So would a double major in art history and English with a minor in Sociology help me get into the FBI?? It would probably help if I could speak Spanish and Italian fluently, plus more languages. This is something I should get on! A major in sociology would have helped me more lol. How do you get into the FBI in the first place?
SO SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH ME! UGHHHHHHHH Today I slept until 2:50! I went to bed around 2. That means that I slept almost thirteen hours. Thirteen hours! I was late to my 3:30 class by 5 minutes because I woke up 40 minutes before I was supposed to be there!
I am trying to get everything in order to come back to the States. I have been contacting people at UF, people at OU, printing registration requests, etc. etc. I am trying to find out if my Netflix DVDs have been returned so that I can put the account on hold. I need to change my address with OU. I need to change my address in general. I'm not really sure what my new address is. If I move to ATL, can I change my address to an apartment there and still be a Florida citizen?
Last night I made spaghetti with tomatoes and artichoke hearts. If anyone ever finds a recipe for this that calls for 1 cup heavy cream and 2 tbsp. butter, cut both of those in half. It was so heavy I wanted to puke. And I have leftovers! ugh.
Life has become really stressful lately.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sad News
I just found out the Tyler Rowland, who I went to Maclay with, passed away on Friday night. He had cancer. The last I'd heard, he was in remission. I had no idea it had become a problem again. He was really smart. He was on NPR when he was still in high school. He was really ambitious, from what I could tell, and he really was interested in exploring science. He figured out how to make some kind of useful alcohol from kudzu. I wasn't very nice to him in high school, though I never particularly thought I was being mean to him either. I always just thought I was joking around, but I know he didn't like it.
This is the second member of the Maclay family to die in less than a year.
More people I know have died in the last twelve months than have my entire life, I think. And three of them have been my age. I would like this to stop.
The worst thing is, right before the very first death, I was just thinking to myself how fortunate I was that I didn't know anyone my age who had died, in comparison to a lot of other Maclay kids who know people that have died in car accidents. Should have knocked on wood.
This is the second member of the Maclay family to die in less than a year.
More people I know have died in the last twelve months than have my entire life, I think. And three of them have been my age. I would like this to stop.
The worst thing is, right before the very first death, I was just thinking to myself how fortunate I was that I didn't know anyone my age who had died, in comparison to a lot of other Maclay kids who know people that have died in car accidents. Should have knocked on wood.
An Announcement
I thought I might mention, to anyone who is not yet aware, that I will more than likely not be living in Tallahassee this summer. This sucks to the 9th degree, and I am really not happy about it. But it seems most likely. I will probably (??) go to Gainesville and take classes at UF for the summer. This is a good thing. I can continue Italian, maybe take a sociology course, an English lit or an art history. This will help me graduate on time. Also, now I'm thinking it would be sweet to become part of the FBI and chase serial killers, so I should start sociology ASAP. Lol, I'm not joking, I would really like to do that.
I would like to introduce to you ... my new layout!
I was really excited to get a new layout on Saturday night. I spent a really long time looking for one haha. After putting it up, we went to the boys' apartment to play beer pong, but really we just threw ping pong balls everywhere and tried to block each other. It was really fun. I fell asleep at 2 AM because I was reading the Cranford Chronicles by Elizabeth Gaskell. Her novellas are definitely not as good as North and South.
I had to wake up at 5 AM! I only had three hours of sleep. And you know what I did what that three hours of sleep? I climbed mountains!
We went to the five lands, or Cinque Terre. They are these five small towns that have hiking trails in between them. Some of them are really easy. The Via D'Amore is just a path. But the last two, on the way to Monterosso, are pretty difficult. I believe the book described them as being "fit for an Olympic athlete." They were like STRAIGHT up hill. We got to Cordiglia, and it said, Complementi! You've just climbed 382 steps. The last one was the worst for about 20 minutes, but then it got really easy and fun.
I'm going to tell you my history of falling. TOMBOLA! First off, I only do it on our little gite. I don't ever do it in Florence.
So... in Rome I fell twice. Once we were walking down a sloped pathway to get to the grocery and the ground was wet. I was trying to keep up, and my feet just slid out right underneath me. In the VATICAN, however, I fell for real. I missed a step and fell down like 5 more. It hurt really bad and I didn't want to talk to anyone afterwards because it freaked me out.
In Pisa, I straight up face planted. I didn't step up and so I fell flat on my face.
In Amsterdam, I fell off the road and twisted my right ankle.
I'm sure there have been others, but those were the most memorable.
While I was climbing down a mountain, however, I tripped twice. The one place you don't want to trip, and I did it. First, I was going to take a picture of Gina. We were on a cliff side, like three feet from the edge. I tripped over Pati's foot and went sprawling forwards. I almost died.
Second, we were climbing down the path, and it was all sharp rocks so we had to be really careful about where we stepped. There were a lot of people in front of me. My ankle gives out, I'm falling forwards... and Kevin grabs me by the backpack and pulls me back up. Thank you Kevin, for saving my life. And the lives of those in front of me.
I kept having visions of my ankles giving out just at the right moment for me to fall. The emergency number was 115. I had it down. There were trails where there was only room for one person to walk, and there were no railings separating us from the Great Beyond.
Even while it was exhilirating, fun, and awesome, it was also really painful. I had to take my prescription pain killers when I got home. I twisted both ankles numerous times, but particularly the right one. The bones kept smashing together. The two most frequent sayings of Saturday for me were, "OW!" and "Oh shit shit shit!" Kevin knew that when I said the second phrase, he should watch out for my life. We thought people being behind me was safest. But then it turns out that I can trip upwards too, so being in front of me... also dangerous.
Yesterday was Daylight Savings Time here. I hate daylight savings time! Get rid of it! I miss my hour! I woke up at 2 PM instead of 1. Today I went to a different class section because I went to bed at 2 AM instead of 1 AM and woke up at 10 20 instead of 9 20. UGHHHHHH my Italian teacher is really nice though, so it worked out.
Yesterday was also the first time I managed to find the Cascine, which is the really big park here. My main problem?? I thought it was on the Oltrano (the other side of the Arno (river)) and not on my side. ...Sort of a really big problem. It was really nice though. There's like a giant flea market, a fair, big fields to play soccer. I found a tree that was MADE to sit against. It had arms and everything. I leaned against it and wrote in my travel journal and watched people playing soccer. It was a really nice day. When it started getting dark, I went to the bank of the Arno and watched the sunset and just lay down in the grass. It was probably one of the best days here.
I can't believe we have four more weeks, three more weekends, and then I am back in the United States.
I had to wake up at 5 AM! I only had three hours of sleep. And you know what I did what that three hours of sleep? I climbed mountains!
We went to the five lands, or Cinque Terre. They are these five small towns that have hiking trails in between them. Some of them are really easy. The Via D'Amore is just a path. But the last two, on the way to Monterosso, are pretty difficult. I believe the book described them as being "fit for an Olympic athlete." They were like STRAIGHT up hill. We got to Cordiglia, and it said, Complementi! You've just climbed 382 steps. The last one was the worst for about 20 minutes, but then it got really easy and fun.
I'm going to tell you my history of falling. TOMBOLA! First off, I only do it on our little gite. I don't ever do it in Florence.
So... in Rome I fell twice. Once we were walking down a sloped pathway to get to the grocery and the ground was wet. I was trying to keep up, and my feet just slid out right underneath me. In the VATICAN, however, I fell for real. I missed a step and fell down like 5 more. It hurt really bad and I didn't want to talk to anyone afterwards because it freaked me out.
In Pisa, I straight up face planted. I didn't step up and so I fell flat on my face.
In Amsterdam, I fell off the road and twisted my right ankle.
I'm sure there have been others, but those were the most memorable.
While I was climbing down a mountain, however, I tripped twice. The one place you don't want to trip, and I did it. First, I was going to take a picture of Gina. We were on a cliff side, like three feet from the edge. I tripped over Pati's foot and went sprawling forwards. I almost died.
Second, we were climbing down the path, and it was all sharp rocks so we had to be really careful about where we stepped. There were a lot of people in front of me. My ankle gives out, I'm falling forwards... and Kevin grabs me by the backpack and pulls me back up. Thank you Kevin, for saving my life. And the lives of those in front of me.
I kept having visions of my ankles giving out just at the right moment for me to fall. The emergency number was 115. I had it down. There were trails where there was only room for one person to walk, and there were no railings separating us from the Great Beyond.
Even while it was exhilirating, fun, and awesome, it was also really painful. I had to take my prescription pain killers when I got home. I twisted both ankles numerous times, but particularly the right one. The bones kept smashing together. The two most frequent sayings of Saturday for me were, "OW!" and "Oh shit shit shit!" Kevin knew that when I said the second phrase, he should watch out for my life. We thought people being behind me was safest. But then it turns out that I can trip upwards too, so being in front of me... also dangerous.
Yesterday was Daylight Savings Time here. I hate daylight savings time! Get rid of it! I miss my hour! I woke up at 2 PM instead of 1. Today I went to a different class section because I went to bed at 2 AM instead of 1 AM and woke up at 10 20 instead of 9 20. UGHHHHHH my Italian teacher is really nice though, so it worked out.
Yesterday was also the first time I managed to find the Cascine, which is the really big park here. My main problem?? I thought it was on the Oltrano (the other side of the Arno (river)) and not on my side. ...Sort of a really big problem. It was really nice though. There's like a giant flea market, a fair, big fields to play soccer. I found a tree that was MADE to sit against. It had arms and everything. I leaned against it and wrote in my travel journal and watched people playing soccer. It was a really nice day. When it started getting dark, I went to the bank of the Arno and watched the sunset and just lay down in the grass. It was probably one of the best days here.
