dun dun! I got my essay back and of course, I got a C+….she must hate me!! I did a pretty good job on the essay and I think it deserved a grade much better than a C+ but whatever. So I was pretty upset about that and then we had our first quiz in that class which I was absolutely terrified for!! I studied really hard for it especially since it was only 7 questions and all short answer and usually that is good for me, but this teach is out to get me so I was worried. When we got to class and got the quiz I felt pretty good about it. It was not as terrible as I was expecting but everytime I think I do good on a quiz I usually end up doing bad so lets hope that is not the case this time! Fingers crossed!!! So the cinema class was not helping me feel any better and when I got home my roommates literally yelled at me and told me to go lay down in my bed and I was not allowed to leave cause they refuse to get sick! I thought they were kidding but no, they were totally serious! They even offered to make me my food and bring it to me, they really didn’t want me to contaminate the house. It was kind of a bummer cause I like to be around them when we are all at home and I felt like I was missing out when I would hear them laughing in the kitchen. I was feeling really terrible though so I guess it was good I stayed in bed.

There were a few good things that happened on Monday though! I got a 25/30 on my Italian quiz…yay! Also, we have to go to the immigration office cause a law recently changed here and we have to go there for some documentation stuff and we were supposed to go on Tuesday morning at 7AM…so I would have had to wake up at like 5:30 to be there on time, but my appointment got changed to Wednesday at 8AM instead! Thank goodness!! Tuesday is my day off and I was definitely looking forward to sleeping in especially since I am sick! Then my moms package and 2 valentines day letters came!!!!! I was so happy and excited you have no idea!! I had to pay 25 euro to get my package though cause of some tax but it was totally worth it! She sent me my stuffed animal (TA), my Boy Meets World DVDs, shampoo/conditioner, and then she surprised me with a t-shirt, Justin Bieber valentines, and a new Justin Bieber toothbrush cause my other one broke!! My mom send the most perfect packages ever!! I started to cry when I got it cause she sent a card in it that was hilarious and cause I was so happy I got the package and cause I was stressed about my cinema quiz and cause I wasn’t feeling well, I was so emotional. I was being such a girl on Monday! Haha I was just so relieved to get the package and to have my stupid stuffed animal!!! Ugh, everything is so much better after getting that, so thank you mama!! Wuvoo!

Tuesday:

So much for sleeping in. I was feeling so terrible sick that I woke up at around 8:30AM. I felt horrible. I decided I needed to go out and buy juice and medicine. So IO had one of the advisors write down on a sheet of paper what I needed to buy and she told me to just hand it to a phamacist and they will take car of it so that is exactly what I did. The pharmacist gave me some cold tablets that dissolve in water, sorta like airborne, and gave me some throat spray. I took them immediately! Then I decided I would just lay in bed all day and watch my Boy Meets World. I took a little nap and started to feel better. The medicine is already starting to work its magic! It is wonderful! I was able to take a nap and still breathe through my nose which seemed like a miracle at the time. It was wonderful!

Since I was feeling better and it was the last night of Carnevale, I decided I would go out with everyone. Café Del Duomo was having a Carnevale costume party so we all went there.

 We all had masks on and everyone else there was dressed up like it was Halloween. Halloween is my favorite holiday so it was so awesome to me! All of the bartenders were dressed as smurfs! It was hilarious! Alessio was papa smurf and he actually looked kinda creepy haha. Then there was this group of people that wore all white masks and looked really scary, like I couldn’t even look at them cause they were slightly terrifying! One girl was dressed as the black swan, there were lots of nerds, and some were the blues brothers. It was so cool to see everyone dressed up! Duomo cleared all the tables out of the bar and made it into a dance floor. It was so much fun to dance around and act silly! We did not stay out long though since we had to get up early for immigration tomorrow and I was sick still. Also my roommate Jenny got sick too. She was really mad about it. She almost didn’t come out either but she figured she would regret not going out on the last night of Carnevale in friggin Italy, so she came out for a little while too. It was a good time. We were home before midnight and I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow cause I was so exhausted! It was a good day though..

