I've Been Gone for a Minute...

... now I'm back with the jump off

Just kidding.  But seriously, I've heard so much complaining from everyone, especially my mother who I just spent the week with, about how I haven't written in so long.  WELL SORRY PEOPLE.. who would have thought that studying abroad comes with actual homework.  Um, not what I signed up for?  It turns out this was my hardest semester yet! Jokes again, but seriously I wanted to f'ing kill myself when I realized halfway through February that i had three 3,500 word research papers to due on the same day!  Not to mention that day came after one straight month of traveling Thursday to Sunday night and two consecutive weeks of hosting visitors.  Like come on.  So besides from having nearly no internet, which we didn't, every spare minute used to be on the web was consumed with google searches on Roberto Cavalli and Ravioli.  I know what your thinking rough life right? but tell me how many peer reviewed sources you find on either.  Don't even mind the paper for Women's Studies.  That one me and Dani made up on the couch the morning before.  I was impressed it only took us three hours.  Grades have not yet been received for that paper but the others I got 90s.  Now you have to be proud that I did good instead of being mad that I haven't posted.

So I'll start at the beginning of the middle, in a few posts.

After those two field trips and two consecutive weekends in Florence we had had it.  We were ready to travel.  Switzerland was the perfect pregame to the party that would be the duration of our abroad experience.  It was beautiful and fun and exciting and relaxing and we tried so many new things it left us drooling for more, starting with a trip to Rome that was included in our program.

heh

I'll get the bad out of the way first: our hotel was VILE.  I would feel too bad listing the name but the room was dark and scary with uncomfortable looking furniture and pleasant blend of cream and scuff mark walls and a shower that could make you want to commit suicide.  I refuse to go into further detail.  The sights we saw were amazing.  I know from The Lizzie McGuire Movie that there are approximately 27 monuments or landmark thingies in Rome.  Not really morning people, and usually ones for long afternoon naps, we had a tough time keeping up with the school tours so we had to navigate the eternal city ourselves. First we hit up the Trevie Fountain and the Spanish steps.  We had a lot of fun playing on those, progressing up and down the levels taking pictures traditional tourist style.  It must have looked like we were having so much fun because a guy from Finland (not a Confessions of a Shopaholic joke!) decided to put his son in between Dani and Joey for a picture.  Good times.

with that running start i swear he was going over

We continued on to the Vittoriano which was the prettiest pearl in all of Rome.  Not literally but it was the shiniest white building I have ever seen. So preeeety. Seriously, Rome was like an ancient playground.

We met up with friends from Towson, Caroline and Dani who are also in Joey's sorority.  Amazing hosts from the get go, THEY TOOK US FOR CHICKEN PARM.  It was so good we went back two more times all in the span of three days.  I don't know the full name but we called it Tony's in Rome.  Next, we went to this cool shots bar where you can get dollar- I'm sorry- one euro shots.  Naturally that was a blast,  but the rest was a blurr.  We ended up splitting up.  Me and Caroline momentarily went into a club that no one else was going in and ventured to another bar which I called Shipwreck but I think it was called Drunk Ship (this may be vice versa) to wait online for the bathroom until the bar closed.  We continued to get some type of either  koolaid or red slurpie shot.  The red part is clear the rest I can't quiet remember.  {It was Feburary, I can even remember yesterday.}  The other girls got severely lost and winded up jumping in a fountain.  So pissed, I would have loved to do that, I love water.  When we finally reunited is was overdue cab time and back on our way to the hotel.  Thank god I was tired enough to knock out like a light because that room was seriously scary to fall alseep in.  1408.

hehe... it almost says my name

The next morning we decided to be good sports and go on a school tour to the Vatican at the crack of dawn.  Being "those" girls, we let everyone else wait on the line for the museum and we went to a cafe across the street for breakfast.  We hopped back on when the class got considerably close to the entrance.    The church was great, I was just tired and tired of paintings about Jesus.  They could have switched it up a little bit you know.  What about that guy Joseph and his really pretty coat?  I could have used to see a couple of wall sized paintings of that.  Saint Peters square was really beautiful though.  I can seriously picture all those people in Eurotrip filling that plaza up!  That was when we took a prenap lunch break for another round of Tony's chicken parm and penne alla vodka, only this time to be accompanied by delicious mussels.  Like after any traditional thanksgiving dinner, we returned to the hotel for a nap and late sushi dinner/pregame before heading to the club with what I thought was the best DJ I had ever heard.



