Pomodori secchi. Dried tomatoes.

Hello everyone! I'm sorry that I have not posted the last few days. I had 4 midterms this week, 3 of which were in 24 hours. I can happily say that they are all finished and I think they all went really well, especially my art history midterm. (After that test I think I could actually become a tour guide. We had to recognize the picture, know the official name, the artist/architect, the date, original location, original function, who it was dedicated to if applicable, and for some we had to know a few important characteristics about it. It was definitely a lot, but I feel really good about it.)

I am also happy to report that since my bus mishap, I figured out how to get to school. I take my usual bus from my street and then get off at a stop, where I then get on another, much smaller bus, which then takes me 1 block away from my school. I now have to walk less, which I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about. It is nice, but I do enjoy my walk along the river. Luckily I still get to walk along it on my way home after school. It was especially beautiful today.

I absolutely love the Florentine sun! There really is something about the way it bounces off of the buildings and hits the streets. It definitely gives me a high when I walk through the city. 

This is a little park that I pass by on my walk everyday. I like it because it is cute and sits right in front of the a tiny little Lutheran church (which you don't see many of). Also, it was really exciting to me when I was reading one of my books for class and the main character talked about taking a nightly walk with his wife and stopping at this park! Despite all of the time I have to spend reading, I really do like my literature class. The more we read about Florence, the more that I notice around the city. Unfortunately, the next book that I have to read is Hannibal. I'm not very excited about this one. :( 

Well, I decided to combine the last 3 days into one blog, seeing that not much happened, except for my studying and classes. One thing to note is that last night I was watching the final Harry Potter movie with my mother. While we were watching the power in the entire neighborhood went out! We were able to get it on after a little bit. I saved the day with my travel clock that has a flashlight on it!! Other than that things have been pretty uneventful. 

I will do my best to catch you up on all of the food that I have been having, which is anything but uneventful. 

On Tuesday I decided to be adventurous and try something new on my sandwiches! As I have mentioned, I'm not a big fan of raw tomatoes, but I decided that I would try and embrace them. So, I settled on an alternative, pomodori secchi, dried tomatoes. I went to my favorite panini place and got turkey, philadelphia, lettuce, and dried tomatoes. Philadelphia on sandwiches is incredible, and all of these flavors went really well together, so much so that I went and got the exact same thing on Wednesday! 

Tuesday night for dinner we had pici, which is a very thick spaghetti that is popular in Siena. I didn't take a picture of ours, but this is a picture I found online so you can see how thick it is. You literally take one single piece and wrap it around your fork and your fork is full! It took a very long time to eat. (Also, they kind of look like worms, but they were very good.) I can't remember what we had for our protein, but then after dinner we had freshly squeezed orange juice!  :)

Wednesday night we had a piece of bread that had sausage and cheese on it that was then put in the oven. This was the highlight of my meal. Then we had a risotto that was very good, as well as some fried chicken. 

Today I decided to treat myself after I finished my art history test. You're probably thinking that means I got the largest cup of gelato possible. Well you'd be wrong. No, I did not get chocolate or gelato. Instead, I got a 7 euro panini from Mama's Bakery!! 

(And it WAS worth it!)

I got the 'Mama's Club' which had mayo, turkey, bacon, 2 kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, and avocados, all sandwiched between 3 slices of warm toasted bread. 

It was heaven! (I think this was the first time that I've had whole pieces of fresh avocado.) 

Tonight we had minestrone soup, and then bread with an assortment of meats and cheeses, and some smiley face fries! (I felt like such a little kid- I turned all of my smiley faces the right way so they were smiling at me! I definitely had fun during dinner.)

Now it is time for me to pack! I leaving tomorrow morning for Rome where I will meet up with my Dad and Uncle. We will be spending the next 10 days visiting our relatives in Calabria and Piemonte. I am very excited! Words cannot even express the excitement I have. The whole reason that I am studying abroad in Italy is because I'm Italian and I wanted to be able to fully experience my heritage. So to be able to meet my relatives that live in Italy, where my obsession begins, is sort of the climax of my journey. Not only am I in the motherland, but I'm going directly to where the two sides of my family come from. 