I can't believe we have four more weeks, three more weekends, and then I am back in the United States.
Friday, March 26, 2010
I've seen better days
This has been a relatively mediocre to just plain terrible week for most everyone here at Team 25 (and Kevin too... he's team 55, but he's over here enough to be Team 25.55.) Everyone seems to be having problems with housing, jobs, more housing, summer plans, etc. etc. My last three days have been not so good, and it's sad because I was so excited to get another card. That day I was just angry and frustrated. Yesterday I was just still a little irritated, but a lot of good stuff happened. Today has just been shit.
Dinner for Wednesday was a combined effort between Gina and I and the result was a delicious homemade hot potato soup.
Earlier that day I emailed Dad and asked him if I could go buy some new clothes. Call me an idiot, but I didn't think I needed summer clothes here. Apparently... I do. I also told him about my lack of jeans. So he told me I could go get some new clothes, which I partly took care of yesterday. Yesterday started out really well. I was early to Ren Art, which never happens. And then, Paola wasn't there! Jeremy taught it, and I love Jeremy! He took us to the Uffizi and we just looked at art and learned random stuff. I went straight from the Uffizi to H&M. I bought a really cute, slightly too big high waisted skirt, a new pair of shorts, and a shirt. I went to Zara and discovered why people love it so much. Now I love it too! Plus I got jeans for 15 euro! And a really cute shirt. Promod was slightly disappointing though. The whole reason I decided to ask was because they had a grey cardigan with a giant strawberry on the back and I loved it. I had tried it on two days prior. Only two days! But they were all gone, and I couldn't buy the one on display.
I have acquired a nice number of shirts with funny sleeves here. Funny sleeves seem to be the thing. I'll probably finish shopping on Monday. I need to buy summer shoes... my flats have got holes in them. I tried on a floaty, ruffly, bright multi colored shirt and H&M. I couldn't decide if I wanted it or not. I kept thinking how my hair looked like Botticelli hair, probably because the Botticelli's were supposed to be our main focus at the Uffizi (even though they weren't.) But even if it looked like it would have been nice in the Renaissance, it looked terrible yesterday. I think that was distracting me. I'll figure it out on Monday. It's not very me, it's not something you would typically see me in, but it is very nice.
Then last night we made homemade tacos again. Anyone who knows me at home knows that I abhor spicy. In Italy however... this is absolutely not true, I love it and I crave it. Last night they were so spicy Kevin's eyes were watering, our noses were running, and I loved it the whole time. We watched The New World with Colin Farrel, which was pretty good even though I had the overwhelming sense that nothing was really happening, even though I knew it was, and then we watched The Silence of the Lambs. In Italian, it's called Silenzio degli Innocenti, which means the silence of the innocent and doesn't really make sense. The word for lamb is agnello, so I don't know why they didn't keep to the title.
Today just wasn't that good. I didn't do as well on my Italian quiz as I thought I did, I mixed up venire and andare, and I felt dumb. More stuff happened that was also upsetting. I would rather live in Tallahassee this summer than anywhere, but the transient student deadline for FSU is up. UF's isn't, so I can try and take lessons there and that will get me closer to finishing my major. That would be good. I've also been thinking about taking some sociology courses.
Maybe I will go into the FBI.
It's been a lazy day. I finally ate my butterfinger that Elena sent me. I succeeded in almost watching an entire episode of Criminal Minds. Gina and I just spent the last 30 minutes killing the misquitos in her rooms, even going so far as climbing a ladder to get to them. We vanquished them all.
Tomorrow we're going to Cinqueterre. We reserved a hostel, only to decide to cancel it. We canceled it three days ahead of time and we never heard back from the hostel. So now I have to go talk to them and make sure they're not going to charge me. If they do, I'm going to have to contest it with Visa. Ugh.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
What you are now, I once was. What I am now, you will still become.
Okay, for any of you that have told me you can't figure out how to comment on this blog, that should be undone by now. I have just edited it so that anonymous people can blog, which means, not my followers (of which I have 5! how exciting!)
So last night was the CAPA apertivo! I brought my oreo balls, some people brought lasagnas, pastas, even chips and salsa. The restaurant where we had our welcome dinner provided papa al pomodoro, which is a delicious soup-like meal of tomatoes and bread all mashed together and cooked in a soup pot. When everyone was done eating, we went to the student lounge where the two Mikes played chitarra (guitar) and we all sang the lyrics. Lorenzo danced around and it was just incredibly fun. Then Alex, Gina, Kevin, and I went back to Kitsch, where we had Gina's birthday apertivo, and we met up with Megan and Renee. We thought they were going to be having a giant dolci apertivo, but they lied, so we didn't buy it.
There is a place here called Cafe BeBop, which I believe I briefly mentioned a post or two ago. We went back last night for the Beatles cover band, and it was really fun! It was less skeazy than other bars here because it is only half American, and the rest of it is Italian. This less skeazy quality did not, however, prevent me from having this conversation -
"Do you speak Italian? Parla italiano?"
"Not really. Parlo un po."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"...Yes."
"You're lying! She told me you don't have a boyfriend already!" (he points to Alex.) "You see, I'm asking because my friend, Simone, he likes you, but he doesn't speak any English."
"I'm not interested."
"I'm really sorry you're not interested, because he really likes you."
Oh Italian men. There must be good ones out there somewhere. There is a certain group of American women here who are married to Italian men, so they must find ones that don't creep them out to the extreme somewhere.
We also ended up at Red Garter last night. Gina and I wanted to kareoke "Spice Up Your Life!"
by the ever-classic Spice Girls, but the instant we got up there they started playing "Bad Romance" so we had to sing that. It's not that fun of a song to kareoke to at all, and my throat hurt something awful afterwards. We'll get to the Spice Girls eventually.
So last night was the CAPA apertivo! I brought my oreo balls, some people brought lasagnas, pastas, even chips and salsa. The restaurant where we had our welcome dinner provided papa al pomodoro, which is a delicious soup-like meal of tomatoes and bread all mashed together and cooked in a soup pot. When everyone was done eating, we went to the student lounge where the two Mikes played chitarra (guitar) and we all sang the lyrics. Lorenzo danced around and it was just incredibly fun. Then Alex, Gina, Kevin, and I went back to Kitsch, where we had Gina's birthday apertivo, and we met up with Megan and Renee. We thought they were going to be having a giant dolci apertivo, but they lied, so we didn't buy it.
There is a place here called Cafe BeBop, which I believe I briefly mentioned a post or two ago. We went back last night for the Beatles cover band, and it was really fun! It was less skeazy than other bars here because it is only half American, and the rest of it is Italian. This less skeazy quality did not, however, prevent me from having this conversation -
"Do you speak Italian? Parla italiano?"
"Not really. Parlo un po."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"...Yes."
"You're lying! She told me you don't have a boyfriend already!" (he points to Alex.) "You see, I'm asking because my friend, Simone, he likes you, but he doesn't speak any English."
"I'm not interested."
"I'm really sorry you're not interested, because he really likes you."
Oh Italian men. There must be good ones out there somewhere. There is a certain group of American women here who are married to Italian men, so they must find ones that don't creep them out to the extreme somewhere.
We also ended up at Red Garter last night. Gina and I wanted to kareoke "Spice Up Your Life!"
by the ever-classic Spice Girls, but the instant we got up there they started playing "Bad Romance" so we had to sing that. It's not that fun of a song to kareoke to at all, and my throat hurt something awful afterwards. We'll get to the Spice Girls eventually.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
I just got really confused when I read my opening sentence from the last post. I made that delicious quesadilla on Friday I think. I think. I am fairly sure? Yes, that sounds right.
I believe I just rocked my Italian quiz. I should probably go back to class, but the break seems to be continuing. When I get back, we're going to start learning the PAST TENSE.
I have an experiment that I have decided to conduct. I am NOT going to clean the apartment, and I'm going to see what it looks like in a week or so. I will only do my own dishes. I will only clean up big, obvious messes made by obviously me, like ganache on the counter or popcorn kernels everywhere. Do you know how hard it is to only clean specific parts of counterspace? It's not exactly easy. I'll stop cleaning out the freaking drain clogger. I will cease to sweep. I'm tired of feeling like I'm the only one that actually actually cleans. We have a trash schedule now, so the trash will always be done. But I will not wipe down the stove when it's covered in spaghetti sauce.
I have to go back to class.
I'll let ya'll know how this experiment goes.
I believe I just rocked my Italian quiz. I should probably go back to class, but the break seems to be continuing. When I get back, we're going to start learning the PAST TENSE.
I have an experiment that I have decided to conduct. I am NOT going to clean the apartment, and I'm going to see what it looks like in a week or so. I will only do my own dishes. I will only clean up big, obvious messes made by obviously me, like ganache on the counter or popcorn kernels everywhere. Do you know how hard it is to only clean specific parts of counterspace? It's not exactly easy. I'll stop cleaning out the freaking drain clogger. I will cease to sweep. I'm tired of feeling like I'm the only one that actually actually cleans. We have a trash schedule now, so the trash will always be done. But I will not wipe down the stove when it's covered in spaghetti sauce.
I have to go back to class.
I'll let ya'll know how this experiment goes.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Only 3 more weeks?! I never want to leave!
Geez, what's up!