Our final full day in Rome was spent exploring Rome's as Corey likes to call it "ancient shit" and jumping on a guided American tour of the Colosseum.  So worth being on a tour because not only would I have no idea what the heck I was looking at, I needed a professional to tell me where the lion elevators were.  He told me :0)

this dysfunctional thing costs 30 euro, but i love it

That night we met Joey's parents for dinner at this delicious place Gusto in which the four of us (in twos) shared tenderloin on top of a potato latke mountain and parmesan gnocchi.  So delicious.  We then proceeded up the Spanish steps in heels to their gorgeous hotel fit for a king for drinks in the salon.  Oh you fancy, huh? We laughed so hard at jokes about Joey and stories of abroad.  It was definitely one of the best pregames yet.  The club that we went to after was basically in a subway station but one of the nicer clubs in europe that we've been too.  THIS was the best DJ I have ever heard with remixes from the 90's and beginning of the 2000s you haven't heard in so long mixed to the best beats. Bliss. However it was very hot and way too crowded so after procrastinating "the next song"after "the next song" we left to get a goodnight sleep before getting a bad nap on the bus.  Unfortunately for us, right after we left Leonardo DiCaprio showed up.  Apparently he was in town for a friends wedding and needed to party.  Oh how I would have loved to have seen him, he is so sexy.

I can hear him saying "I'll never let go"

Screwing up the first time, we had to go throw another two coins in the Trevie Fountain after finding out you had to throw three for your wish to come true.  After throwing our wish sealing two coins we hunted for our souvenirs and headed to a bon voyage lunch at (drum roll please), Tonys.

Rome was sick.  A lot of ancient stuff, a lot of Jesus stuff but still a lot of fun.  I seriously love to travel.

Next stop Madrid. Beep beep!

First Field Trips Since 08

Things have been pretty low-key for the past two weeks in preparation for the next two months.  The weekend before last we did not travel because arrangements didn’t work out on time so we spent the time getting used to the streets of Florence and experiencing the weekend nightlife, which wasn’t more exciting than the weekday nightlife, but definitely more crowded.  This past weekend Mr. and Mrs. Smith aka Roni and Steve came to visit and whisked Joey away to Bologna (home of the deli meat- I think, I actually have no idea) while we went on two class field trips.

The first trip was on Friday morning to the Textile Museum in Prato with our Fashion class.  We took a 9:07 am train out of Florence about 20 minutes to historical Prato.  

Train station breakfast of champions... could not be any happier

On our way to the museum we passed the birthplace of everyone’s favorite coffee cookie, the biscotti.  It is called Antonio Mattei where the smell of fresh baked biscotti hits you from down the block.  The store opened with its signature sweet in 1858. 

“Made exclusively with Mediterranean almonds (the most flavorful in the world), fresh eggs, Italian pine nuts (not the cheaper, Chinese version) and sugar, you can taste the rich nuts over the flour and sugar that dominate the flavor of most biscotti."
"In the Florence area they're known as biscotti di Prato, probably since the greatest version of this cookie comes from the historic bakery Mattei in Prato."


-Faith Willinger, The Atlantic Food Channel

When we arrived at the textile museum we first learned about the process of taking a plant or a silk worm and making it into a specific garment.  We got to feel the different types of cotton, hemp, and silk strands before they are made into what we use to create clothing.  We saw a preserved energy something or other that powered the factory back when it was a factory (it looked like something out of Ellis Island, I was creeped) and a bunch of different types of clothing and fabrics they’ve made throughout the years.  We even saw floor to ceiling examples of fabric that they use for handbags.  One in particular had a very distinct logo of the letter F.  Can you guess? Yupp, it’s Fendi.  Towards the end I came across a glass case with a small coin collection.  It turns out that the factory in Prato was also really big in recycling clothing and reusing the fabric to make something new.  They would get shipments in from all over the world of old clothing and the coins sitting in front of me were a collection of loose change left in the pockets.  I thought that was pretty cool. 