Wednesday:

Yay for immigration. Ugh. Okay actually, it was not that bad. We didn’t have to ride the bus to Viterbo since there was only 8 of us and were able to fit in the van so that was kind of nice. Then we got the immigration office and they took 2 pictures of us and took our finger prints. Then we went to the police station for more finger prints. The guy doing the prints was very aggressive and looked a lot like Tarzan and Fabio haha it was funny. At first when he grabbed me I wasn’t sure what he was doing so my body stiffed up I guess and he took my arm and shook it and smiled at me and was like “what wrong? Relaaaaaaax” haha it was so funny! Anyway, after about a million finger prints we were all done, and we were done early so we asked Massimo and Francesco to take us to McDonalds. Oh wow, I got a burger there, and oh wow, I was craving one so bad, and oh, wow, it was declicious! I love eating something when you’ve been craving it cause it just tastes heavenly! Loved it! Their sizes are so much smaller here, but it was fine cause I was so full after  having it! Then Massimo took us back in his cute little red car. He is so funny. He was crackin jokes all day with us!

When we got back I definitely took a long nap. I think it was about 4 hours long. Yup, 4 hours, but I needed it and it felt amazing! Don’t know how I am gonna get to sleep tonight but at this point I don’t care! Then since last week my cooking class was canceled, we did that lesson today which was fresh pasta!! It was awesome! I always wanted to know how to make pasta! It was really easy and simple too, I was surprised! And mom, I can make gluten free kind just for you cause I asked him about it tonight! Yay me! So I was working with Sara and Francine to make spaghetti and then there were 3 other groups.

 We made 4 or 5 different dishes and I ate 2 of them! And they were both delicious!! We also made 3 different sauces and a giant cheese dish that looked like a casserole! It was a great cooking class!

 Next week we have the seafood unit and our first quiz, so that’s not gonna be fun for me. We are having it on Monday night to make up for missing last week. Monday is gonna be a long day for me. Italian from 9-10:40, Sketching from 11-1:30, Cinema from 3-5:30, then cooking from 6-8:30. Yup, long day! Oh well, I will just rest up this weekend then!!

So there is my super long update. Again sorry it took a while but I didn’t have my computer all weekend and then I got really sick and was tired all the time and couldn’t do it! Congrats to you if you read this whole thing haha, personally I would have just looked at the pictures and skipped the novel I wrote! Anyways, I am feeling a little better. I can sort of breathe through my nose now. My legs are still super achey from all the millions of miles I walked this weekend/week, and my blisters are starting to bruise….whoopee! Oh, and I forgot to mention that on Monday night I sliced open my thumb when I was chopping my potatoes. It went through my nail and everything. So I have some lovely bruises and cuts and scars now from this weekend. My roommate Jenny was in Florence all weekend and said it was amazing, so I cant wait to go there!! Then this weekend her friend is coming here to stay with us. It should be a lot of fun! But anyway, I will stop talking so that your eyes can take a break from reading. I will not let this much time go between updates next time I promise!!

Until next time……ciao!

My Apologies

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while! I have a lot to tell you, so the next post is going to be extremely long!! Im writing it out now and am hoping to have it up tomorrow or by Thursday. I didn't have my computer with me all weekend and now I'm sick with a fever and throat thing so I've just been too tired, but I am definitely working on it! Promise!!

Until next time...Ciao!

Finally made it out!

Okay, so it's a rough start to the week so far! It is still cold, duh, and nothing is going right.
Monday was the worst! Okay so first off I couldn't watch the Grammys and I am an avid award show watcher and it really made me upset that I couldn't watch it here! Then I had to wake up early for class....but I do that every Monday and Wednesday so it's not that bad (oh, [sidenote] we played a game where the teacher split us in 2 groups and we had to pick a celebrity and my team chose Johnny Depp and we had to say what was in his suitcase in Italian words and who ever thought of more won, and our team won! of course, it was hilarious)

(it says: "Johnny Depp: a book, a pen, boots, a cellphone, a hat, drugs, beer, red wine, caroline, a guitar, a dress, pajamas, Sydney, Jenny, a jacket, a leather jacket, sandals, a scarf, laundry, a shirt, a mask, a bed, a costume, and a t-shirt)