I made a delicious Italian quesadilla for lunch. It was really fantastic. That night Pati, Kevin, and I went to the BeBop Cafe and listened to a Pink Floyd cover band. Then we went to Bigallo, met some people there, went to Amadeus, and danced for a really long time. Writing about bar hopping is pretty boring, unless there was something specifically awesome that happened.
Saturday I spent most of my time inside cleaning. I did take a little walk (a little 45 minute walk) to the Ospedale degli Innocenti to see the Della Robbia's. There was a protest going on about animals. I sat there for a while and watched, but I left when the protestors started beating drums. You don't want to be in a protest here - you get beat up. So I figured I probably didn't want to be a bystander near by either.
I went to the leather market and I finally got my new travel journal. 10 € baby.
That night I made a chicken parmesan burger. It was incredibly delicious. If you don't know what to make for dinner tonight, make this. I couldn't handle how good it was. Megan, Renee, and I started watching Philadelphia and it was really really good, but it was too scratched so we couldn't finish it. Instead we watched Domestic Disturbance with John Travolta, which was AWFUL. Such a disappointment after the goodness of Philadelphia.
Yesterday was Gina's birthday! We went to Piazza Michelangelo because she had never been before and just hung out. I made her a chocolate cake with a homemade ganache. We let it cool in the fridge while we went out to apertivi, which I hadn't been to yet. Apertivi is where you buy a drink and then get limitless food. It doesn't have to be an alcoholic drink, just a drink. There was a lot of ethnic food at last night's apertivi, which was very suprising. There just isn't a lot of ethnic food here. It was really delicious. The same place is having a dessert apertivi tomorrow, and we're going to go for that. I think they have cupcakes!
We went home and ate cake and she opened her presents. She cried, she was so happy. It made me feel really happy, because Renee, Gina, and I are such good roommates and I really love them and I wish we all lived in the same place back home, or that we all just actually lived here. We all just hung out and Pati stayed the night.
Tomorrow night is CAPA's apertivi and I'm making oreo balls covered in leftover ganache.
I made a delicious Italian quesadilla for lunch. It was really fantastic. That night Pati, Kevin, and I went to the BeBop Cafe and listened to a Pink Floyd cover band. Then we went to Bigallo, met some people there, went to Amadeus, and danced for a really long time. Writing about bar hopping is pretty boring, unless there was something specifically awesome that happened.
Saturday I spent most of my time inside cleaning. I did take a little walk (a little 45 minute walk) to the Ospedale degli Innocenti to see the Della Robbia's. There was a protest going on about animals. I sat there for a while and watched, but I left when the protestors started beating drums. You don't want to be in a protest here - you get beat up. So I figured I probably didn't want to be a bystander near by either.
I went to the leather market and I finally got my new travel journal. 10 € baby.
That night I made a chicken parmesan burger. It was incredibly delicious. If you don't know what to make for dinner tonight, make this. I couldn't handle how good it was. Megan, Renee, and I started watching Philadelphia and it was really really good, but it was too scratched so we couldn't finish it. Instead we watched Domestic Disturbance with John Travolta, which was AWFUL. Such a disappointment after the goodness of Philadelphia.
Yesterday was Gina's birthday! We went to Piazza Michelangelo because she had never been before and just hung out. I made her a chocolate cake with a homemade ganache. We let it cool in the fridge while we went out to apertivi, which I hadn't been to yet. Apertivi is where you buy a drink and then get limitless food. It doesn't have to be an alcoholic drink, just a drink. There was a lot of ethnic food at last night's apertivi, which was very suprising. There just isn't a lot of ethnic food here. It was really delicious. The same place is having a dessert apertivi tomorrow, and we're going to go for that. I think they have cupcakes!
We went home and ate cake and she opened her presents. She cried, she was so happy. It made me feel really happy, because Renee, Gina, and I are such good roommates and I really love them and I wish we all lived in the same place back home, or that we all just actually lived here. We all just hung out and Pati stayed the night.
Tomorrow night is CAPA's apertivi and I'm making oreo balls covered in leftover ganache.
Friday, March 19, 2010
I guess not a whole lot of cultural stuff has happened for me this week. I went to the Bargello and saw a bunch of Donatellos. I hadn't realized we got into that museum for free. Wednesday I went on a St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl and that was really a lot of fun. Jordan stole a big St. Patrick's Day Guiness leprechaun hat but he didn't want to wear it. I guess in the spirit of the moment I decided that I wouldn't look like an absolute fool if I wore it... and I wore it for the entire night. When I woke up the next morning I was like "What was I thinking!?" Oh well.
I did sleep through Ren Art, and so my Thursday was so much more pleasant than it normally is. I slept through, got up and ate lunch, did my laundry, took my own sweet time about life, went to CAPA and looked up recipes, and had Cross Cultural Psych. How cruel to see what my Thursdays could be like... only to know that I can never do it again.
So last night Kevin and I decided to try and make tacos. We made a homemade taco sauce and a homemade queso to go on the tacos, and all in all the project was a COMPLETE SUCCESS. They were so freaking good! I would post pictures, but my new SD card and my laptop aren't getting along. I'm going to have to find a way to post pictures on the internet using someone else's computer I think, or else no one will get to see the rest of my Italy trip until I get home.
Pati and I talked about doing something cultural today, but I haven't heard from her yet, and I've just been lazing around. I'll call her or fb her eventually.
I'm thinking about using my remaining tortilla shell to make a homemade quesadilla for lunch. It was so nice to eat such a good taco last night. Mmmm!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Random Note
To Those Of You Who Follow This Blog...
you should know that while it says I just posted an absurdly long post about cooking at 7:01 AM or whatever, I really posted it at 3 24 PM. Approximately 6 minutes before my Italian class.
you should know that while it says I just posted an absurdly long post about cooking at 7:01 AM or whatever, I really posted it at 3 24 PM. Approximately 6 minutes before my Italian class.
To Cook Something New, or Something I Already Have?
For those of you who don't know, I have spent much of my life in love with cooking. I can see how you wouldn't know this, as I went through a 2.5ish year period where I didn't want to cook because I was really lazy and almost the only thing I ever made was cookies, pizza rolls, and spaghetti. Not always, but almost always. Before that, you might never have realized it either because all of my cooking time was spent at Duncan's house so you never would have realized I was making anything since we ate all of it there.
Previous to that, however, I really enjoyed cooking. I didn't have a lot of variety in my cooking, but I loved it. The very first thing I ever made was scrambled eggs and I think I was around 7. I believe that even now, even when I absolutely hate eggs with a very large passion (though not products that have eggs in them... seriously, what a fallacy of an argument) I believe I make some mean scrambled eggs.
(Please do not bring up the case of my loving Egg Drop Soup. For one thing, I can't eat too much of it because it is too eggy. For another, do you expect me to be able to explain my taste preferences to you? Becauase I can't and I won't.)
Last summer in my sublet, I didn't get to make mad meals all the time because I was always doing school work :( Though we did have a big dinner one night with spaghetti and home made garlic bread and asparagus.
And last fall I didn't get to cook at all because the kitchen in my dorm was broken.
But here I am a cooking goddess! Our cooking utensils are incredibly limited. No microwave, no moka machine, no blender or hand mixer or anything to make the job easier. No measurement utensils, and not even a decent mixing spoon. I had to borrow Kevin's whisk the other day.
Last week I came up with the incredibly brilliant idea of making a menu. As in, each night would be planned out. I stuck to it pretty well, until I realized that it makes grocery shopping really not cheap.
Per ejemple... this was what I ate all last week.
On Monday, I made Minestrone. Ugh, it had kale in it, but it was really pretty good. I used a beef stock in it.
On Tuesday I had a rice and asparagus soup, only the rice sucked up all the water, so it was like a cheeseless risotto. And I used the Classico stock, and that's when I decided that cooking with stock is a gift given to us by the cooking gods.
Wednesday was my already posted about Chicken Noodle Soup.
Thursday I made risotto, which was really good and I ate every last bite of it, except the one bite I gave to Emily.
Friday I made homemade Chicken Fettucine Alfredo, which was good but I wanted it to be more fattening.
Saturday was Pati's meal night, and Sunday and Monday I ate out with Cheri and Kathy.
But I did make Oreo Balls on Sunday.
Now this week I was going to make spaghetti with artichoke hearts and tomatoes, potato soup, fried mozzarella balls with cheesy olive bread, Italian meatball soup, spaghetti and meatballs, beef lo mein, and a macaroni. I want to make these things really bad! Only I have some groceries left that I still need to use... so I guess I will be making a pesto fettucine tonight with asparagus.
But these will be the things I make soon! I have the brilliant idea of making a ton of meatballs one night and being able to use them for days. I'm thinking about making Beth's cheesy meatballs if I can make my own baking mix without a mixer.
But right now I DESPERATELY want sawmill gravy and biscuits, so I really hope that I can make this homemade baking mix recipe work!
In case you wonder what I do with all my time here (other than reading and cooking, which I think is what I do with most of it) I spend a lot of time at school. If you thnk that I am doing school work at school, you're wrong. I possibly spend 98.9% of my time here at school looking up recipes on websites to take them home and cook. I will quite probably buy a fancy Italian cookbook right before I leave (right before because they're not cheap) and when I get home I'm buying New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel and I was going to buy Naples at the Table only Cheri told me she will buy me that for my birthday. And when I get home, Mom better watch out! The Kitchen is Mine!
Previous to that, however, I really enjoyed cooking. I didn't have a lot of variety in my cooking, but I loved it. The very first thing I ever made was scrambled eggs and I think I was around 7. I believe that even now, even when I absolutely hate eggs with a very large passion (though not products that have eggs in them... seriously, what a fallacy of an argument) I believe I make some mean scrambled eggs.