Stella wants to come with me!

I'm not sure if I will have any internet access, so I will be keep everything written down in a journal so I don't forget anything, and then I will report back to you all sometime around the 10th or 11th of March. 

Have a good week everyone! (And enjoy your snow!)

Deviazione. Detour.

Well today definitely started off with an adventure. After resetting my alarm for a half hour later, I finally got up around 10:30, had my breakfast, and got ready. Around noon I was getting on the bus to head to school. Half way through my bus ride, instead of continuing straight on my normal bus route, my bus took a turn and headed in the opposite direction of school! I tried to stay calm, and decided that the bus would have to go back towards that direction eventually. So I waited for a few stops, and decided that I would get off once I got to a place I knew. After about 4 stops I was worried this wasn't going to happen, and was contemplating just hopping off and using my map to find my way back. (Good thing I didn't choose this option because I didn't realize I didn't have my map with me.) Finally I passed an area that I had been before, so this made me feel a little bit better. Soon, up ahead I could see the dome of the Duomo (no this is not redundant- duomo means house of god, not dome) rising up above the buildings. Rather than risk the bus taking more turns in another direction I decided to hop off the bus at the next stop and walk towards the Duomo. I did eventually make it to school, however the detour added about an extra 40 minutes, most of which I had to do walking. The only good thing to come out of my detour was that it put me near I Due Frattelini, which I had wanted to go back to, so I was able to get another yummy panini from them!

I actually waited to eat it this time until I got a picture! 

This afternoon I had my literature midterm, which I think went really well, and then I had a review session for my art history midterm. 

After a long afternoon I was finally able to head home. Luckily the bus route isn't changed for my way home. Otherwise I would be pretty upset if I had to walk way out of my at night. 

For dinner tonight we had some spaghetti that was in an olive oil sauce, but it had a bit of a kick to it. There may have been some peppers somewhere. Then we had some meatballs, Italian sausage, and the stuffed meatloaf along with some really good peas! They were cooked with a little bit of onion and ham  I  believe and had a little bit of a sauce (possibly oil). I ate every single little pea! :) 

Then for dessert we had a cake. It was a yellow cake that had an orange flavor, and then there was a thick whipped cream in between the two layers and cocoa powder on top!

It was to die for. 

Well that is all for tonight. I need a lot of sleep for all these midterms!

Una notte di film. Movie night.

Well today I had another productive day. I woke up a little bit earlier than yesterday: around 10:30. I got up and had my breakfast and then set right back in on my homework for a few hours. I had to study for my literature midterm tomorrow as well as make sure all of the journals that I was supposed to be keeping were finished and ready to be turned in tomorrow.

Around 1 I showered and got ready, and I headed out to take some money out of the ATM. I didn't really feel like taking the bus all the way into the city to use the ATM that I normally do, so luckily I found one that was 3 blocks away from my house. It forced me to go explore a little bit of my neighborhood more. There are some really interesting street names in my neighborhood. Definitely not what you would think of for a city in Italy.
Anyway, after I returned home I had to set out to buy pizzas for tonight. I was hosting a movie night with some girls from school. There was supposed to be a pretty big group, but about half couldn't make it because of school and not feeling well. But we had a nice little group tonight, so it was okay.
The grocery store that is on my street is not open on Sundays so I ended having to go into the city anyway to buy the pizzas. Luckily there is a grocery store pretty close to my bus stop in the city so I didn't have to go very far.

I ended up buying 4 pizzas, 2 margherita, 1 prosciutto, and 1 salame. Now, it is a sad thing when boxed frozen pizzas in Italy taste better than the pizzas you get at a restaurant in the U.S. The prosciutto and salame pizzas were my favorite! There were 6 of us, so we each ended up getting 4 pieces of pizza. It worked out perfectly!
After we ate then we watched Zombieland, which was really funny.
I definitely had a fun night, and it was nice not having to go out to other people's places for once.

And don't worry, Mom, I get everything cleaned up! I even took out the garbage and all the recylcing. :)

A domani!

Pasta alla buona. Potluck.

