Hey everyone!
Stuff is starting to wind down here in Italia.
Easter dinner was a huuuge success. It ended up being Eastover because we had some Jewish kids with us.. We ended up with 12 people. We had a slight panic because the girl who was bringing appetizers was sick so she couldn't come. Thus Jess and I ended up cooking way more than we would have liked to - Five minutes before people arrived. However Easter was a ton of fun and everyone loved the meal. We made this thing they call "in crosta".. it was a pork roast wrapped in bread and pancetta, and it was absolutely amazing. Not exactly Kosher, but as I was reminded "It's Easter, why would you make it Kosher?" Right, thanks Jonah. ;)
Time is absolutely flying. I've made an effort to do every "Florence thing" possible. My friend Shawn visited these past few days. We went to this restauraunt called Il Latini, and I'm going to have a to make a separate entry for it, just because I think I cam make it into a really good story. I also have climbed the bell tower of the Duomo, and hung out in the Boboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace. Shawn was a really good excuse to do all of these things.. and to re-climb the Duomo. We also went back to Fiesole, which is the town just outside of the city that has the archaeological ruins. However, we got to explore the town a little more, and we found the most AMAZING view of Firenze that I could have ever asked for.
This weekend, five of us are heading to Trapani, a town on the western-ish coast of Sicily.
OH and I'm updating my pictures as I speak (..type?). Apparently some of the albums were on the "private" setting.. SORRY!
I have a little over three weeks left, and I'm devastated. It will be nice to see people, eat cheddar cheese, and wear sweatpants without getting judged for not having "la bella figura".. and I'm excited to start my new job at Butler .. but I'm not quite ready to leave Europe yet.
Grad school abroad? I think so.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Hey everyone
Not a whole lot happening here in Italy lately.. I finally slept through the night last night as it is just Jess and I in our apartment, and I was so excited I thought it warranted getting written down in the blog.
Tomorrow is Easter, and while I'm gonna miss being with my family, we're cooking our own Easter dinner here. For 10 people. :) I'll get pictures of the obnoxious amount of food we bought on here soon... INCLUDING BUNNY CAKE.. provided I can find frosting.
However, in the meantime, Buona Pasqua, and I hope the bunny is good to you.
Oh yeah, and everyone on my mom's side owes me a chocolate rabbit of some sort when I get home. Don't think you guys got off easy this time. ;)
(I also accept payment in jelly beans.)
Ciao Ciao!
Not a whole lot happening here in Italy lately.. I finally slept through the night last night as it is just Jess and I in our apartment, and I was so excited I thought it warranted getting written down in the blog.
Tomorrow is Easter, and while I'm gonna miss being with my family, we're cooking our own Easter dinner here. For 10 people. :) I'll get pictures of the obnoxious amount of food we bought on here soon... INCLUDING BUNNY CAKE.. provided I can find frosting.
However, in the meantime, Buona Pasqua, and I hope the bunny is good to you.
Oh yeah, and everyone on my mom's side owes me a chocolate rabbit of some sort when I get home. Don't think you guys got off easy this time. ;)
(I also accept payment in jelly beans.)
Ciao Ciao!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
I finally have fifteen minutes to write this!
Hey guys!
Sorry (again again) about the delay.. so let's just get right to business.
My spring break was the week after mid-terms.. So my last test was on thursday, and then the festivities began. That weekend, Jess and I stayed in Florence, and had a few people over for a dinner party. It was a lot of fun.. Jess made a seafood risotto. Afterwards a few of us ended up indulging in what I like to call "NOT-3-euro-a-bottle" wine (we've stepped it up to about maybe 5 euro) and watching Family Guy until about 3 am. I feel as though it was an accomplished night, haha.
The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning our apartment (obviously, because who else would?) and packing for our adventure.
On monday afternoon, Jess and I caught a train to Milano, then a bus from there to Bergamo airport. From Bergamo we flew to Prague and landed at about 10:30 pm in a horrific ice/snow/sleet/wind storm.. I actually watched the wing of our 737 do this weird bendy thing while we were flying. Yeah.. my mom didn't know about that one until now. We stayed with a friend of mine's sister, who lives about a 45 minute train ride west of the city in a cute little village called Hostivice. She picked us up at the airport (thank God, we had no money because the Czech Republic isn't on the Euro and also the Czech language makes no sense, so getting to the bus stop would have been a problem). We got back to her apartment and basically fell asleep as soon as we got there, because it had been such a rough flight.