(Please do not bring up the case of my loving Egg Drop Soup. For one thing, I can't eat too much of it because it is too eggy. For another, do you expect me to be able to explain my taste preferences to you? Becauase I can't and I won't.)
Last summer in my sublet, I didn't get to make mad meals all the time because I was always doing school work :( Though we did have a big dinner one night with spaghetti and home made garlic bread and asparagus.
And last fall I didn't get to cook at all because the kitchen in my dorm was broken.
But here I am a cooking goddess! Our cooking utensils are incredibly limited. No microwave, no moka machine, no blender or hand mixer or anything to make the job easier. No measurement utensils, and not even a decent mixing spoon. I had to borrow Kevin's whisk the other day.
Last week I came up with the incredibly brilliant idea of making a menu. As in, each night would be planned out. I stuck to it pretty well, until I realized that it makes grocery shopping really not cheap.
Per ejemple... this was what I ate all last week.
On Monday, I made Minestrone. Ugh, it had kale in it, but it was really pretty good. I used a beef stock in it.
On Tuesday I had a rice and asparagus soup, only the rice sucked up all the water, so it was like a cheeseless risotto. And I used the Classico stock, and that's when I decided that cooking with stock is a gift given to us by the cooking gods.
Wednesday was my already posted about Chicken Noodle Soup.
Thursday I made risotto, which was really good and I ate every last bite of it, except the one bite I gave to Emily.
Friday I made homemade Chicken Fettucine Alfredo, which was good but I wanted it to be more fattening.
Saturday was Pati's meal night, and Sunday and Monday I ate out with Cheri and Kathy.
But I did make Oreo Balls on Sunday.
Now this week I was going to make spaghetti with artichoke hearts and tomatoes, potato soup, fried mozzarella balls with cheesy olive bread, Italian meatball soup, spaghetti and meatballs, beef lo mein, and a macaroni. I want to make these things really bad! Only I have some groceries left that I still need to use... so I guess I will be making a pesto fettucine tonight with asparagus.
But these will be the things I make soon! I have the brilliant idea of making a ton of meatballs one night and being able to use them for days. I'm thinking about making Beth's cheesy meatballs if I can make my own baking mix without a mixer.
But right now I DESPERATELY want sawmill gravy and biscuits, so I really hope that I can make this homemade baking mix recipe work!
In case you wonder what I do with all my time here (other than reading and cooking, which I think is what I do with most of it) I spend a lot of time at school. If you thnk that I am doing school work at school, you're wrong. I possibly spend 98.9% of my time here at school looking up recipes on websites to take them home and cook. I will quite probably buy a fancy Italian cookbook right before I leave (right before because they're not cheap) and when I get home I'm buying New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel and I was going to buy Naples at the Table only Cheri told me she will buy me that for my birthday. And when I get home, Mom better watch out! The Kitchen is Mine!
I have the Prince of Egypt Plague song running through my head
Life is going fantastically! After I was done with class and computer stuff yesterday, I met up with Cheri and Kathy. I took them to the Piazza Michelangelo which was fantastic yesterday. The sun has been out for days and yesterday it was so incredible warm and clear. Thus... the tourists are out in full force :( But yesterday was beautiful, and it looks like clear days ahead! (Cosmic joke?? The instant I buy rain boots it ceases to rain??)
We wandered around the leather market, and I found a 10 € leather bound journal with the fleur d'lis symbol of Florence which I will go back to purchase today. Before I left for Italy, my sister (in law) Beth gave me a travel journal. I finished all the pages while I was in Germany, so I am seriously falling behind, and I need a new travel journal ASAP.
After we went through every corner of the leather market, we went and had dinner at a place Kathy ate at years ago. I got the veal scallopine in a truffle sauce. It was light and delicate for the first few bites, but then it got REALLY heavy. It wasn't as good as the place the night before, but the place the night before was hiding away and not so touristy. We did have a really good wine though. Kathy bought us gelato afterwards and we separated, with plans to meet this afternoon at 11 30 for lunch.
I really didn't want to wake up today. I was having really really weird dreams, but I can't remember how they went at all... no wait, I just did. They're too weird to post. ...Actually, I think that dream was from the night before. Last night's dream was still really weird. I can't remember it almost at all.
But I'm glad I did wake up, because they changed the lunch time to 11. I rushed there, only to find out they didn't open for lunch until 12. We wandered around and went into this store called De Herbore which is full of lotions and "smelly stuff" as they called it. Which totally reminded me that I have an Italian lotion that Kathy sent Cheri and I am almost out of and I need to buy soem more of it. But Cheri bought herself some smelly stuff and then she gave a lemon lotion to me! It was very unexpected, but I was very grateful. So we went and got a breakfast kind of deal at Chiaroscuro, which was pretty good. And then I had to say goodbye because today they're going south! It was so nice to spend time with Cheri and Kathy these last three days. I had a really good time. I was also really glad that I've spent enough time wandering around Florence so that I could take them places and navigate the back roads. Imagine how ashamed I would be if they came and I couldn't take them anywhere!
Today I had my first experience with the Italian post office (posteitaliane.) You take a numbered slip of paper and get in line. Now mind you, that numbered slip of paper means absolutely nothing. It does not determine in what order you are called on at all like it does in say... Amsterdam. The first time I got in the wrong line and an old Italian woman told me to go to the other line. Then I managed to get in the slowest line in the world. I was really nervous as I continued to get closer and closer, thinking things like... I don't know any words that relate to the post office other than "Ho uno paco." "He doesn't look very friendly." "What if he doesn't speak any English!" "What if there's a package charge and it's like 50€???" But I got up there, handed in my slip and my passport, said, "Ho uno paco." He went and got it, got me to sign the slip, and I left. Whew! I didn't have to pay anything, it wasn't difficult, I didn't have to answer any questions!
The package is from my good friend Elena Villa.
This is my good friend Elena....?? I tried to upload the photo... dang it, where is it?! Maybe I just uploaded it twice. Grrrrr!
ANYWAY it's from my good friend Elena Villa, who has, sadly, left me to wallow alone in the state of GA without her sunshine presence. She's taken it to Wisconsin, where they could probably use the sunshine a little bit more.
All I knew was that she said she was sending me chocolate and gum. And when I opened it... WOW! All kinds of candy! Four three-packs of Orbit spearmint gum! Swedish fish, red vines, a giant Hershey bar, sour heads! But best of all... A BUTTERFINGER!
I've gotten so many gifts and American goodies lately! My life is awesome!
We wandered around the leather market, and I found a 10 € leather bound journal with the fleur d'lis symbol of Florence which I will go back to purchase today. Before I left for Italy, my sister (in law) Beth gave me a travel journal. I finished all the pages while I was in Germany, so I am seriously falling behind, and I need a new travel journal ASAP.
After we went through every corner of the leather market, we went and had dinner at a place Kathy ate at years ago. I got the veal scallopine in a truffle sauce. It was light and delicate for the first few bites, but then it got REALLY heavy. It wasn't as good as the place the night before, but the place the night before was hiding away and not so touristy. We did have a really good wine though. Kathy bought us gelato afterwards and we separated, with plans to meet this afternoon at 11 30 for lunch.
I really didn't want to wake up today. I was having really really weird dreams, but I can't remember how they went at all... no wait, I just did. They're too weird to post. ...Actually, I think that dream was from the night before. Last night's dream was still really weird. I can't remember it almost at all.
But I'm glad I did wake up, because they changed the lunch time to 11. I rushed there, only to find out they didn't open for lunch until 12. We wandered around and went into this store called De Herbore which is full of lotions and "smelly stuff" as they called it. Which totally reminded me that I have an Italian lotion that Kathy sent Cheri and I am almost out of and I need to buy soem more of it. But Cheri bought herself some smelly stuff and then she gave a lemon lotion to me! It was very unexpected, but I was very grateful. So we went and got a breakfast kind of deal at Chiaroscuro, which was pretty good. And then I had to say goodbye because today they're going south! It was so nice to spend time with Cheri and Kathy these last three days. I had a really good time. I was also really glad that I've spent enough time wandering around Florence so that I could take them places and navigate the back roads. Imagine how ashamed I would be if they came and I couldn't take them anywhere!
Today I had my first experience with the Italian post office (posteitaliane.) You take a numbered slip of paper and get in line. Now mind you, that numbered slip of paper means absolutely nothing. It does not determine in what order you are called on at all like it does in say... Amsterdam. The first time I got in the wrong line and an old Italian woman told me to go to the other line. Then I managed to get in the slowest line in the world. I was really nervous as I continued to get closer and closer, thinking things like... I don't know any words that relate to the post office other than "Ho uno paco." "He doesn't look very friendly." "What if he doesn't speak any English!" "What if there's a package charge and it's like 50€???" But I got up there, handed in my slip and my passport, said, "Ho uno paco." He went and got it, got me to sign the slip, and I left. Whew! I didn't have to pay anything, it wasn't difficult, I didn't have to answer any questions!
The package is from my good friend Elena Villa.
This is my good friend Elena....?? I tried to upload the photo... dang it, where is it?! Maybe I just uploaded it twice. Grrrrr!
ANYWAY it's from my good friend Elena Villa, who has, sadly, left me to wallow alone in the state of GA without her sunshine presence. She's taken it to Wisconsin, where they could probably use the sunshine a little bit more.
All I knew was that she said she was sending me chocolate and gum. And when I opened it... WOW! All kinds of candy! Four three-packs of Orbit spearmint gum! Swedish fish, red vines, a giant Hershey bar, sour heads! But best of all... A BUTTERFINGER!