...then I found out about a Circus that is gonna be in Viterbo this weekend and I made plans to go, but the plans already fell through, so no Circus for me anymore. Then I paid off my lab fees so I'm feelin pretty poor right now. Then I went to get dinner with my roommate Sara. We went to this place that has pizza and some American food and I was really craving a breaded chicken sandwich and they are really good there cause Ive had them before there. So I order one and they ask if we want ketchup and mayo and last time it came on the side in packages so I just said yes cause I can bring the packets home for later. Well, this time they put it on the sandwich. Not okay. I HATE mayo. I was so upset. I scrapped off all the breading on the top and couldn't eat the top bun. My sandwich was ruined. Then I had my cinema class. I really dislike this class. I feel so dumb in it. It's really more of a history class and I really suck at history. Nothing seems to stick in my mind even if I find it to be interesting I can never seem to remember or grasp any of it. So we started another movie called Open City and it was made in the 40's and is black and white AND with subtitles and I can only handle one of those at a time! (yeah yeah i know, im picky!). So, all the people in this movie looks like same and sounds the same so I can't keep the characters apart so the story line doesn't make much sense to me. I couldn't grasp anything about it. I kept asking my roommates what was going on and they were like "Are you even watching the movie?!" and I think they thought I was really joking but i was completely serious! I don't understand the movie at all! It is boring and dumb. Then during the movie I kept trying to check my email and I couldn't get anything to load cause the internet sucks so bad here! It literally took me about an hour and 20 minutes to finally get it loaded and when it does get loaded I have an email with my grade to my homework in cinema over the last movie we watched (Novecento) and I got a C+. I was so upset. I made like 2 paragraph answers and she said I didn't put detail into my answers! My roommate got an A on hers. By this point I started to break down. I just started to quietly cry. Looking back at all the individual problems it seems dumb and silly, but at the time it was all comin at me at once and was overwhelming and crying was all I could do. Then I chowed down on Nutella to cover up my self pity! Then I went to bed thinking "tomorrow is Valentines Day...and I'm in one of the most romantic countries in the world...and I don't have a valentine." It was not helping my situation at all. haha oh wow, it was a rough day! (wow, i just re-read all of that and it really does sound dumb, but at the time it wasn't so hush!)
Today was better! It was good except for the fact that my cooking class got canceled tomorrow cause our teacher is sick, so no fresh pasta tomorrow night, AND my winery field trip for my wine class on thursday got canceled cause of the snow! UGH! That was really annoying to find out. BUT those were the only upsetting things today and I got over them fast. I didn't have any class today and went on a trip to a town called Montebello!

 I'm not sure it can really be claimed as town though cause it is so tiny!! Only 50 people live there....yes, fifty, you read that right. We talked to an artist and saw some of his work. It was amazing and beautiful! He was working on this one painting for 2 years and still isn't dont with it. It is gorgeous! It is filled with people, both important to history and those that are not. It starts in the middle with the beginning of time and is more modern towards the edges. It is really cool!

Then he took us to a small museum with another artists work who died in 1988. It is gorgeous and the paintings were huge! I think the artists name was Cesetti if I remember correctly. I am so glad we got to go to this little town!

Then we came back and I went shopping with my roommates. After cooking dinner we had a major study session! We have our first quiz in our Italian language class in the morning so we all got together and made charts and flashcards and our roommate Sara is in the advanced class so she helped us with the stuff we didn't understand. We made games and songs out of it too. Then we took a study break and made another silly dance video. It was so fun! I decided I was gonna lip it even though I didn't know the song and I made a microphone out of a knife and a roll! It was hilarious! If ur friends with me on facebook I was tagged in it, so you can watch the embarassment! It was so worth it though! Now I am gettin ready for bed and will be sleeping with my study guide cause when I was little my mom told me that if you sleep on your notes you will remember the information. Thanks mom! Wish me luck! Oh! I almost forgot! Today this guy, Connor, her is like one of 5 boys here out of 30 of us and he bough all the girls chocolate and told us all individually "Happy Valentines Day!". He is such a sweetheart! He is just so nice! And he got my roommate Jenny a muffin cause he thought she was a vegan and didn't think she could have real chocolate! How nice is he?! Ugh, I melted a little. What a nice guy!

Until next time....Ciao!

(p.s. i have many more and better quality pics from Montebello that I will be putting on facebook later this week!)