The next morning we got up, were two minutes late for the bus.. and waited in the snow for an hour. In that hour we memorized the bus schedule for the next day, haha. Finally the bus came, we somehow communicated to the driver the name of the place we were trying to go, and got to Zlicin, where we picked up the Metro into the city. This was slightly less complicated, and the two of us arrived in the city in one piece.
Our first day in Prague was an adventure, as it snowed. The entire time. It snowed from the left, then from the right, but never from the sky, for some reason. We got to see the Prague castle, which was also an archaeological museum, and was really cool. Prague is SUCH an old city, and we loved it. We also saw a few more places, ate some lunch and dinner.. In general it was a good day. The next day in Prague, we were much better at public transportation, and the weather was significantly nicer. We bought a ticket to the Prague Jewish Museum, as the Czech Republic was one of the areas that was affected most by the Holocaust (though, I would say you do not hear about it as often). The ticket included entrance to a few memorials, synagogues, and informational museums that were scattered throughout the city. All-in-all, Prague was pretty cool.
We left pretty early on Thursday and once again, caught our bus to the train station.. we got on the train and then got on another bus, destined for Brno, CR and then eventually Vienna, Austria. A friend of mine had set us up with the bus (the website was in Czech and German only, and he happens to speak both) and it was only 10 Euro per person.. whereas flying would have cost us a solid 100 euro each.
We arrived in Vienna and then (barely) navigated ourselves on the Underground to our hotel. Taubstumengasse was the name of our stop. Yeah, German is a CRAZY language.. however the same friend who set us up with the bus has a tendency to babble at me in German (..and czech.. and Italian..) so SOMEHOW i was able to translate things for us as we wandered around after we checked in. Our friend Andrea met us at our hotel, and all three of us passed out for the night.
The next day, we went to the city center and wandered around for a while. We went to Freud's house and Mozart's house. Freud's house was cool, Mozart was a little boring. Maybe that is because I'm a psych major. We also went on "der Prater" (giant ferris wheel in vienna), which was really cool because you get to see the whole city from the top. The next day we visited more sites in Vienna, and had absolutely perfect weather. NICE. Then we climbed the Danube tower, which is the HIGHEST tower ever (but there's an elevator.. and an old German lady hugged me in it because apparently she liked my facial expression) that overlooks the Danube River and all of Vienna. We had dinner in the restaurant up in the tower, and the whole restaurant rotates around so you get to see the entire city lit up at night. This is also where my "Wind" picture (see previous post) came from. Vienna might rival Athens for the "Favorite City Visited" title.
Then I had a week of classes.. I didn't go to two of them (each class allows you five absences, and I have yet to miss any) because my obnoxious roommate decided to have a friend over that kept our entire apartment up three nights in a row. Yes, I did yell at her.
This weekend, our program took us to Siena, a sweet little town in Tuscany.. and then to a natural spa that had pools of naturally hot mineral water. Today we went to Perugia, a city a little further south near Assisi. Then we went to a wine tasting in the Chianti Classico region. The wine was absolutely amazing, so I bought some to ship home. And by "some" I mean "a lot". Don't go there, I'm still in a state of mourning for my bank account.
So there's the update. I only have a little over a month left. I'm devastated.
However, I am excited to start my new job. I was hired as a Mental Health Nurse at Butler hospital over the summer, which pays significantly better than Build-A-Bear does, and it also pertains to my major! My first real job! I'll be doing checks on the patients, admissions, and providing some of their direct care. I think I'm the messenger between the doctors and the patients. "Troubled economy." Don't think so :)
Sorry (again again) about the delay.. so let's just get right to business.
My spring break was the week after mid-terms.. So my last test was on thursday, and then the festivities began. That weekend, Jess and I stayed in Florence, and had a few people over for a dinner party. It was a lot of fun.. Jess made a seafood risotto. Afterwards a few of us ended up indulging in what I like to call "NOT-3-euro-a-bottle" wine (we've stepped it up to about maybe 5 euro) and watching Family Guy until about 3 am. I feel as though it was an accomplished night, haha.