I've gotten so many gifts and American goodies lately! My life is awesome!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Good Vibrations
This was such a wonderful weekend!
Friday night the internet was working so well I got to watch an entire episode of Criminal Minds! This episode was based off a fictional book called Empty Planet, but I really wish it were a real book. It sounded like such a good read.
On Saturday Kevin, Pati, Gina, and I were going to go to Volterra, but we'd missed the bus. So instead we went to Viareggio. This was the most relaxing little town, and it honestly was like a crappy Florida beach town and I loved it. We sat on the beach and ate lunch, walked around, got French Fries. We were some of the only tourists there. We decided we're going back our very last weekend to go swimming.
After Viareggio, we went to Lucca, which is the world's largest producer of toilet paper (or at least one of them.) We walked around the Medieval wall and just sat. Firenze is so hectic sometimes, it was so nice to just sit.
After we got home, I ran to the library and rented movies. Pati, Kevin, Gina, and Emily all made a spaghetti with an avocado, red pepper, tomato, feta, and a tiny bit of tequila sauce. It was really pretty great. The feta here tastes sort of strange. Afterwards, Kevin and I watched Alien Resurrection, which was really bizarre, and I realized I hadn't seen the third one yet.
Yesterday was an exciting day!
I woke up, cleaned the whole apartment, and baked Oreo Balls. Then I went and met Cheri and her sister Kathy in the middle of the Ponte Vecchio. I was so glad to see her! It's been a year since I've seen her even in the States. We wandered around. I took them inside the Palazzo Vecchio. Then we had an apertif at the Piazza della Reppublica, which was really good. Afterwards we had dinner at this little Tuscan restaurant. We all got an antipasto and a secondi. My antipasto was an artichoke and cheese salad. Raw artichoke. Mmmmmm! Americans need to use artichoke more often! Cheri got pears and cheese with honey (pecorino) and Kathy got a mozzarella dish with tomatoes and lettuce. It was fun to try all these things I never get to try because of the cost. Then I got something called ossobucco, which was this deliciously flavored dark meat. Cheri got wild boar and Kathy got a balsalmic steak. We all shared and it was just so good. Afterwards Cheri bought us gelato. I haven't eaten so much food since .... I don't know, Christmas?? Thanksgiving?? It was so MUCH! I thought I was going to burst, so I walked home. Cheri also got a red wine for the table. I don't usually like red wine... it turns out that 1, 50 € red wine is just nothing in comparison to real red wine.
So now I'm going to call them up and see what's happening. I'm so glad to have people here in Florence!
Friday night the internet was working so well I got to watch an entire episode of Criminal Minds! This episode was based off a fictional book called Empty Planet, but I really wish it were a real book. It sounded like such a good read.
On Saturday Kevin, Pati, Gina, and I were going to go to Volterra, but we'd missed the bus. So instead we went to Viareggio. This was the most relaxing little town, and it honestly was like a crappy Florida beach town and I loved it. We sat on the beach and ate lunch, walked around, got French Fries. We were some of the only tourists there. We decided we're going back our very last weekend to go swimming.
After Viareggio, we went to Lucca, which is the world's largest producer of toilet paper (or at least one of them.) We walked around the Medieval wall and just sat. Firenze is so hectic sometimes, it was so nice to just sit.
After we got home, I ran to the library and rented movies. Pati, Kevin, Gina, and Emily all made a spaghetti with an avocado, red pepper, tomato, feta, and a tiny bit of tequila sauce. It was really pretty great. The feta here tastes sort of strange. Afterwards, Kevin and I watched Alien Resurrection, which was really bizarre, and I realized I hadn't seen the third one yet.
Yesterday was an exciting day!
I woke up, cleaned the whole apartment, and baked Oreo Balls. Then I went and met Cheri and her sister Kathy in the middle of the Ponte Vecchio. I was so glad to see her! It's been a year since I've seen her even in the States. We wandered around. I took them inside the Palazzo Vecchio. Then we had an apertif at the Piazza della Reppublica, which was really good. Afterwards we had dinner at this little Tuscan restaurant. We all got an antipasto and a secondi. My antipasto was an artichoke and cheese salad. Raw artichoke. Mmmmmm! Americans need to use artichoke more often! Cheri got pears and cheese with honey (pecorino) and Kathy got a mozzarella dish with tomatoes and lettuce. It was fun to try all these things I never get to try because of the cost. Then I got something called ossobucco, which was this deliciously flavored dark meat. Cheri got wild boar and Kathy got a balsalmic steak. We all shared and it was just so good. Afterwards Cheri bought us gelato. I haven't eaten so much food since .... I don't know, Christmas?? Thanksgiving?? It was so MUCH! I thought I was going to burst, so I walked home. Cheri also got a red wine for the table. I don't usually like red wine... it turns out that 1, 50 € red wine is just nothing in comparison to real red wine.
So now I'm going to call them up and see what's happening. I'm so glad to have people here in Florence!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Kitchen Troubles and Rainy Days
This hasn't been the best week in our kitchen. On Monday, Renee placed the sieve on the hot stove and now it's melted. On Tuesday, I caught one of dishclothes on fire. I don't know if anything happened on Wednesday, but yesterday both Gina and I burned ourselves. Tonight has been harmless... but only she has cooked so far. Emily won't be cooking at all - she's gone to apertivo.
The Mafia is not just on TV and in the Godfather. It's real here. They killed a black youth a couple months ago up here in the north. And yesterday, an Italian told me that they ARE the government in the South. So I hope there's no Mafia in my neighborhood. I don't think so? Because today someone added anarchy signs and wrote something about Bologna. I don't know.
Last night I made a successful risotto. Tonight I'm going to make a chicken fettucine alfredo with asparagus. I just haven't wanted to cook yet. I've been nonstop GO GO GO all day.
Yesterday we met our psych teacher's Italian fiance. He told us all kinds of things and answered our questions. It was really interesting. He told us about the Mafia thing, and he said that the North pays 80% of Italy's taxes, while the South pays only 20% and that is because of the Mafia. P.S. The South is anything under Tuscany.
Today has been long. I was up until almost three in the morning finishing The Time Traveler's Wife and I woke up at 10 30. Emily's Italian class was joining mine because we went to the Palazzo Davanzatti today (which, P.S., I went to yesterday with my Ren Art class.) It was pretty cool. It's a big medieval tower palace.
But on the way back to CAPA she drove me NUTS! She went off to get lunch and I met Pati at CAPA to go to the San Ambrosio market.
It's a half indoor, half outdoor market, and their veggies are cheap and fresh. I bought a big beautiful garlic there today, because my supermarket ones are tiny and puny. We bought all kinds of things for this dinner Pati was going to make tonight. Then I went to Il Centro and bought lunch (3 euro and I paid with CARD! That's so exciting and different here!) But then I walked the 20 minute walk home to put the groceries away, the bus was 5 minutes early so I walked the 20 minutes to school, forgot that CAPA closes at 3 30 on Fridays, got kicked out, and STILL hadn't eaten my sandwich. Which I just remembered I still have half of, and it is sitting on my bed. Dang it.
I got manzo today, which is this weird kind of red beef I've never tried before. It wasn't bad. I don't know if it was good either.
So Gina, Emily, Kevin and I head towards Ponte Vecchio, because it's covered in jewelry stores and they're looking for charms. Kevin leaves us, Pati meets us, Emily is driving me crazy, and we find an American bakery. It's super far away, but cheap and good and I think I might start going there to study. They have bagels, which is ASTOUNDING.
On the way back, we stopped in a shoe store with rain boots. I've been thinking, maybe I wouldn't get sick so often if I had dry feet and jeans. So I tried on like ten pairs, because giant dancer calves aren't condusive to rain boots, but I finally find like ankle rain boots. So my three year search for rain boots is at an end, and when I go back to the monsoon season at OU, I won't have constantly wet feet there either.
I came home, went to Coop, missed my turn, walked FOREVER, and finally got here. You can't imagine how much walking I have done today. I'm just so tired. This is my first time to rest.
Oh, and Pati isn't making the dinner she was going to make anymore. There's a bus strike in town tonight, and she lives really far away, so she went home before they stopped running.
Gina, Pati, and I might be going to a town called Volterra tomorrow. It's supposedly really beautiful, and get this, is Edward Cullen's favorite place in the world. Yeah, that means nothing to me either.
Cheri and her family are also coming tomorrow. I may not go to Volterra if Cheri flys directly into Florence, because it's now a toss up as to where they're going to land.
Honestly. Italian transportation. UGH!
A useful thing to know about our buses: You will NEVER know if they are late or if they are early. There will be one 14 bus scheduled to arrive at like... 11:47 AM and the second 14 bus is supposed to arrive at 11:54. Now, because of these closely timed schedules, you'll just never know. Unless of course, the 14 B and the 14 C drive up right after each other. Or if both of them come 5 minutes early and you sadly watch them drive away as you exit your apartment building.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Check it
Check it out. This is my homemade chicken noodle soup. It took over two hours. I made the broth and then I made the soup. It was delicious. I think it even made me feel better. Now my biggest problem is a dry throat. An incredibly dry throat - I am the most parched person in the world.
But check out these mad skillzzzz.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
I believe I might be dying. I am going to turn into a giant ball of snot. Tears will constantly leak from my eyes, even after death, and since I'm going to die in Italy, they'll make me a Saint because of this bizarre miracle.