Cold n Lazy

Well, surprise surprise, more snow!! I still can't get over the fact that Tuscania is having snow for the first time in 20 years when I get here...grrrrr! But, it is pretty to look at.

I am just tired of being cold all the time. I expect it when I go outside, but when I am inside, I expect it to be warm, but no, I don't have that luxury! The only place that seems to be warm is the library at school...convenient huh?! Well it would be if their library was like the libraries at home. But no, nothing here is normal (okay, normal is a very open term but whatever). The library at school is like the size of a bathroom to a master-bedroom. It has a few computers and 3 shelves of books, and one is taken up with DVDs. Oh, and it has a printer/copier and that is about it. So it's not the best place to hang out in.
Anyway, Friday was a pretty lazy day....well the whole weekend was pretty lazy. Okay, who am I kidding?! It was extremely lazy!! It was pretty much blizzard-ing on Friday. It looked so terrible when we looked out the window all day. The wind was crazy and mixed with snow. It looked like someone was sifting powdered sugar over the town and we were right under the sifter. All 4 of us were convinced that we were not gonna leave our apartment on Friday. So we didn't! A few of our friends were teasingly hassling us to go out with them on Friday night. Caroline and I are both people pleasers and kept feeling bad for not going out with them especially since it is the second to last weekend that our friend Meesh will be here because she is part of the 3-city program so she will be leaving soon to go to Rome for a month then to Venice for the last month. Caroline and I kept going back and forth on whether we should go out or not and eventually our other roommate Sara was feeling bad for us and told the other girls that she was not gonna let us leave the apartment cause the weather was too bad and that they were bullying us too much. Haha! I love Sara! She is like the mom of the group...but a super cool mom! And her NY accent just makes it that much better! So we stayed in and the 4 of us roommies watched Bridesmaids. Such a good movie! They probably hated me cause I was saying like every line with the movie since I've seen it so many times and my friends and I back home recite the lines to each other all the time! Then we had a good heart-to-heart roommate talk. Then I skyped my parents for a little bit! yay!! I love getting to talk to them! All my roommates wanna come home with me now too cause they think my parents are awesome after hearing our skype-ing haha we also wanna go visit Sara in NY cause her parents (and good looking brother...who is my age btw haha) seem awesome too!! We will definitely remain in touch and stay friends when we get back!
Saturday was pretty much the same way. We didn't really do anything during the day. Just cuddled up in our beds trying to stay warm. Oh, but our landlords son, Daniele (sp? but you pronounce it like danielle-ay) came over Saturday morning and offered to go out and buy us groceries!!! How adorable and nice of him! He also was like "I have car that drive in snow" in case we wanted to go anywhere! Then he swept off our stairs for us!! I just love our landlords and their son!! They are so awesome and precious! Later on though, the wind had calmed down and it wasn't deathly snowing so we went out with our friends since we didn't on Friday night. We went to our friends apartment for a while then went to Duomo (duh!). It was a good time as always. The usual crowd of locals and Americans were there! Then the butcher was there!!! It was hilarious!

Caroline was freaking out and so were the rest of us to be honest haha it was really funny! Then we decided to go to the bar in our backyard (Mr. Kat). It was only me and Caroline, Jenny, Connor, Kelsey, and Allie that went there. We were only there for like an hour or so then we went back home. Our stairs were so hard to go up and down! They are marble and when you add snow and ice to them, they are almost impossible to walk on! Almost wiped out a few times, but (knock on wood) I haven't fallen yet here! Yay me!
Then today was super lazy again...something new and different. I sat in bed and watched a few DVDs and worked on some homework. Didn't really do anything other than that. Never changed out of my PJs either haha. This week though it is supposed to warm up to the mid to high 40's so hopefully we won't be so lazy this week! A lazy week isn't so bad every now and then though. I am very excited for my cooking and wine class (btw, i finally uploaded my wine pic from last time!)

 on Wednesday and Thursday this week, and also we are going back to work on the floats for the parades this week tomorrow, Tuesday, and Thursday so that will be fun (and finally uploaded a pic from working on the floats)!