After that we went to this little store called Opificio JM which houses cool and unique things made right in Prato by the local merchants.  Overall the store was strange and artsy.  It was opened last June by the actor John Malcovich (Lenny from “Of Mice and Men” and Cyrus the Virus in my all time favorite “Con Air”, ugh I love that movie).  Hence the name Opificio JM.  That was interesting for a hot sec, and then it was back to the train and home to Florence. 

Like okay John Malcovich, your crazy

The next morning we woke up bright and early once again and headed to the Salvatore Ferragamo store where a bus would pick us up to take us to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello with our Made in Italy class.  The bus ride was two hours but it was fine because it gave us a chance to get a few more minutes of sleep.  Maranello is basically Ferrari town.  A huge statue of the Ferrari logo horsie welcomed you to a town fully dedicated to the expensive Italian car.  We passed stores like Vroom Vroom Gelato and Ferrari Red Nail Salon.  Just kidding- but seriously this place was crazy about Ferrari. When you first walk in there is a huge gift shop where everything is either red, yellow, black or white (you can find the occasional green if the Italian flag is being sported).  The rest of the museum is basically a car show like they have at the Javits Center in New York City.  They have one or two cars from each decade or a car from each time they adapted the style or mechanics.  Out of 50 or so cars, only three of them were remade because they had been damaged or were not able to obtain the original models.  The rest were owned by Ferrari or belonged to private collectors.  They had trophies, engines, racing gear, steering wheels and leather swatches and paint samples of all the choices one has when custom making a Ferrari.  Amongst these pretty shiny toys were tons of Formula 1’s (not that I know what that means either), Grand Tourers and Sport-Prototypes that have made Prancing Horse history.  I didn’t listen to a lot of what they were saying because I was too busy taking pictures and imagining me in the passenger seat, the wind blowing in my long blonde hair and Vin Diesel driving fast and furiously next to me.

My initials (teeheehee)

 photography

After the museum I hit the gift shop hard and picked up a few things for my favorite boys.  Then we had lunch at the Ferrari restaurant with the rest of our class.  It was one of those prepaid things so we were served several courses rather than ordering off a menu.  When we first sat down at the long white clothed tables we were given rolls that were hard as a rock outside and soft, light, and fluffy inside.  My discouragement for hard foods caused me to not enjoy this one as much as I would have hoped.  Next they brought out a little muffin-looking thing with rucola, hard Parmesan and thick balsamic dressing.  The muffin thing I assume was a quiche of some sort.  It tasted like fluffy egg yolk or cheese or both but it was warm and delicious and I could have easily had four.  After that was risotto in a white sauce but not a creamy sauce just like a simple I have no idea what it was but it was decent.  Our last course was triangle ravioli with what we guessed was cheddar cheese inside in a plump tomato sauce, very delicious.  I was tempted to take the Ferrari plate home for a souvenir but decided against it. Yay Ferrari!

Okay here’s the worst part…

We’re finally done with the field trip and arrived back at the Ferragamo store.  The bus was like a double-decker but there were no seats on the bottom level, just a bathroom and a side door exit.  We were just about to walk down the side door exit when the girl in front of Dani stops and says, “I think I hear banging.  No I definitely hear someone knocking on the bathroom door.”  It turns out that some girl was locked in the bathroom for FOURTY-FIVE MINUTES!!  I suppose she wasn’t with any friends who were wondering where she was, the boy sitting next to her didn’t even think twice and the tiny bathroom (were talking tiny like broom closet with no room for a sink) was next to the engine so no one could hear her banging.  She had a few overwhelmed tears when she came out but she was fine.  I however was not.  My heart broke for her and I could not imagine sitting in that gross box for nearly an hour.  Then I left my e-Reader on the bus but I got it back :0)

Enjoy your fortieth snow of the winter New York and your week off from school America!

You Da Wo-Man!

Hey Mama

Wanna scream so loud for you

Cause I'm so proud of you

                             -Kanye West

Shout out to the best Mommie in the world who started a new job today!  She's been the Franklin General Hospital Orzac Adult Day Health Care Senior Social Worker for the last seventeen years and finally switched to a full time job in the same hospital.  Now she bounces around from ICU to rehabilitation to the emergency room and to every other wing in the hospital.