So yesterday I got up around 11:30 and had my breakfast. Then I got right to work on my homework for the next week. I knew I had a lot of stuff to study for for this coming week, so I had to start early. I spent the afternoon compiling all of the pictures of the pieces of art that we had seen and discussed so far in my art history class. We have to do identifications of the pieces of art with title, date, artist, and patron for our midterm. Then I watched a documentary that I had to watch before class this week and answered the questions for it. It was actually a really good documentary. It's called "Waste=Food". I would recommend watching it. It's only 45 minutes and you can watch it online for free. You can just type the name into a search online and it will come up. Then later in the afternoon I showered and got ready. I had to be ready for my night out!
I was heading over to my friends' apartment where almost our entire program was going to be for another weekly "family dinner". This time we decided to do a potluck style. We had so much food, I was so stuffed by the time I left later at night.
I brought 2 big blocks of cheese which I cut up. I brought pecorino and asiago, and everyone really liked them. (I'm spreading my love of asiago around!)

We had 2 different kinds of chili, both of which were really really good! It was great too because it was freezing yesterday. It was raining a lot which made it worse with the dampness. I actually saw a few cars that had snow on them. They must have been parked up in one of the hills/mountains around the city. We also had some spaghetti in a pesto sauce, roasted potatoes, chips and salsa, 7 layer taco dip, seasoned vegetables, a tuna pasta salad, garlic bread, cheese, pears, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate filled wafers, and of course wine! There were 22 people all crammed into one apartment! It was a lot of fun, and everyone was a good cook! It's really nice that our program is a little bit smaller than some of the other school's that are with ACCENT because we all know each other and we all hang out. Some of the other programs, for example the USC group has over 60 people, and they're from all over California, so they aren't all from the same place. We have 26 people in our program, so the only people we were missing were the ones that were out of town this weekend. It definitely was a success.

This is a picture of my plate! As you can see it was definitely full! (Sorry it's really dark.)

This is a picture that one of my friends took at the dinner. This is only half of us. The rest of the people were behind her and in the kitchen grabbing more food.

Well that is all for now!

Sfrutta al massimo questa giornata.
Make the most of this day.

Scrivere. To write.

So today I had a makeup class for Literature. There is no school on Easter Monday, so since my Lit class is usually on Monday, we had our makeup for it this week. 

We were supposed to be working on editing our short stories that we were writing, but the guy that was supposed to come hurt his back 40 minutes before our class and couldn't move. That was strike 1. Strike 2 was one my classmates got locked inside (yes inside) his homestay apartment and couldn't leave until his mother came back. He lost his keys and wouldn't be able to close the door without them, so he was forced to stay home. So our class was kind of a bust, but we made it work. We actually had a lot of fun. We had some good discussions and read some of the writing that we had done for homework in addition to some writing we did during an exercise in class. We're all really good writers, but in different ways. It was really cool getting to hear other people's perspectives and "voices". I think once some of my stuff gets edited I may post if for you to read. Particularly the travel writing things that we had to practice. 

Before class I went to my favorite panini place and I got a salame, prosciutto crudo, lettuce, and philadelphia. (They call cream cheese 'philadelphia'.) Cream cheese on my sandwich was amazing! I am definitely going to be doing that a lot next week. It just added a completely different dimension to the sandwich. It was a similar thing the day before with the soft goat cheese. I really liked what the cheese spreads add. I literally savored every bite of this panino. I was in heaven. It wasn't until 8 hours later when I was ordering my dinner that I realized it was Friday and that I had meat on my panino. I blame the fact that I had class and so it didn't seem Friday. Oops. Although, I really think only American Catholics follow the no meat on Friday rule. 

During the break during our class the 3 of us in my class went to a gelato shop that was 2 blocks away, right by the river. Everyone has been talking about them and some of their bizarre flavors (such as black sesame). I decided to try something new other than my usual variations of chocolate. So I got the marscapone flavor and the lemon. The marscapone was really good! For those of you that have had my cannoli cupcakes or my cannoli cake that I made last year, it tasted like that! It made me want to make them again. The lemon was pretty good, but was a bit too sour, which could have been in contrast to the marscapone, but I think the lemon at de Neri was much better. 

