ah!! late update AGAIN!

I know I know, I haven't written in a few days. And I'm about to hurry and jump in the shower to get ready for our "Vespa Tour" through Tuscany this afternoon and evening! BUT I had to hop on real quick to say that I will be updating tonight- even if it takes so long that I'm up until wee hours of the morning! Much has happened since my last update, and I refuse to forget anything about this trip so blogging about it is my only option! To tide anyone who reads this over until then here's what you have to look forward to...
1) fashion week in Florence
2) Opening night of the Hard Rock Cafe
3) Class Picnic
4)Afternoon in Fiesole
5) Class visit to a Gelateria
6) Getting hit by a bicycle... yes, this really did happen.
7) Cooking Lesson
8) Weekend in Venice (many stories within this category!)
9) Vespa tour!!


Only one week left in Florence.. I can't believe it! Too soon. Next up: Rome, Aix -en- Provence, and finally Paris.

Until tonight,

Ciao!

group in Venice

   my poor attempt to make a hook 'em sign with my shadow... it's the thought that counts, right?

Mavs and Wine. What could be better?

As you all may already know, the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA finals last night! With the seven hour time difference, we had to find a place that would stay open all night for us to be able to watch the game... and we did. We (Meredith, Hannah Mabry, Mary Williams, and Phoebe) found a random, hole in the wall bar, set our alarms for 1 am headed on over there to cheer on our team. What a memory! A group of Miami Heat fans were there, as well as a few other American Mavs fans. And then there were the Italians. A bunch of Italian men about our age were there, some in Mavs jerseys, and none knowing a thing about basketball! Now, I know I'm not the queen of this game either, but I definitely know more than them! We had such a good time and I know that we will never forget the night the Mavs won in Florence, Italy... just too good.

Today we got our internet back.. yayy.... so I'm sitting in the comfort of our living room listening to Ben Rector, and getting ready to read for class. We are now into the wine portion of our "Culture of Food and Wine in Italy" class! Today, we learned how wine is made and then learned how to do a proper wine tasting. I am continually fascinated by this class. There is so much more to wine and food than I ever thought possible! Like with food grown here, wine made from the same grape can taste completely different from each other based on the soil in which it was grown! We tasted 3 Chianti wines in class today. Chianti is a red wine, and 2 of them were grown and made only a 50 km from the other the same year. BUT they tasted extremely different!

I feel so blessed to be here learning all about the culture of Italy and it's history through it's food. It amazes me every time I think about how old this place is! However, as much fun as all of this is, I know that I will be ready to come home to AMERICA when this is all over. I have a new appreciation for our "Land of the free and home of the brave." Cheesy and cliche I know but it's true! I love the U.S. and TEXAS and am missing my roots! And my Diet Dr. Pepper.. the only thing they have here is "Coke Light"... SO not the same thing! Good thing we'll be in Normandy on the 4th of July-- get to be patriotic while in France. i'll just have to dream about everything else for a little while longer. This place isn't all that bad after all :)

I'll leave you with pictures of the places I hold dear to my heart: America, Texas, the Longhorns, and Diet Dr. Pepper:

Another Sunday to relax

I love Sundays in general, but Sundays here have been a particularly restful time for me. I've been sitting at this restaurant for quite some time now and could stay for much longer... it's so nice to get caught up on everything and just be. That's pretty much all I've done today. I plan to get a new camera today or tomorrow morning, go for a run, and take a nap! Bur it's already 4:50 pm so I  don't know if that's actually going to happen. Just blogging away...don't want to forget anything about this trip!

I read this morning in John 4, "I am the bread of Life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, Whoever believes in me shall never thirst." An encouraging verse to read while here. There is no other source of energy or life than Christ Alone. I seem to forget this in the day to day, but reading it today, was such a breath of fresh air. I don't need anything else. Not a camera or souvenir or plan for my life... I will never be hungry or thirsty if I come to Jesus and believe in Him!

That's all for today! We are going to try to find a place to watch the Mavs play tonight (3 am here).... hopefully that will work out!

Saturday, June 11

We decided to skip the day trip with our group to Siena today to show Sarah Beth and Catherine around Florence. We started the day with a trip to the Duomo to climb the dome, which is over 450 steps!! I can't remember what the exact number is, but it's a lot! The view at the top was incredible! We were up so high, but it really didn't feel like that at all. The city seemed to have shrunk though into a little snow globe. We had so much fun pointing out where everything was in the city and seeing how far away everything is.. we do  a lot of walking here! It makes me feel like I need to be walking everywhere at home too... everything is the same distance or even closer there than it is here but we still drive everywhere!