Then this weekend is Carnivale here in Tuscania so there will be plenty to do! I think this week is gonna be awesome! I am really looking forward to it! I can't wait to tell you all about it!
I miss all of you! It sucks that my only real form of communication is through Facebook and sometimes skype is the internet isn't sucky that day. I am tryin to get Facetime on my computer cause that seems to work better than skype but we will see! I'm hoping my family gets a chance to come over and visit me. I would love to show them around my home away from home and just show them how beautiful it is here! I really think that everyone should put 'visiting Tuscania, Italy' on their bucket list. It really is one of a kind!

Until next time...Ciao!

Second Week flew by!

Wow, the second week of school is already done. It is crazy that it is going by so fast!  The cooking class is still my favorite class! Wednesday we had our veggie unit. We made a pumpkin/potato soup topped with small pieces of bread and bacon with parsley. It looked really pretty but I tried it and I didn’t like it! (of course haha) 

Then we made a zucchini flan and I didn’t even try it cause it was green and smelled weird, but everyone else seemed to like it! Then we made our own onion rings! I helped make those and I actually liked them. I usually hate onions and don’t really like onion rings but they were super delicious!

 Our teacher also opened 2 bottles of white wine for all of us to have throughout the class period. He is so fun and awesome! I love my cooking professor. Next week we will learn to make fresh pasta. Don’t worry guys, we have to write all of the recipes down and I plan on typing them all up and making a small Italian cookbook when it is all over! I am very excited for the fresh pasta though, that will be awesome!

Then yesterday I had my second wine class. Still love that class too! I also love this professor too! He was so nervous last week since it was the fist class and would sit there and shake his legs from nerves and stumble over words, he was a lot better about that yesterday though, it was so cute though! Yesterday he kept making jokes and when he laughs he cries everytime and it was hilarious! We got taste 3 wines last night. One white, one rose, and one red. I liked the rose the best. We had a very short lesson on how to properly taste them and said we will go further into detail in the following lessons. Next week we are going on a field trip to a vineyard. I am so excited for that too! Next week is gonna be great!! I also had to make up my Italian class yesterday that was canceled on Monday. So we had to get up early unfortunately. But yesterday was not terribly cold thank goodness….still cold though!

Oh! And yesterday I went to the butcher shop with Caroline and Sara. The real reason we went is cause Caroline is crushin on the butcher and he just happens to live right across the street from us. So we went and I can definitely see why she likes him! Haha what a cutie! He kept making fun of me and Caroline cause we can’t speak much Italian and Sara is really good at it. It was fun to go in there and talk with him and he wants to learn to English so it works out good! We are gonna invite him to dinner eventually too haha we will see how that goes! Speaking of dinner, I made a pretty delicious meal last night…potatoes, chicken, and cauliflower! Yum!! (it was a nice break from so much pasta)

This morning was supposed to be the make up trip to Viterbo since we missed it last weekend because of the very small amount of snow we got, but this morning when we woke up it looked like a blizzard outside. There is maybe 2 inches of snow so of course the trip got canceled yet again! We couldn't even go to market today either. We are gonna be snowed in today and probably tomorrow. The weather is supposed to get into the upper 40's in the middle of next week though thank goodness! I don't mind the cold but I do mind the cold when it's freezing inside! The whole 'not having the heater' thing on is absolutely killer when it is this cold!! It's crazy! Looks like me and the roommies will be chillin with each other this weekend!

Oh! And here is a pic of doing snow angels with the volleyball guys from last weekend!

Until next time… Ciao! 

Okaiiiiii!!!!!