Since I am sick, I have been in a really big soup mood. Sunday I had a Bavarian soup. Monday I had minestrone. Last night I made rice and asparagus soup, but the rice soaked up most of the soup part. It was still really delicious. Today I am going to make homemade chicken noodle soup in the hopes that it will make me feel better with it's miraculous wholesome American properties.
If not, I'll see ya'll on the other side of the veil.
Since I am sick, I have been in a really big soup mood. Sunday I had a Bavarian soup. Monday I had minestrone. Last night I made rice and asparagus soup, but the rice soaked up most of the soup part. It was still really delicious. Today I am going to make homemade chicken noodle soup in the hopes that it will make me feel better with it's miraculous wholesome American properties.
If not, I'll see ya'll on the other side of the veil.
I think Italy is making me ill.
Normally, I get sick like once a year and that's all.
So I got sick in January or Feb and I expected it.
But it was pretty bad because I got a fever and I don't get fevers EVER unless I am seriously sick.
But I had a fever on Monday and possibly yesterday too and I am just really sick all the time.
Plus, I have been sneezing nonstop since Sunday or Monday.
I think Italy has DESTROYED my immune system (which doesn't make any sense to me, because I'm pretty active and I eat well here.)
Normally, I get sick like once a year and that's all.
So I got sick in January or Feb and I expected it.
But it was pretty bad because I got a fever and I don't get fevers EVER unless I am seriously sick.
But I had a fever on Monday and possibly yesterday too and I am just really sick all the time.
Plus, I have been sneezing nonstop since Sunday or Monday.
I think Italy has DESTROYED my immune system (which doesn't make any sense to me, because I'm pretty active and I eat well here.)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Italy
I've been trying to think of things to tell you about Italy.
So... notes on Italy (but spf. Florence.)
The weather is March is bipolar. Some days it rains, some days it snows, and some days it is hot as anything.
When walking down the sidewalk, which is eensy weensy, so it's unlikely that you will actually be on a sidewalk, you take the street side when you're walking towards an older person. Your age... it doesn't matter, but they'll probably make you do it anyway.
It's easier just to walk on the street.
Everyone walks on the street, because the sidewalks are too freaking small.
If you're walking down the street and you hear a "ting!" it means, There is a bike behind you, get out of the way.
Because they won't slow down for you.
When you're talking to an older person, you say "Scusi" if you need to get by or get their attention.
But if you're talking to someone your age or younger, you say "Scusa."
Before 12-1 PM, you say "Buongiorno!" to people to greet them. This means "good morning."
But after 12-1 PM, you say "Buona sera." This does not mean "good afternoon." "Good afternoon" is "Buon pomeriggio" but no one says it. Possibly "pomerrigo." I can't remember right now.
My Italian has been a little off since I haven't used it for a week.
You can jay walk everywhere except major roads. Then you still might almost get hit by a car while you have the right of way, but don't worry... they stop. Or swerve around you.
Yesterday an older woman stopped me and asked me which bus to take to the center. I replied she should take the 14, because it stops near Il Duomo. She asked me where the bus stop was, and I told her it was just up ahead.
And just so you know... THIS TOOK PLACE ENTIRELY IN ITALIAN! Heck yeah!
Also, last night I went to see Alice in Wonderland in the Original sound. Minus the last like 10 seconds, I really liked it.
So... notes on Italy (but spf. Florence.)
The weather is March is bipolar. Some days it rains, some days it snows, and some days it is hot as anything.
When walking down the sidewalk, which is eensy weensy, so it's unlikely that you will actually be on a sidewalk, you take the street side when you're walking towards an older person. Your age... it doesn't matter, but they'll probably make you do it anyway.
It's easier just to walk on the street.
Everyone walks on the street, because the sidewalks are too freaking small.
If you're walking down the street and you hear a "ting!" it means, There is a bike behind you, get out of the way.
Because they won't slow down for you.
When you're talking to an older person, you say "Scusi" if you need to get by or get their attention.
But if you're talking to someone your age or younger, you say "Scusa."
Before 12-1 PM, you say "Buongiorno!" to people to greet them. This means "good morning."
But after 12-1 PM, you say "Buona sera." This does not mean "good afternoon." "Good afternoon" is "Buon pomeriggio" but no one says it. Possibly "pomerrigo." I can't remember right now.
My Italian has been a little off since I haven't used it for a week.
You can jay walk everywhere except major roads. Then you still might almost get hit by a car while you have the right of way, but don't worry... they stop. Or swerve around you.
Yesterday an older woman stopped me and asked me which bus to take to the center. I replied she should take the 14, because it stops near Il Duomo. She asked me where the bus stop was, and I told her it was just up ahead.
And just so you know... THIS TOOK PLACE ENTIRELY IN ITALIAN! Heck yeah!
Also, last night I went to see Alice in Wonderland in the Original sound. Minus the last like 10 seconds, I really liked it.
Monday, March 8, 2010
This Blog Post Could Swallow a Whale: Otherwise Known as, Spring Break in Europe
So it's been a week since I've written. That means I have a lot to say!
Saturday I did go back to the Uffizi. Gentileschi's "Judith Beheading Holofernes" was supposed to be in there, but I had yet to see it. I kept asking, "Dove l'arte di Artemisia Gentileschi?" I continued to not be able to find it. I had this vision of me stomping around the Uffizi asking every single worker, "Dove l'arte di Artemisia Gentileschi?" just over and over again. BUT it turns out there is a door that has always been closed, every time I've gone, and her art is behind there. It is also with like ten other paintings with dripping bloody bodyless heads.
I spent a happy solitary evening with only me! I watched Singing in the Rain, which I rented from the Obblate library.
Sunday I was seriously thinking about going to Vinci, but I couldn't figure out how to get there. I also didn't want to get there only to find out the museum was closed because it's Sunday. So instead I went to the Palazzo Pitti and finished off the entire Palentine Gallery.
Now, both the Palazzo Pitti and the Galleria degli Uffizi used to be Medici palaces. I would like to know why both of them have so many flights of stairs! Clothes used to be way heavier. How could a woman in one of those dresses ever climb so many? It's like ... 4 flights to get up into both galleries! Then at the end of the Palentine Gallery, a sign invited me to take the Grand Staircase down. This grand staircase is in fact 6 flights of stairs. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. What were those Medici trying to prove anyway?
Monday I had also thought about going to Assisi to see Giotto's frescoes, but decided I had way too much to do. The apartment was a total mess and I still had to pack. My laundry had been hanging out to dry for hours, but it was still wet when I left Italy. I had to hang it in my closet and hope for the best. Everyone here in Florence dries their clothes by hanging them out the windows. Now apparently there is a law that makes it illegal to do this in Italy (at least, that's what the tour guide in Sienna said.) This law just must not apply at all to Florence, or they may just not care enough, but they are definitely not following it. The problem I've had so far is that every time I've hung my clothes out to dry, it's rained. It didn't rain Sunday or Monday, but they were still wet. Apparently, this is supposed to be efficient and fast and they love the smell of fresh air in their clothes. I.E. dirty city air caused by smog pollution, which even the Florentines have been protesting lately.
I've been mixing up my languages lately. The other day I ordered a cup of gelato. I said, "Vorrei il bicchere da two euro." Not due euro, but two. The other day when my Italian teacher asked me my birthday, I gave her the date in Spanish. Then last Tuesday when I got on the bus to the airport I said, "Scusi, รจ l'autobus per la aeropuerto?" Just in case you were wondering, the Italian word for "airport" is "aeroporto" not "aeropuerto."
In l'aeroporto, I was really bored. The airline wasn't sure that if the flight was leaving from Florence or from Bologna. I don't know how you don't know that kind of thing, but it was eventually established that it was leaving from Florence.
I arrived in Amsterdam and I was a little nervous. I didn't tell anyone at home, because I didn't want people to worry, but I flew in alone and there was no one in Amsterdam yet. But Everyone was friendly and every body spoke English! The city was so beautiful, not skeezy at all! My directions to my hostel were terrible... I got lost for two hours. But finally some nice British people showed me the way on their google phone and I got there. There was a big beautiful park next to it called the Vondelpark, and I actually walked in there for a while (not willingly... the hostel people told me to walk through the park to find the hostel.) It was really safe and really nice and I didn't feel unsafe at all.
Unfortunately, that night people had sex in the room I was sleeping in. It was a 14 person room. They couldn't have chosen a less public time? It was really awkward, and their sexual enjoyments didn't end after sex. THEN THEY GOT UP AND LEFT THE ROOM! They weren't even staying in the room, or even the hostel as far as I know! The next morning I woke up and two other girls were sleeping in the bed, because it was THEIR bed and two random people had sex in it.
I already feel like I've been writing forever. Do you feel like you've been reading forever?
Renee arrived Wednesday morning. I went and met her at the train station and we tried to figure out how to get to Munich. We hadn't been able to find anything cheap the week before, and so Renee figured maybe we could find it cheaper at the actual train station. We couldn't. We tried everything... we looked at buses, planes, and other trains. But we'd already booked our hostel in Munich and our train ride home. We finally just bought the tickets and went to the hostel.
We took the tram. Now, public transport in Italy is Terrifying. It took me until two weeks ago to convince myself that I was not going to die in a bus crash. The streets are narrow, the buses practically scrape the cars they're driving past, and the drivers drive a little too fast for comfort. But this tram was easy and safe feeling! It was fantastic.
We didn't do a lot on Wednesday. We accidentally wandered into the Red Light district. It was a wrong turn and I realized we were the only girls on the street and then we saw women dancing in windows. Whoops.
We also bought Bagels! I had a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. They don't have bagels in Italy.