For dinner I met up with a group of my friends and we went to a restaurant called Pizzeria I Tarocchi. They had quite the extensive list of pizzas, however we all got pasta. A friend had been recommended to try the pear filled ravioli. I had a bite of one and it was really interesting, but really good. It was a good mixture of salty and sweet. I got a pasta that had a spicy red sauce with peppers. It was really good, but definitely did have a kick to it. I thought it was a really good portion size too, and I was stuffed by the time I was done. I think I will want to go back here a few times to try some of their other dishes and/or pizzas. 

Cioccolato caldo. Hot chocolate.

So on Thursday I had my Art History class and we went to visit the church of Orsanmichele. The church is located on Via Calziuoli and was the center of what was the financial district of Florence. 

Now, the church was not originally a church, it was actually the open air grain market for the city. The grain was stored on the first floor (which you know would be considered the second floor in the U.S.) since the city was used to flooding and was sent down by chutes inside the pillars to the ground floor where the citizens would come purchase it.

 The fact that it wasn't originally a church is clearly obvious the moment you step inside. The front doors are in the center of the building and when you walk inside you are not greeted by the main aisle, but rather by a row of large stone pillars that are flanked by a set of 2 smaller aisles, each with their own pews. Further, while the church is techinically in a rectangular shape, it is a rather stumpy rectangle and you don't get the feel of a church based purely off of the geometry of the building. Usually when you would walk into a church the center aisle will lead you right up to the altar. Well, not only is there no center aisle, but the altar is not at the center either. In front of the left set of pews is the altar, and in front of the right set of pews is the pulpit as well as the painting of Madonna and child that is surrounded by a stone baldaquin. For those of you that don't know what a baldquin is, it is a ceremonial canopy that covers a sacred object. For those of you that have been to St. Peter's in Rome, they have the largest baldaquin in the world. (It is the large bronze canopy over the altar.) 

So you may be wondering why a grain market was converted into a church. Well in 1348 the Black Death was occurring in Europe. The people of Florence prayed to the painting of the Virgin and child and said that if she would save the city from the plague that they would transform the grain market into a church dedicated to her. Well despite the fact that more than half of the city died, the Florentines still believed that the Virgin held up her part of the deal and they began converting the market. The market was an open air market, so it only had 2 walls on the ground floor, so they had to build 2 more walls to close it in. This is why only half of the walls have decorative frescoes on them.

**We were not allowed to take pictures, so I found these from online, so you all can tell what I'm talking about, in case my descriptions aren't helping.**

This is a picture of the baldaquin that surrounds the painting of the virgin and child.

The outside of the building is just as interesting as the inside. When the building was converted the city put the 14 historic guilds of the city in charge of decorating and upkeep of the building. So thus, you will find 14 statues that create a ring around the building. Each statue represents each guild, (their placements are signigicant to the status of the guild) and represents the guild based off of their work and  often their patron saint. It was quite fun playing "guess which guild" as we went around. 

After class I stopped at a new panini place-or at least new to me. It is is called 'I Due Fratellini' (The Two Brothers). They have been around since 1875 and make really good sandwiches for only 2.50. If you want to build your own with more ingredients then it is 4 euro. I chose one of the 2.50 paninis. I got Tuscan salame (which has fennel in it) and soft goat cheese. It was absolutely wonderful. I wanted to go back for a second one after I finished my first. 

It was a cold and rainy day so I decided to treat myself to a little warm up!

Cioccolato caldo!! Hot chocolate!! Yes, there is a spoon, because their hot chocolate is more like a cup of melted chocolate. It is much thicker, and much richer. It can serve as a meal all on its own. I enjoyed it, so much so that I ended up spilling on myself a bit. Luckily I got it to wash off my coat for the most part. Also, their whipped cream is amazing. You can tell that is the real deal! None of that low-calorie junk, because seriously, if you're going to have a cup of melted chocolate, it's kind of pointless to then have a fat free whipped cream. Go big, or go home. (I went big.)

Just another shot of my hot chocolate. I think this picture makes it a little clearer just how thick the hot chocolate is. 