Okai! (say okay with an obnoxious Italian accent!) My roommates and I are obsessed with saying it that way now...you all are gonna hate me when I get home, I'm gonna say random Italian words and other words like Okai and phrases like "ya sistahs ass!" cause all of these different people here from around the country have different accents and different things are fun to say! You all are gonna make me come back to Italy cause you're gonna be so annoyed with me haha.
Anyway, today was my day off. I slept until almost 1PM...I haven't slept in that late in I dont know how long! The reason I slept so late is because my roommate Sara and I are in the cinema class together and watched the required movie last night. It is called Novecento (means 1900 in English) and it takes place in Italy during the Fascism take over from 1900-1945 and shows the differences between fascists and socialists and follows two males through the years and one is a peasant that works on the farm that belongs to the family of the other boy. The movie is over 5 hours long. She told us it was 3. It was the uncut version and had actual killings of animals, very explicit scenes, and was very disturbing to watch. I went onto IMDB and Wikipedia after to research it and it had a rating of NC-17 for a long time. I hated watching this movie. It could have been good if it was 2 hours and didn't have such unnecessary scenes that had nothing to do with the plot line. It was terrible. They tried to be dramatic and artsy with it and I think they went way overboard on it. I also received my homework back and got an 85% on it! I was so upset!!! I did an awesome job and back in the states I would have gotten extra credit on it, but not here. It wasn't good enough. The teacher is hard to understand and makes taking notes very difficult in class. I am considering dropping the class, but I have not totally decided yet. It is very frustrating.
On a lighter note....no school today so at 4PM today I met up with a few other people and we went to a warehouse and helped build floats for Carnivale on Feb. 19th. It was a lot of fun!! We made paper mache flowers and animals. Then afterwards they invited us to be part of the parade on top of the floats!! So I am gonna be part of the float that is like a 'political satire' float and will dress in red, green, and white with a mask and wig on and just dance on top of the float! It's gonna be so much fun! We are going back a few more times to help with decorations this week also. Another good thing is that this extremely good looking guy named Gino drives us there all the time! I sat shotgun with him on the way home with him...it was great! All I need in Italy is Alessio and Gino! haha so funny. They are great!
That was pretty much my day. Tomorrow is my Italian class and cooking. Then we have to make up our Italian class we missed on Monday, on Thursday this week. So we have to wake up early, no fun, but oh well! Oh, and it is snowing again right now!!! UGH! it is so cold here!!!! I was not prepared for this and neither are any of the locals! Hopefully is warms up soon!

Until next time....Ciao!

Weekend Update...

Weekend update time!...yay! okay, so I just have been busy and been tired so I haven’t updated all weekend…sorry! The majority of my time this weekend has been spent snuggled up in layers and layers of clothing trying to stay warm in my apartment! It has been snowing here non stop (which still isn’t very much compared to at home) and they haven’t had snow fall here since like the 80’s or something crazy like that!! So naturally, it waits until I am here, but I’m not letting is damper my time here!

 Currently I am wearing 2 pairs of socks, leggings, shorts, AND sweatpants, 3 shirts, a zip up hoodie, AND a regular hoodie on top of that WITH the hood up. Yeah, it is freezing. I did not come equipped for this weather and they only put the heat on for a few hours a day because energy and heat is so expensive here. You know it’s gotta be cold, if I am complaining about the temperature! Anyway, here is my weekend…

Friday:

So we were supposed to go to the town of Viterbo but because of the snow all of the busses were shut down. So after learning we couldn’t go there we were gonna go to the local farmers market that they have every Friday morning. As we were about to leave my roommate Jenny said it was not worth to leave because there were hardly any vendors there and the weather was just absolutely freezing and terrible between the wind and the snow combined. So we stayed huddled up in the apartment all day instead. We were really bummed about Viterbo being cancled because I guess they have a mall there and other good stores, but we will venture out there eventually on our own. No big deal!

Basically all we did was hang around and yell at our internet because the connection absolutely sucks!!! It seems to work really well at night time for some reason even if all 4 of us are on it at the same time. It is really weird and really frustrating. I got some of my homework done too which was good. Then we started to get bored. So we decided we should clean the apartment! I cleaned mine and Caroline’s bathroom, Caroline and Sara cleaned the kitchen, and Jenny was in charge of sweeping and mopping the house. It was all pretty equally split up and everything was all sparkly and fresh smelling, so that was nice! Later on we decided that we would venture out and brave the cold. A friend of ours (Francine, from NY) was going to sing at a local bar called San Marco and we really wanted to go support her. Well we found out about 20 minutes before she was going to go on and it takes about 15 minutes for us to walk there so we didn’t get dressed up or anything, basically just put on jeans and put my hair up with my glasses on and left. It was a chill night. Well we got to San Marco and no one was there and finally people showed up, but Francine wasn’t feeling well so she never came out. We ended up leaving San Marco to go to Café Del Duomo (of course!) instead. It was so much better there! The usual crowd of the locals and the Americans showed up and we all had a good time. Met a new player on the volleyball team too and we never pronounced his name right so we just call him Valle (pronounced val-ay)! Haha We just give nicknames to everyone here! It was a good time as usual! Oh! And we made Valle and Alessio (not bar guy, volleyball guy) make snow angels with us on the cobblestone streets! It was hilarious!