There's a big market on one of the canals that is all flowers. It's full of tulips. I thought about buying some bulbs, but then I thought maybe you can't bring flowers like that back from EU? So I didn't.
But that is mostly Wendesday. We bought dinner from the grocery store (Chinese spicy noodles!) and tucked in early.
Thursday was a much busier day. We went on a free walking tour of Amsterdam and learned some pretty interesting things. For example, pot is actually not legal in the Netherlands at all. They just have a policy that since it's not hurting anyone, they're not going to do anything about it. Coffee shops are where you can smoke pot, and everyone knows that. If you want actual coffee, you have to go to a cafe. The number of coffee shops in Amsterdam has gone from over 400 to about 250, and only 9% of the actual population smokes it. The rest is just tourists. The prostitutes have some sort of weird union. Also, the Dutch people are the tallest people in the world. Then we just learned a whole bunch of stuff depending on where we were... like about Anne Frank and a lot of random stories about urination that you probably wouldn't hear on a tour not led by grad students. For example, there are these green things all over the city - they're public male urinals. But back in the 70s, women decided they were tired of having to pay for the toilets and they demanded their own public urinals. The city didn't agree, so a whole bunch of women went to the biggest bridge in the city, hiked up their skirts at the same time, squatted down, and peed all over it. They told the city that if they didn't get public urinals, they would do it on every bridge in Amsterdam - and there are over a thousand bridges. The city gave in, but it still didn't work out because that was back when heroin was big and the junkies would go get high in there and sometimes assault the women who came to use the bathroom.
Now they advertise concerts and things like that.
After the walking tour, we went to the Heineken Experience and learned how they make beer and stuff like that. It was fun. They had kareoke games and pictures machines and a sort of ride. The sort of ride reminded me of the sort of ride in Jurassic Park in the science lab.
We went back to the grocery. I got little premade weiners and that cheese that sorts with the word "Port" and ends in another words that costs like 8$ at home. Here it was less than 2€! We pubcrawled that night and spent most of it with these really nice German guys we'd met on the walking tour. There was this crazy Romanian guy named Alexander (Aleksandar?) - that's relevant, I promise. The crawl was a lot of fun. We danced a bunch and Renee found a French man and we both got t-shirts.
The next morning I went to the Van Gogh museum alone. It was pretty spectacular. The third floor had UNEXPECTED ODEON'S! Nothing of his really strange stuff, but still fantastic!
I went to meet Renee and she was a little late so I got Burger King. I had really been craving a burger... but it didn't taste like anything and wasn't very good. So we're sitting inside and the Romanian guy walks up and we end up eating with him. It turns out he's not crazy when he's sober.
We ran into people we've seen everywhere. People from Renee's Barcelona hostel were in our Amsterdam one. We ran into people in the Heineken museum. We ran into people on the Munich trains. The idea that Florence is really small has changed into, Europe is really small.
Oh my gosh, a whale couldn't fit this entry into his stomach.
When I was done eating, Renee and I went to the Anne Frank house. They kept it exactly like it was. The Nazis removed the furniture, so there's no furniture. Anne pasted these pictures all over her walls, and they're still there. It was really moving and I almost bawled. There were videos of her father and her best friend talking about what Anne was like. It was really incredible.
Bought dinner from the grocery again. This time I found HUMMUS! It was Sabra brand too! They don't have this stuff in Florence! (Which, btw, is really weird to me, since Italy occupied Greece for a while... why is there so little Greek food?) So I ate hummus with little weiners and it was the best idea I've ever had. We hopped on our night trian to Munich, which was super comfy, and when I woke up I had hummus and croissants. It was such a luxury.
I also drank like 2 cartons of Tropicana orange juice in Amsterdam. So many things that I can't have here! It was so fantastic!
We went to sleep in the Netherlands and woke up in Germany. And surprise... Freak Snow Fall! It's very unusual to have snow this time of year in Germany, according to a nice German man who looked like Robin Williams. We went to the castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and it was the castle Disney based the Cinderella castle off of. Or Sleeping Beauty's, but I think it's Cinderella's. We met five American moms and they were so nice! We stayed with them all day. It was such a comfort to be with American moms! One of them gave us crackers lol. We talked a lot and had such a good time. Neuschwanstein was pretty cool. You have to buy guided tours, and they kind of suck, but the castle made up for it.
It started snowing SO HARD as we tried to leave. I was just covered in white.
We went to the Hoffbrahaus for dinner. It's a big beer hall .Renee got these white sausages that you peel the skin off of and eat with spicy and sweet mustard. I got four frankenfurtters and egg noodles. It was pretty good. I liked her's better and she liked mine better. The sweet mustard tasted like a mild version of wasabi to me.
Sunday morning we went on another free walking tour. We learned a lot. For example, the Hoffbrahaus was the home of the Nazi movement. It's where Hitler gave his first speech to the NSDAP. It's a smaller hall on the 3rd floor. The house doesn't advertise it at all. Munich doesn't advertise it's involvement in the war at all. It didn't even want to be part of it. On November 9th, 1923 the Bavarian leaders gathered together in a beer hall (I think still the Hoffbrahaus, but the guide was a little confusing) and discussed separating from the rest of Germany and becoming it's own country. It could totally do this - it's rich, has all the culture (any typical German culture you can think of... that's Bavarian) and it has a constitution already prepared for the the day they do decided to separate. However, Hitler found out about the meeting to discuss separation and he tried to take over, because if Bavaria separated, how could he ever spread the Nazi message to the other German states? This is when he failed and was sent to prison, but think of how different it could have been if Bavaria had succeeded. We also learned a lot about biergartens and culture in general. It was really interesting, and we ran into our moms again! We wanted to go to dinner with them, but they were leaving that day for the Black Forest.
Immediately after the tour, we went to the concentration camp of Dachau. It was cold, but after a while I stopped thinking about that, because what is it to be cold in three layers of clothing when so many more were significantly colder than I? I couldn't decide if it was more inappropriate to take pictures or more inappropriate not to take pictures, so I settled on a middling amount. I didn't want to make it look like I was ignoring history or something. Right as I was leaving, there was a woman bent down on the ground. She asked two people to help her find her glasses' lens. I and three other people heard her, and we all helped her look in the snow. It made me feel nice to know that even though thousands suffered and died there, people could still be kind.
That night for dinner we went to a different bierhall - the Augustiner van Stuben, or something like that. It was less touristy and more delicious. I got a soup with beef balls and handmade swabian ravioli plus a mixed plate. It was a giant delicious potato ball, a sort of hamburger thing that was really tender, a pork chop, and a mushroom cream sauce. OH MAN it was so good. I ate every last bite.
Last night I fell asleep in Germany and woke up in Italy. I've been gone so long (at least it feels that way) and I had to struggle to remember all the Italian I know. Amsterdam and Munich were absolutely beautiful and I could have spent a much longer time there. I wish I could go back. Maybe some day.
Traveling Europe the hostel way was really fun. We met so many cool people.
Last Note: The German word for Munich is "Munchen." So... does that make them Munchkins??
Saturday I did go back to the Uffizi. Gentileschi's "Judith Beheading Holofernes" was supposed to be in there, but I had yet to see it. I kept asking, "Dove l'arte di Artemisia Gentileschi?" I continued to not be able to find it. I had this vision of me stomping around the Uffizi asking every single worker, "Dove l'arte di Artemisia Gentileschi?" just over and over again. BUT it turns out there is a door that has always been closed, every time I've gone, and her art is behind there. It is also with like ten other paintings with dripping bloody bodyless heads.
I spent a happy solitary evening with only me! I watched Singing in the Rain, which I rented from the Obblate library.
Sunday I was seriously thinking about going to Vinci, but I couldn't figure out how to get there. I also didn't want to get there only to find out the museum was closed because it's Sunday. So instead I went to the Palazzo Pitti and finished off the entire Palentine Gallery.
Now, both the Palazzo Pitti and the Galleria degli Uffizi used to be Medici palaces. I would like to know why both of them have so many flights of stairs! Clothes used to be way heavier. How could a woman in one of those dresses ever climb so many? It's like ... 4 flights to get up into both galleries! Then at the end of the Palentine Gallery, a sign invited me to take the Grand Staircase down. This grand staircase is in fact 6 flights of stairs. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. What were those Medici trying to prove anyway?
Monday I had also thought about going to Assisi to see Giotto's frescoes, but decided I had way too much to do. The apartment was a total mess and I still had to pack. My laundry had been hanging out to dry for hours, but it was still wet when I left Italy. I had to hang it in my closet and hope for the best. Everyone here in Florence dries their clothes by hanging them out the windows. Now apparently there is a law that makes it illegal to do this in Italy (at least, that's what the tour guide in Sienna said.) This law just must not apply at all to Florence, or they may just not care enough, but they are definitely not following it. The problem I've had so far is that every time I've hung my clothes out to dry, it's rained. It didn't rain Sunday or Monday, but they were still wet. Apparently, this is supposed to be efficient and fast and they love the smell of fresh air in their clothes. I.E. dirty city air caused by smog pollution, which even the Florentines have been protesting lately.
I've been mixing up my languages lately. The other day I ordered a cup of gelato. I said, "Vorrei il bicchere da two euro." Not due euro, but two. The other day when my Italian teacher asked me my birthday, I gave her the date in Spanish. Then last Tuesday when I got on the bus to the airport I said, "Scusi, รจ l'autobus per la aeropuerto?" Just in case you were wondering, the Italian word for "airport" is "aeroporto" not "aeropuerto."