Today for dinner my mother made one of my father's favorite dishes : linguini and clams! When she put my bowl down in front of my face I made a little squeal sound (out of excitement) and she thought I didn't like it. I explained to her that I did like it and that my dad makes it every Christmas Eve, which she approved of as being the right thing to eat. (We may be a few generations removed from Italy, but our traditions are still being upheld.)

It was delicious, I definitely could've gone back for seconds. (Dad, you may have some competition with this dish.) After our pasta then we had fish, which was some kind of cod or other similar fish. (The kind that I like.) She had cooked them in a red sauce on the stove and they were awesome! Usually I only like fish that is fried with tartar sauce, but this recipe is definitely something I will be trying back home.  We also had some spinach, which I was not a fan of. I only took two bites, which I forced myself to swallow. Cold spinach just isn't my thing. 

After dinner I had a bunch of homework to work on, because despite the next day being Friday, I had school.

Cheese Cake. Cheese Cake.

hello Hello HELLO!! Yes, I am alive. I am sincerely sorry that I am so behind on my blogs. The last couple of days have been extremely hectic. Next week I have 4 midterms and then leave for Spring Break on Friday, so I have a lot to get done between now and then. 

So (in case you forgot) this is the blog for Wednesday. 

I got up in the morning and did my usual routine for the morning. Seeing as how I got to sleep in I had my breakfast kind of late so I wasn't really hungry around lunch time, but I knew that if I didn't eat I would be starving by the time it was 3 o'clock. 

I had been hearing a bunch of my classmates talk about this place called "Mama's Bakery". Everyone said that it was really good, and perfect if you were craving something back home. So I decided to go check it out. It is a block away from school so a friend and I went to grab something quick before class started at 1pm. The minute you walk into the place you feel like you are back in the U.S. It is a cute bakery/cafe where the menu is written in English, there are american bakery items, and San Francisco decorations all over the walls! Who would think that in a neighborhood that is outside of the tourist loop would have an American bakery? 

Well, perhaps one day my mother and sisters and I will move to Italy and start a bakery. (I hope so, because I already have a named picked out.)

There were brownies, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, bagels, sandwiches and much more! 

I decided that it would probably be a good idea to get something that would stick with me longer than a cupcake would. So I settled on a bagel. I got a cinnamon, raisin, almond cream cheese. It was absolutely delicious! I can't wait to go back to the bakery and try some of their other treats. 

After class I met up with a girl from my program, Jessica, who was coming over to my house for her homestay dinner. She has only had a few weeks of Italian, but between my translating and looking some words or phrases up, she got by pretty well and she seemed to have a fun time. 

My mother cooked fettucine with a meat red sauce. Then we had sliced chicken (it was cut like Italian beef and then cooked on the stove) as well as purpettes (which are mashed potatoes rolled into balls or sometimes patties that are then fried on the outside). I've always loved these.

Finally we had homemade chocolate cheesecake that my mother made! This was the first time she had made it, and it was really good! I was absolutely in love with the crust. 

Once the night had ended I went with my host brother as we drove Jessica back to her apartment since it is quite far away from where I live. I've driven with my brother a few times, and let me just say that I applaud the Italians on their driving. To an outsider, yes, it does seem very crazy and a bit scary however, I have yet to see an accident. It seems kind of bizarre to me that back home, where the driving laws are enforced pretty strictly, there are accidents all the time, and here, where the laws seem to be more of a formality than anything else, there seems to be so few accidents. The no parking signs don't matter, double parking is a common occurrence and the driving lanes are a joke. Everyone looks forward to what is happening in front of them, and they don't really worry about what's going on behind them. If everyone pays attention to the front, then there isn't a need to worry about what's behind you, because they are paying attention to you. It seems a bit flawed, but it seems to work. I think that accidents occur because only some people follow the traffic laws. Those that do, expect others to, and thus an accident occurs when they don't. You either need 100% compliance or 100% negligence, but if you have negligence, as here, everyone needs to know that, and be on the same page about what to expect. Perhaps I will have to go to a roundabout and take a video for you to really understand. Plus, their roundabouts make our roundabouts look like a joke. Seriously. 

Okay, well that was all for Wednesday, now time for bed for me!