Mama- I am so so proud of you!  Good luck with your new job and please find me a McSteamy doctor to play with all summer! I love you so much and miss you desperately.  You are the best role model and everyone you know is so lucky to have you in their lives.

Three cheers for you Mommie.. 

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Roasty's and Deadly MarioKart

OMG WE FINALLY HAVE INTERNET IN THE APARTMENT! Yahoo!! The blog is back have no fear and we'll start off our February file with the most perfect weekend of my life in SWITZERLAND! ahhhh!

Switzerland was our first official European trip that wasn't organized (London) or forced (Siena) by our program, AIFS.  Instead, we went through a program that arranges transportation and lodging for students studying in Europe.  They just made everything easy- check in, check out, rooming- everything.  The company is called Bus2Alps but they arrange bus trips to the Almafi Coast to Greece and various other destinations as well, not just the alps.  The bus part is no joke.  The ride from the train station in Florence to Backpackers Villa Hostel in Interlacken, Switzerland was EIGHT hours.  Brutal.  Thank god for the movies we watched; Role Models, Road Trip, and Fast Time at Ridgemont High to name a few.  Pretty much an eight hour boobie montage.   If it weren't for the two Mark Wahlbergs (Four Brothers and the Italian Job) I would have lost my mind.  Let's take a moment to silently reflect on all things Mark Wahlberg.

Amen

So yes, while the trip was brutal the whole weekend was so relaxing and tranquil with the snow and the mountains and the quiet town and the heavenly spa that the bus was simply a blemish on an otherwise pictureday perfect weekend.  

We arrived at the Backpackers Villa Hostel Friday morning at 3:30 am (we left Florence at about 7:30pm).  We got our room assignments and straight up hit the hay.  My knowledge of a hostel pre-Interlacken was this: metal bunks beds filling a room with bad carpeting, tall creepy bleach blonde Sweeds and Germans bunking co-ed, shower stalls and toliets at the end of the hallways, creepy lighting and a constant fear that my ipod would go missing.  Now, I don't know about all of you who have gone to Interlacken and stayed at Balmer's Hostel, the more famous one with the club in the basement, but this is what our hostel looked like.

                                        

Just the four of us in a room, bed linens provided, only one bunk bed, no Sweeds and a shower and toilet in our room.  Pretty much the Marriott compared to what I had in mind.  So we slept in for a little, me on the top bunk, Dani underneath me and Joey and Corey snuggling in the two single beds so close to each other they might as well have been a full, and then grabbed some breakfast.  No scrambled eggs and bacon and breakfast potatoes and assortment of breakfast pastries and fruit like I would have like (there's nothing that makes me happier than hotel breakfast buffet).  Instead we grabbed a bowl of corn flakes- FYI if you put sugar in them they're frosted flakes- and a piece of toast with strawberry jam, something that will always remind me of my grandmother, I LOVE YOU!  We got energized and decided that there was about five hours until we had to start getting ready for night sledding so what else is there to do but shop! 

We collected our cameras and wallets and hit the town.  I was prepared for two pairs of leggings three pairs of socks and having to rent gloves everyday.  I guess I got Switzerland and Antarctica confused because it was so nice out that Friday that i walked around with out my jacket on and only one pair of leggings at a time.  The town was beautiful, dozens of little shops and hotels, nothing built higher than a few stories so that everywhere you turn you see big snow covered mountain tops and blue skies.  I've heard a bunch of people say that Interlacken was boring and I can kind of see that if you aren't doing any activities because the town is small and just about all of the shops are either souvenir or X-treme winter sporting good stores.  I got a few little gifts of which I cannot reveal (family and friends you will just have to wait!) and then we walked to the Outdoor Interlacken store/office where you can book activities such as skiing, snowboarding, night sledding, canyon jumping, skydiving, etc.  It's also the one stop shop for renting any kind of equipment necessary for any of the previously mentioned activities so we did and enjoyed a very Swiss lunch at 

Later we had night sledding so we stopped in to pick out snow pants, a waterproof jacket, and ski gloves.  We rented our gear and then walked back to the hostel to get glamed up...