The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning our apartment (obviously, because who else would?) and packing for our adventure.
On monday afternoon, Jess and I caught a train to Milano, then a bus from there to Bergamo airport. From Bergamo we flew to Prague and landed at about 10:30 pm in a horrific ice/snow/sleet/wind storm.. I actually watched the wing of our 737 do this weird bendy thing while we were flying. Yeah.. my mom didn't know about that one until now. We stayed with a friend of mine's sister, who lives about a 45 minute train ride west of the city in a cute little village called Hostivice. She picked us up at the airport (thank God, we had no money because the Czech Republic isn't on the Euro and also the Czech language makes no sense, so getting to the bus stop would have been a problem). We got back to her apartment and basically fell asleep as soon as we got there, because it had been such a rough flight.
The next morning we got up, were two minutes late for the bus.. and waited in the snow for an hour. In that hour we memorized the bus schedule for the next day, haha. Finally the bus came, we somehow communicated to the driver the name of the place we were trying to go, and got to Zlicin, where we picked up the Metro into the city. This was slightly less complicated, and the two of us arrived in the city in one piece.
Our first day in Prague was an adventure, as it snowed. The entire time. It snowed from the left, then from the right, but never from the sky, for some reason. We got to see the Prague castle, which was also an archaeological museum, and was really cool. Prague is SUCH an old city, and we loved it. We also saw a few more places, ate some lunch and dinner.. In general it was a good day. The next day in Prague, we were much better at public transportation, and the weather was significantly nicer. We bought a ticket to the Prague Jewish Museum, as the Czech Republic was one of the areas that was affected most by the Holocaust (though, I would say you do not hear about it as often). The ticket included entrance to a few memorials, synagogues, and informational museums that were scattered throughout the city. All-in-all, Prague was pretty cool.
We left pretty early on Thursday and once again, caught our bus to the train station.. we got on the train and then got on another bus, destined for Brno, CR and then eventually Vienna, Austria. A friend of mine had set us up with the bus (the website was in Czech and German only, and he happens to speak both) and it was only 10 Euro per person.. whereas flying would have cost us a solid 100 euro each.
We arrived in Vienna and then (barely) navigated ourselves on the Underground to our hotel. Taubstumengasse was the name of our stop. Yeah, German is a CRAZY language.. however the same friend who set us up with the bus has a tendency to babble at me in German (..and czech.. and Italian..) so SOMEHOW i was able to translate things for us as we wandered around after we checked in. Our friend Andrea met us at our hotel, and all three of us passed out for the night.
The next day, we went to the city center and wandered around for a while. We went to Freud's house and Mozart's house. Freud's house was cool, Mozart was a little boring. Maybe that is because I'm a psych major. We also went on "der Prater" (giant ferris wheel in vienna), which was really cool because you get to see the whole city from the top. The next day we visited more sites in Vienna, and had absolutely perfect weather. NICE. Then we climbed the Danube tower, which is the HIGHEST tower ever (but there's an elevator.. and an old German lady hugged me in it because apparently she liked my facial expression) that overlooks the Danube River and all of Vienna. We had dinner in the restaurant up in the tower, and the whole restaurant rotates around so you get to see the entire city lit up at night. This is also where my "Wind" picture (see previous post) came from. Vienna might rival Athens for the "Favorite City Visited" title.
Then I had a week of classes.. I didn't go to two of them (each class allows you five absences, and I have yet to miss any) because my obnoxious roommate decided to have a friend over that kept our entire apartment up three nights in a row. Yes, I did yell at her.
This weekend, our program took us to Siena, a sweet little town in Tuscany.. and then to a natural spa that had pools of naturally hot mineral water. Today we went to Perugia, a city a little further south near Assisi. Then we went to a wine tasting in the Chianti Classico region. The wine was absolutely amazing, so I bought some to ship home. And by "some" I mean "a lot". Don't go there, I'm still in a state of mourning for my bank account.
So there's the update. I only have a little over a month left. I'm devastated.
However, I am excited to start my new job. I was hired as a Mental Health Nurse at Butler hospital over the summer, which pays significantly better than Build-A-Bear does, and it also pertains to my major! My first real job! I'll be doing checks on the patients, admissions, and providing some of their direct care. I think I'm the messenger between the doctors and the patients. "Troubled economy." Don't think so :)
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