Saturday:

Another freezing day spent cooped up in the apartment…well only for the first half of the day. We braved the cold for a little while and went shopping. First to the supermarket because we were all low on food, then we went for a little retail shopping! I bought 2 pairs of earrings for about 10 euro and …wait for it…my first pair of boots!!!! I was so extremely excited to finally find boots that fit me!! The box said that they were 20.90 euro, but the lady only charged me 15 euro! SCORE!!! I am still super excited over these boots! So, naturally I wanted to show them off that night! So we decided to go to Duomo…..of course! Duomo is just always a good time!

The usual bartenders weren’t working but Arianna and Alessio came to hang out as customers that night instead of working. The bar was doing “Sambuca Flambe” shots. Basically they were shots of something…on fire! Okay so here is what you do: pour the shot, light it on fire, then put ur hand on top of it (flat and straight) until it suctions to your hand, then you keep hitting it up and down until it unsuctions and you drink the shot then take a straw and suck up the gas from the empty shot glass. It is intense…wow! The initial taste is really bad but the after taste was really good. It kind of tasted like black licorice, but it was good.

It was a lot of fun to hang with Alessio when he wasn’t working and he was going around taking lots of pictures of everyone there too so it will be fun to see those when he posts them. Of course the volleyball guys were there (Alessio (a different one),  Valle, Simone, and Claudio) so they were fun as always! We were there for a pretty long time, and it was totally worth walking in the snow to get there! I know I say this a lot, but I just love all the people here. They are all just so kind and nice…of course I can’t understand half of what they are saying so they could be making fun of us, but they seem nice! Haha The locals are all nice and all the people that are studying here too for school! It is great! I was also feeling really good with my new boots on too! J

Sunday:

Another freezing day. Had lots of homework to catch up on so did lots of reading most of the day. I was able to skype my dad and one of my best friends Alyssa for a little bit today. It is always nice to see familiar faces! Then did some more homework and just hung out with the roomies all day. Then late at night Caroline and I went to Carly and Abby’s apartment to plan some trips. We have a group of 8 that is going to Greece from March 2-4 (perfect place to celebrate my birthday!!!!) and then a group of 5 of us to go to Dublin on St. Patty’s day for a few days and then going to Venice for 4 days and that will take up our spring break. I am so pumped for these trips!! The flights and hotels are all booked and it is official!!! It is going to be so epic! A few of us might make a day trip to Paris too sometime. Basically ride a train there and back in a 24-30 hour period and just sleep on the train. It will be a long day but that way we can go to Paris without it costing tons of money. It will be so much fun!

We are trying to live stream the superbowl right now too (this is being written on Sunday night if you can’t tell) but our internet sucks! I am currently typing this on Word because we are trying to give all the internet to our roommate Sara because she is from NY and is a huge Giants fan! The streaming isn’t working so well so she is on Facetime with her mom and she has is pointed at the TV! Haha not the best quality but it is better than nothing! So all of this is being written now (Sunday) but will not be posted until Monday. It is weird because on Word I can see just how long this post is…..super long…sorry bout that! Haha We also got a call from school today that our Italian class at 9AM is cancled for tomorrow because our professor can’t get here because of the snow in neighboring towns. It is fun that we don’t have to wake up early, but now we will have to make up our missed class probably on a Friday which is a bummer, but oh well, I can deal! Oh! And today was also national Nutella day, and I am officially addicted to it now…it is really good on potato chips! Perfect salty/sweet snack! Love it! You have to try it! We can’t keep Nutella in our house! It is absolutely nuts! Oh, and fun fact…they don’t have commercials here on TV shows. Like, they play the whole episode pretty much and after the show is over, they play the commercials, it is really nice and convenient actually. I think the US should consider this idea for sure. Okay, that was random and didn’t have anything to do with what I was talking about but that was my fun/random fact of the day. I should probably go before I keep rambling though and I am super exhausted! Sorry for such a long post!!