We went to the San Lorenzo Market afterwords to do some shopping.... We stopped into some real shops as well that were adorable. My favorite was a little stationary shop, where they make all their paper, journals, stationary etc etc by hand. It was a really neat place. There was an older man running the place who was adorable. He loved talking to us and even gave us a demonstration of how they make "marble paper".  It was so cool! I ended up buying a leather bound journal with blank pages. I'm really excited to use it. I've always wanted a journal with blank pages to write in. Somehow it frees up the space a and my thoughts to be able to so whatever I want to with it. Our new friend was so nice to me and gave me a reduced price on it too... how nice! I'm glad I was able to support his business. 

More shopping in the marketplace, where we ran into more Texas friends in town from Spain! It made my day! I got to see Kelsey Mullane, Kendall Mccord, Kristen Kuhn, Emily Anderson, and Taylor Duke! We got a picture right there, which I am so glad about because it hasn't worked out to see them since (yet). We are all determined to make it work though. Regardless, it was a great to see them. Again, the world shrunk.

We took SB and Catherine on our long walk to the Michelangelo lookout point, another favorite thing to do here. When we got to the monastical, there was a bride and groom walking out, so we went up and watched them take pictures. Can you imagine walking out of a church high up with the entire view of Florence on your wedding day?! That's what this bride go to do and we were all jealous :)
Bought a few more items at a really cool ceramic store, where everything is handcrafted in Italy, when we came back down. I bought a 'terra cotta' Nativity scene  from the region of Umbria (where all 'terra cotta' is made here) and a ceramic bowl, painted with great colors and designs. I love them both! I know they're probably pretty boring for this stage of my life, but they'll be special when I'm old and get to remember my trip time in Italy every time I use them! (evidence that I was definitely born in the wrong decade). Then we dropped the girls off at the Accademia to go shower since we'd already done that.

I bet you can guess where we took them for dinner... El Gato!! Another good meal there, where we thoroughly stuffed ourselves with bread, pasta, and a calzone. I don't think we had enough carbs last night... haha. We went to an overpriced restaurant in the Piazza della Repubblica after dinner to get wine and dessert. That was the best part of the night! There is live jazz music every night at this place, so we got a table on the terrace right by the band, ordered a delicious dessert wine and hung out there for about FOUR hours! The band was great and there were some toddlers dancing up front to the music, which was adorable. We ended up dancing the night away up there too, to music including My Girls, some Frank  Sinatra, and other classics that was hilarious! They even played some country music too (tried too at least! ). Dessert was sensational... I got fresh wild berries with whipped cream and vanilla gelato, others got a warm chocolate cake with gelato, and another got a fruit tart. ALL looked and tasted amazing. We dubbed the night "glutenous", or rather ""it's just the Italian way" (ya right) after all that we had eaten. It's funny how you can be so full from dinner, but when dessert comes around, you suddenly have room for it! HA- so the story of my life...

What a fun day and night we had! Possibly the best night of the trip! I think we are going to have to go to that place a few more nights.. the atmosphere is worth the high price!

Friday, June 10... no more rain!

The first sunny day since all the storms we had this past week! yay! I had a midterm in class, which went well (I think)...got out of class early and met Caroline Melo for lunch! We hadn't seen each other yet, and I'm so glad that we finally made it work. On our way to lunch we ran into Skip Moran's Europe trip of HP seniors! It was unreal... I saw 4 cute girls, two being Story Slaughter and Kate Arveson. So much fun! I can't believe we ran into them!

After lunch, we met up with Jennifer Jordan, Jessica Wendell, and Merritt Owen at the Pitti Palace to go to the Boboli Gardens. These are the gardens behind the palace where the Medici's lived during their reign over Florence. Some other girls in their program met us there as well. We ended up going to different gardens of the Medici's because the Boboli gardens were closed sue to some damage from all the storms. The gardens that we went to were beautiful though! We were able to see the entire city as we walked up the hills. I'm so glad that I was able to meet up with these Texas friends!

Later, I met up with Meredith, Sarah Beth McDonald, and Catherine Dennis! SB and Catherine came in town from Spain for a visit. It was so fun! I met them while shopping around, which was great since I hadn't really shopped much yet. We went in and out of vintage stores, antiques stores, stationary stores etc. I ended up buying a really cool light brown leather purse... I LOVE IT! I actually thought it was something that my friend, Claire Smith (shout out to her) would like, so I was inspired to be like her and get it!