NOT!

That was the least prettiest I ever felt! I was literally a lumberjack, but I was a warm and dry lumberjack. Two of our adorable friends from Towson who are in Joey's sorority were staying at our Hostel as well so we all waited for the night sledding van together.  Shout out to Dani Bejar and Caroline Nacchio!  You guys are freakin adorable I want to put you two on top of a cake!  We had so much fun with you guys this weekend and cannot wait to come visit Rome ahhhh!  We got on the night sledding van and headed twenty minutes up a mountain near by in the pitch black.  Key phrases: "up a mountain" and "pitch black".  We were informed that in order to get to the restaurunt, where we would be getting our sleds and returning to once the festivities were over,  we had to take a Gondola up the mountain.  Here's what I pictured a Gondola to be in my head

... so naturally I had no idea how this was getting me up a mountain in the snow.  This is what it actually was... 

A tiny bit more settling being that my biggest concern, never having skied or been on a snowy mountain before, was how the hell am I going to manage to get off the lift thingy so I don't die.  Luckily this little box comes to a complete stop, fully equipped with a Swiss man to help me off once we got there.  When we arrived outside the destination we got our sleighs and continued 20 more minutes up the mountain.  It was so dark the only thing you could see was the snow.  Well aware of this, the counselors gave us glow sticks that hang on a rope for us to wear as a back necklace.  A back necklace means wearing it the most fashionable way for your back so that the people behind you can see if there was someone in front of them, in case you get lost or are about to crash.  They started us off at the same point like the Grand Prix which was very nerve wracking because I knew there was a good chance I would be run over.  

My original thought was that we would be going down the face of a mountain (big hill) like the ones at Grant Park, you know, like the ones you see people skiing on in movies.  No No, this was a full fledge sled drive down the icy winding Swiss Alps.  Terrifying! And what made it even worse was that to one side of the winding path was the mountain wall covered in snow, perhaps a few trees, but if your sled were to slide a bit to the left, you were over a cliff and dead before you even hit the first tree.  It was like being in live version of MarioKart on the icy board, but it was pitch black and there was no little turtle on a cloud to fish you back up to the track after you fall down.  And there are two ways to break; putting a soft foot in the snow steers you in the direction of the foot you put down (ie: left foot in the snow, sled moves left), putting both feet in the snow slows your sled to a stop, and for emergancy stops, you just roll off.  I took advantage of the emergancy stop.  There were times that I thought for sure I was going over the side of the mountain so i catupulted my body into the snow to save my own life.  But seriously it was that dramatic, and a work out too! the insides of my knees were sore for at least two days because if the path came to too much of a plateu, you had to shimmy to the next slope or get up and walk over grassy patches.  The whole "racetrack" (not really, but seriously) was about a 5K in marathon terms, overall taking about 45 minutes, for me an hour.  As scary as it was it was beyond exhilirating and at times where I was behind most of the group but way ahead of a few, it was really pretty and peaceful being with just the stars and the snow (it was the only two things I could make out in the dark).  The end of the trail led us back to the restaurant where we would be served fondue, dinner and a complimentary pitcher of beer.  The fondue was yummy but the smell of cheese was overwhelming, I enjoyed it nonetheless.  The dinner was my favorite part.  We were made aware that we were being served a traditional Swiss dinner called a Roasty.  It’s not actually called “Roasty” but that’s what it sounded like they were saying and when I tried to Google it, only articles on “roasty and toasty lodge…blah blah blah dinner” so I am still unaware of what it is called in the ugly Dutch German French mishagosh language they use there BUT, a roasty is a pile of hash browns with a sunny side up egg on the top.  In essence, what I get every time I go to the diner.  It was delicious and I enjoyed it very much. 

So after a sweaty night of powersledding we went back to the hostel, bought a few bottles of wine and showered and pregamed.  The other hostel I was telling you about, Balmers, with the club in the basement is supposidly the best Interlacken has to offer, even the locals go there.  Unfortunately it was not a bar in the basement, it was a basement with a bar in it.  Not a blast but with a little house music we can have fun anywhere- for fourty five minutes. 

Look out for Switzerland part due (that two in italian-pronounced doo-ay)