Until next time…Ciao! 

PS ....Monday real quick....class cancled....finalized Greece/Ireland/Venice plans! yay! and watching a weird movie in Cinema class...I will let you know how that goes! Still freezing too!.....whoop-dee-doo...

First School Week...Check!

WooHoo!!! I survived my first full week of school!! I really enjoy all of them! Today I had my Wine and Culture class. It was really awesome. The professor is so adorable (i feel like i say that about all the people here, but it's true!). He kept saying how nervous and emotional he was cause it was the first day of class. He is excited that we are a big class (8 people...yeah, real big -__-) because he has a higher budget for the wines that we taste in class so he can get us the expensive wines! (Score!) We have a few field trips planned for wineries and our first one is on Feb 16th I believe, so that should be fun! We will learn where different types of wines come from and which areas make what and the history and how to taste them and tell what they are made of and the proper etiquette. It will be really interesting! We will be tasting up to 4 wines every class too! Today though, we just went through the course material and began our first lesson on history and he gave us a full glass (not a taste, but a full glass) of "special wine" which means it is bubbly. It was soooooo good! It was a white wine and a tad salty, but I am not a wine drinker at all, but this was so good! I think I don't like wine because I have only had the cheap kind (you can get wine here for 0.79 euro!!) but the kind we had tonight was more expensive and it was delicious! I might be a wine girl by the time this class is over with! There are 4 other people in my wine class that are also in the cooking class with me so I think they mesh well together too. I am very excited for the rest of the semester. Before I had the class today I was considering dropping the wine class because then I wouldnt have class on Thursdays either which would mean the only days I would go to school would be Monday and Wednesday but I think this class will be way too much fun to drop! For our class materials we got this cardboard suitcase type box filled with 3 wine glasses for us! So cute! I love it!
The rest of the day, before and after class I spent at the apartment doing homework. I did take a break for some gelato with a few friends (Abby, Connor, and Brian) and this time I got half chocolate and half nutella/cream. It was so yummy!! Looooove the gelato! I never ever crave chocolate at home and I feel like that is all I'm craving here! I eat the chocolate gelato, nutella, and coco puffs! Its so weird, this is not like me at all! The night was spent with 2 of my roommates, Caroline and Sara. We just hung out in the kitchen and acted silly all night. We listened to music and made funny videos and took silly pictures on the webcam...stuff that I do back home with friends so it was nice to do that here too. We had a lot of fun...didn't spend money, didn't drink, didn't go out, and it was an absolute blast! They are so funny to hang out with. Our other roommate Jenny was out with a few other people to go meet up with some nuns. Yes, nuns. She went to church the other day and met them and a few of them are American so they wanted to get together and I guess she is having a good time with them because it is after midnight and she still isn't back yet! It was a very chill day, but it was a lot of fun!

Tomorrow we were supposed to go to the city of Viterbo where they have a small mall and a store similar to Wal-Mart but Italy is having record low temperatures and its gonna snow all day tomorrow. It hasn't snowed in Tuscania in like 20 years or something they said. So naturally, it needs to snow when I'm here. That's okay though, usually Tuscania gets snow only in the morning and it melts by noon because we are right next to the beach and it tends to be a little warmer here, but all of the surrounding cities get feet of snow! The schools are all canceled for tomorrow already in all the towns. Everything shuts down pretty much when it snows I guess. Not like at home at all! But since we are not going to Viterbo at 8AM anymore we are sleeping til 10 then going to the local market for cheap produce and hopefully I can buy a pair of boots there. We will see! I also need to figure out the ATM situation tomorrow. I guess the english language one is broken so I will have to bring Sara with me to help with the Italian language one! It shall be interesting that's for sure! Saturday will be a busy day though. We might try to go to Viterbo on our own on Saturday then the volleyball game then maybe a Disco Tech that night. Haven't really decided yet. There is a group of us that are trying to go to Greece on my birthday weekend in March which would be so amazing!!! Birthday in Greece?! yesssss please!! Then we were thinking of Dublin, Ireland for spring break or maybe London. Not sure yet, still gotta work out the details. I am very excited either way though! Ahhh! What a good, chill day! :)

Until next time...Ciao!