After shopping, we met up with Phoebe and Hilary at Dante's (where else would we go?!) for dinner. The hostess recognized us from the night before and greeted us with kisses and a great table! We are officially regulars! I'm so excited about our accomplishment! Another good dinner there and then gelato- of course. Phoebe and Hilary went home, but the rest of us walked around town, where we ran into more familiar faces unexpectedly! We were walking around the Duomo, when saw a guy with some people I didn't know but was convinced that it was him... and it sure was! Trey Carlock! What?! I hadn't seen him in over a year and was definitely not expecting to see him in Florence, Italy. Meredith and I couldn't believe it. Shortly after running into him, Sarah Beth saw the Alamo Heights senior trip. The world literally shrunk in one day when we ran into all these people from different times of life. To make it even smaller, some of these seniors are coming to Texas and rooming with HP kids that I know next year.. I couldn't help but laugh when we figured all this out!


Anyways, those are pretty much all the highlights of Friday....

Oh, my professor is the sweetest woman. She's crazy, but so sweet. I asked her about where to get a new camera after the exam, and immediately gave me her cell phone number and offered to give me a ride and help me purchase a new one whenever I need to go. I am so thankful for her and this program! They really take care of you no matter the circumstance.

                                At the gardens with friends from UT... such a fun afternoon

Pictures...

 

In Lucca: so excited to get our Diet Coke with Ice and a straw... nothing better!

 See the zucchini on the top right? When it's sold with the flower on it means that it was picked within 24 hours before. The flower only lasts 24 hours after you pick the plant, so it's the indicator for fresh zucchini!

                             Supposedly the best apples in Florence so I decided to take a picture

                    Farro; the grain that the ancient Romans used to eat and make bread with.. COOL!

                                                                      cute old man

                                                                     questionable?

                          The different types of Pecorino cheeses I described in am earlier post.

At the San Lorenzo Market with class... proudly displaying the dried fruit and nuts... I'm going to have to go back and get some...

I can't believe it's already been over 2 weeks!

Well, I'm sitting at a restaurant with free wifi right now so that I can finally update this blog... yes, our internet is STILL down! It's been quite a struggle not being able to get online, thoroughly stalk the world via facebook, email, blog etc etc... but today is the day!  I have much to update too, since the last few days have had many ups and downs.

I'll start with the positive... On Wednesday afternoon, after going to the San Lorenzo market with class, we had a group activity: a tour of the Accademia, where Michelangelo's sculpture of the "David" is! our guide was the German who gave us our walking tour the second day in Florence. She's wonderful! She makes me laugh so hard with her expressive way telling us about history and art. It really does come to life when she speaks about it all.. such a blessing to have her for a guide! She also loves to laugh at herself and every time she does, she ends up snorting... it's HILARIOUS! haha, maybe I'm a dork but I think it's so funny. I couldn't stop laughing whenever that happened. Anyways, the statue of the "David" is remarkably HUGE.  It's incredible that Michelangelo could hammer out such a massive, detailed image out of extremely hard marble in just 3 years! He had no tools but his hands and chisels.

Being a rainy day, we ran home after the tour of the museum. I uploaded pictures taken at the market and then Meredith and I went to get wifi at a restaurant.. I had a project to finish about Italian Gastronomy..woohooo.. then to get gelato at GROM of course. it's my favorite! I write about all these details to preface the big negative that happened... my camera was stolen sometime between going to study and getting gelato. I didn't realize it was missing until Thursday morning when I wanted to take it to the market. Thankfully, I had already uploaded every picture I had taken to my computer, but it was still big bummer.

On Thursday afternoon, our class took a visit to the San Ambrogio Market, similar to the San Lorenzo Market that we went to the day before. This market caters more to locals, so it was fun to see them shopping for their daily produce, meats, cheeses, and flowers. I wish I could shop for my groceries there! Everything is so fresh, brought it by the producers to sell... so much different than in the States where we buy food from regions farther away. All very interesting. 
After class, I was determined to find my camera, so I went back to both places that Meredith and I went to the night before. Didn't find it, so I went to CEA to see what I should do about filing a police report. I ended up having to walk across town about 20 minutes to the only station still open, file a report, and then tearfully walk back feeling very defeated. I was a baby about this whole incident. O well.  It's a learning experience I guess... and a true revelation of where my heart is... in stuff? or in the Lord? As frustrating as it is to have my brand new camera stolen, it is just a camera and I have all my pictures. I am very thankful that nothing worse happened, and for this experience. I've learned so much these past 2 weeks!

Thursday evening, Meredith, Phoebe, Hilary and I went to Dante's- our other favorite restaurant for dinner. This place is awesome! They give your table a bottle of wine free if you are students, and the food is delicious as well. Gelato of course (my 2n one today.. oops... bad day... that's my excuse!)

Posting pictures and stuff about our fun weekend next!