In l'aeroporto, I was really bored. The airline wasn't sure that if the flight was leaving from Florence or from Bologna. I don't know how you don't know that kind of thing, but it was eventually established that it was leaving from Florence.
I arrived in Amsterdam and I was a little nervous. I didn't tell anyone at home, because I didn't want people to worry, but I flew in alone and there was no one in Amsterdam yet. But Everyone was friendly and every body spoke English! The city was so beautiful, not skeezy at all! My directions to my hostel were terrible... I got lost for two hours. But finally some nice British people showed me the way on their google phone and I got there. There was a big beautiful park next to it called the Vondelpark, and I actually walked in there for a while (not willingly... the hostel people told me to walk through the park to find the hostel.) It was really safe and really nice and I didn't feel unsafe at all.
Unfortunately, that night people had sex in the room I was sleeping in. It was a 14 person room. They couldn't have chosen a less public time? It was really awkward, and their sexual enjoyments didn't end after sex. THEN THEY GOT UP AND LEFT THE ROOM! They weren't even staying in the room, or even the hostel as far as I know! The next morning I woke up and two other girls were sleeping in the bed, because it was THEIR bed and two random people had sex in it.
I already feel like I've been writing forever. Do you feel like you've been reading forever?
Renee arrived Wednesday morning. I went and met her at the train station and we tried to figure out how to get to Munich. We hadn't been able to find anything cheap the week before, and so Renee figured maybe we could find it cheaper at the actual train station. We couldn't. We tried everything... we looked at buses, planes, and other trains. But we'd already booked our hostel in Munich and our train ride home. We finally just bought the tickets and went to the hostel.
We took the tram. Now, public transport in Italy is Terrifying. It took me until two weeks ago to convince myself that I was not going to die in a bus crash. The streets are narrow, the buses practically scrape the cars they're driving past, and the drivers drive a little too fast for comfort. But this tram was easy and safe feeling! It was fantastic.
We didn't do a lot on Wednesday. We accidentally wandered into the Red Light district. It was a wrong turn and I realized we were the only girls on the street and then we saw women dancing in windows. Whoops.
We also bought Bagels! I had a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. They don't have bagels in Italy.
There's a big market on one of the canals that is all flowers. It's full of tulips. I thought about buying some bulbs, but then I thought maybe you can't bring flowers like that back from EU? So I didn't.
But that is mostly Wendesday. We bought dinner from the grocery store (Chinese spicy noodles!) and tucked in early.
Thursday was a much busier day. We went on a free walking tour of Amsterdam and learned some pretty interesting things. For example, pot is actually not legal in the Netherlands at all. They just have a policy that since it's not hurting anyone, they're not going to do anything about it. Coffee shops are where you can smoke pot, and everyone knows that. If you want actual coffee, you have to go to a cafe. The number of coffee shops in Amsterdam has gone from over 400 to about 250, and only 9% of the actual population smokes it. The rest is just tourists. The prostitutes have some sort of weird union. Also, the Dutch people are the tallest people in the world. Then we just learned a whole bunch of stuff depending on where we were... like about Anne Frank and a lot of random stories about urination that you probably wouldn't hear on a tour not led by grad students. For example, there are these green things all over the city - they're public male urinals. But back in the 70s, women decided they were tired of having to pay for the toilets and they demanded their own public urinals. The city didn't agree, so a whole bunch of women went to the biggest bridge in the city, hiked up their skirts at the same time, squatted down, and peed all over it. They told the city that if they didn't get public urinals, they would do it on every bridge in Amsterdam - and there are over a thousand bridges. The city gave in, but it still didn't work out because that was back when heroin was big and the junkies would go get high in there and sometimes assault the women who came to use the bathroom.
Now they advertise concerts and things like that.
After the walking tour, we went to the Heineken Experience and learned how they make beer and stuff like that. It was fun. They had kareoke games and pictures machines and a sort of ride. The sort of ride reminded me of the sort of ride in Jurassic Park in the science lab.
We went back to the grocery. I got little premade weiners and that cheese that sorts with the word "Port" and ends in another words that costs like 8$ at home. Here it was less than 2€! We pubcrawled that night and spent most of it with these really nice German guys we'd met on the walking tour. There was this crazy Romanian guy named Alexander (Aleksandar?) - that's relevant, I promise. The crawl was a lot of fun. We danced a bunch and Renee found a French man and we both got t-shirts.
The next morning I went to the Van Gogh museum alone. It was pretty spectacular. The third floor had UNEXPECTED ODEON'S! Nothing of his really strange stuff, but still fantastic!
I went to meet Renee and she was a little late so I got Burger King. I had really been craving a burger... but it didn't taste like anything and wasn't very good. So we're sitting inside and the Romanian guy walks up and we end up eating with him. It turns out he's not crazy when he's sober.
We ran into people we've seen everywhere. People from Renee's Barcelona hostel were in our Amsterdam one. We ran into people in the Heineken museum. We ran into people on the Munich trains. The idea that Florence is really small has changed into, Europe is really small.
Oh my gosh, a whale couldn't fit this entry into his stomach.
When I was done eating, Renee and I went to the Anne Frank house. They kept it exactly like it was. The Nazis removed the furniture, so there's no furniture. Anne pasted these pictures all over her walls, and they're still there. It was really moving and I almost bawled. There were videos of her father and her best friend talking about what Anne was like. It was really incredible.
Bought dinner from the grocery again. This time I found HUMMUS! It was Sabra brand too! They don't have this stuff in Florence! (Which, btw, is really weird to me, since Italy occupied Greece for a while... why is there so little Greek food?) So I ate hummus with little weiners and it was the best idea I've ever had. We hopped on our night trian to Munich, which was super comfy, and when I woke up I had hummus and croissants. It was such a luxury.
I also drank like 2 cartons of Tropicana orange juice in Amsterdam. So many things that I can't have here! It was so fantastic!
We went to sleep in the Netherlands and woke up in Germany. And surprise... Freak Snow Fall! It's very unusual to have snow this time of year in Germany, according to a nice German man who looked like Robin Williams. We went to the castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and it was the castle Disney based the Cinderella castle off of. Or Sleeping Beauty's, but I think it's Cinderella's. We met five American moms and they were so nice! We stayed with them all day. It was such a comfort to be with American moms! One of them gave us crackers lol. We talked a lot and had such a good time. Neuschwanstein was pretty cool. You have to buy guided tours, and they kind of suck, but the castle made up for it.
It started snowing SO HARD as we tried to leave. I was just covered in white.
We went to the Hoffbrahaus for dinner. It's a big beer hall .Renee got these white sausages that you peel the skin off of and eat with spicy and sweet mustard. I got four frankenfurtters and egg noodles. It was pretty good. I liked her's better and she liked mine better. The sweet mustard tasted like a mild version of wasabi to me.
Sunday morning we went on another free walking tour. We learned a lot. For example, the Hoffbrahaus was the home of the Nazi movement. It's where Hitler gave his first speech to the NSDAP. It's a smaller hall on the 3rd floor. The house doesn't advertise it at all. Munich doesn't advertise it's involvement in the war at all. It didn't even want to be part of it. On November 9th, 1923 the Bavarian leaders gathered together in a beer hall (I think still the Hoffbrahaus, but the guide was a little confusing) and discussed separating from the rest of Germany and becoming it's own country. It could totally do this - it's rich, has all the culture (any typical German culture you can think of... that's Bavarian) and it has a constitution already prepared for the the day they do decided to separate. However, Hitler found out about the meeting to discuss separation and he tried to take over, because if Bavaria separated, how could he ever spread the Nazi message to the other German states? This is when he failed and was sent to prison, but think of how different it could have been if Bavaria had succeeded. We also learned a lot about biergartens and culture in general. It was really interesting, and we ran into our moms again! We wanted to go to dinner with them, but they were leaving that day for the Black Forest.
Immediately after the tour, we went to the concentration camp of Dachau. It was cold, but after a while I stopped thinking about that, because what is it to be cold in three layers of clothing when so many more were significantly colder than I? I couldn't decide if it was more inappropriate to take pictures or more inappropriate not to take pictures, so I settled on a middling amount. I didn't want to make it look like I was ignoring history or something. Right as I was leaving, there was a woman bent down on the ground. She asked two people to help her find her glasses' lens. I and three other people heard her, and we all helped her look in the snow. It made me feel nice to know that even though thousands suffered and died there, people could still be kind.
That night for dinner we went to a different bierhall - the Augustiner van Stuben, or something like that. It was less touristy and more delicious. I got a soup with beef balls and handmade swabian ravioli plus a mixed plate. It was a giant delicious potato ball, a sort of hamburger thing that was really tender, a pork chop, and a mushroom cream sauce. OH MAN it was so good. I ate every last bite.
Last night I fell asleep in Germany and woke up in Italy. I've been gone so long (at least it feels that way) and I had to struggle to remember all the Italian I know. Amsterdam and Munich were absolutely beautiful and I could have spent a much longer time there. I wish I could go back. Maybe some day.
Traveling Europe the hostel way was really fun. We met so many cool people.
Last Note: The German word for Munich is "Munchen." So... does that make them Munchkins??
Sunday, March 7, 2010
I wish I had time to update my blog, but Im about to go on a free walking tour of Munich. Yesterday we went to Cinderellas castle and today we are going to Dachau.
I really liked Amsterdam and Munich. Im sorry my upcoming blog entry is going to be the size of a whale. I will be home tomorrow morning, I can do it then.
I really liked Amsterdam and Munich. Im sorry my upcoming blog entry is going to be the size of a whale. I will be home tomorrow morning, I can do it then.
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